 Prior to 1996, Louis Rich, the brand name for Oscar Mayer's turkey division, owned the processing plant in West Liberty, IA. In early 1996, Oscar Mayer's parent company, Kraft Foods, announced that they would close the plant that December if no buyer purchased it. The Iowa turkey growers who sold to Kraft discussed purchasing the plant to ensure that demand for their birds remained. In May 1996, forty-seven of the turkey growers formed the Iowa Turkey Growers Cooperative (ITGC). ITGC purchased the plant from Kraft and took control of it in December. The growers hired meat industry veteran Ken Rutledge to be President and COO of the company. Oscar Mayer helped West Liberty Foods by promising to purchase half of the plant's output in 1997 and a quarter of the output in 1998 to help the startup company.
