Roger Kapella, with over eighteen years of dedication to Patrick Cudahy will retire December 31, 2004. Mr. Kapella has been the president of Patrick Cudahy since January of 1986, this tenure the longest in the company’s 116-year history. After a collective forty-one years in the industry, his career has spanned numerous milestones and honors.

Roger Kapella began his career in 1963 at Agar Foods in Momence, Illinois, loading trucks on shipping docks. His time there would last almost twenty years with his last four as President of Agar, at age 37.

In 1985, Mr. Kapella started at Patrick Cudahy Inc., under the new ownership of Smithfield Foods. He came on as Vice President of Sales and less than two years later, became president and chief operating officer. With the challenging task ahead of him, to take an aging facility and equip it for the future, while at the same time regaining profits, he took on the opportunity. With having already worked with Patrick Cudahy Inc. in his previous job, as it was a sister company. He knew several of the people that he was to be working with and already felt comfortable.

Roger tributes much of his success to the people that have been loyal to the organization, even when faced with difficult times such as bankruptcy and striking. “If there is one piece of advice I could give to young people starting out in the business world, it’s to consider stability and loyalty.”

With a management style all his own the management team that will is now in place as he retires is one he is confident will help keep Patrick Cudahy on the path of success and growth. “This is not an easy industry to work in. It’s time tolerant working with products that are perishable. The job is always in your face and forces you to be involved. I feel assured that our management team will stay flexible as the rate of change continues to accelerate,” he said.

Although his career has been filled with many accomplishments, his greatest stated achievement is to now be able to observe good decisions that have materialized. “I came in and had to put a company together that didn’t have a much of a game plan. It took belief and now, twelve years later…it’s nice to see what Patrick Cudahy has become.”

With an impressive resume, Roger has taken the brand name of Patrick Cudahy and put it back on a level playing field. Patrick Cudahy has become a recognized name within the industry that is very comparable to the biggest players but can still prize itself on being able to customize programs and react quickly to customers’ demands.

Initiating a $100 million/seven year expansion effort, under Kapella’s direction, the company has completed a dry sausage addition and cold storage/distribution center. In addition, a microwave expansion was completed as well as a bacon smoke house and dock addition. Kapella has shown eleven consecutive years of dollar growth from the time he started and has posted double digit sales growth numbers since 1999. Patrick Cudahy will close out the books on fiscal year 2004, with a 32.4% sales growth, the second best growth under his tenure. In addition to those impressive numbers are the additional facts; the employee level has continued to grow in double digits for the last six years and stockholder equity has risen each year since 1989.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have a career where there was never a day I didn’t look forward to. Of course there are days when I wished I could have just pulled the covers up over my head, but I enjoyed the challenges I knew I had to face” he said. “Although I will be retiring this company will remain a part of me forever,” he finished.

Looking forward to retirement, Roger said his main reason for doing so, is to take life easier and take time for things he was never able to do under the demands of his job, like boating, fishing and spending time with his three grandchildren. Kapella plans on keeping his residence in Wisconsin but traveling to Florida in the winter months. In addition, he plans on becoming a “professional traveler.”

All of us wish Roger the best in his retirement and he will be missed in the day to day activities at Patrick Cudahy.