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Alison's Family Farms' founder Bruce Cuddy comes from a long line of poultry breeders. He grew up on the family turkey farm in Ontario, Canada. After college, he joined his father in the family business, Cuddy Farms. That business grew rapidly, adding major operations in Ohio and North Carolina. Working out of North Carolina, Bruce helped expand and manage the family business as it became a major force in turkey breeding, hatching and processing, with hatcheries in the US, Canada and Germany and sales in the US and several foreign countries.
In the mid-1990s, after 25 years at Cuddy Farms, Cuddy left to start two companies of his own, both of which he still owns and operates: Elite Genetics, which produces and sells turkey eggs worldwide, and Elite Foods, a producer of antibiotic-free chicken and turkey.
Over the years, Cuddy developed a fondness for foreign travel. During his trips, he has come upon many poultry operations that still use traditional methods that have been largely left behind by North American producers.
Inspired by these more traditional methods, in 2004 he launched a new venture, Alison's Family Farms (named after one of his daughters). Based in Marshville, North Carolina, the new company's mission was to raise turkeys and chickens in a humane, healthy manner.
Alison's Family Farms began selling its turkeys in 2004 and ramped up quickly during 2005. Today, its "natural" turkeys are sold through high-end grocery stores up and down the East Coast from Florida to New England and also on its website www.alisonsfamilyfarms.com.
In addition to raising turkeys on his own farms, Cuddy has brought local growers into his venture, many of whom had suffered severely following an exodus of large chicken and turkey firms from North Carolina. He personally oversees poultry-raising practices at producer sites to assure that they meet his standards for natural and organic practices.
In an Alison's program, all birds are raised "from the egg up" with humane, tradition-based breeding methods. Thanks to hands-on management, only healthy fledgling birds enter the programs. Birds are fed only vegetables -- no antibiotics, hormones or animal byproducts.
When Alison's begins raising chickens in early 2006, additional small and mid-sized farms will be joining the program. The company plans to start selling organic turkeys during 2006. A new processing plant under construction in Troy, N.C., will enable the company to produce air-chilled fresh turkey and chicken year-round.
"Going into this venture, we believed that consumers would respond to Alison's all-natural approach," Cuddy commented. "Our intent throughout has been to raise high-quality fresh poultry in a small-farm environment. Our birds are raised naturally and always treated with respect."
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