Arthur W. Perdue's quest for excellence in the poultry business began in 1917. Perdue started his company as a table-egg poultry farm. He slowly expanded his egg market by adding a new chicken coop every year. Arthur's son Frank joined the family business in 1939 after leaving school at the end of his the second year. In 1950 Frank took over leadership of Perdue Farms, which had over 40 employees at the time.

During the 1970's Perdue entered into new markets in Boston and Philadelphia and also opened a new processing plant in North Carolina. Shortly after this, in 1977 Arthur Perdue died, leaving behind a business who's annual growth rate was 17 percent compared to the industry average of 1 percent. Arthur's son Frank was left behind to take over the business. Frank Perdue without a hint of self-deprecation stated that "I am a B-minus student. I know how smart I am. I know a B-minus is not as good as an A-said of his father simply", "I learned everything from him" (Hill & Jones, 208).

During the 1980's and 1990's Perdue Farms diversified and expanded its market further down to other eastern coast states and southern states. By 1994, revenues were around 1.5 Billio

Perdue has one weakness at this time. Perdue has rode down the experience curve and changed all of its other weaknesses into positives. For example, In the 1980's Perdue decentralized and formed separate business divisions. Soon after this was done, chicken sales leveled off. At on point the firm was losing as much as $1 million a week and, in 1988, Perdue Farms experienced its first year in the red (Hill & Jones, 1998).

Hill, C. W. L & Jones, G. R. (1998). Strategic Management Theory (4th edition). Boston New York: Houghton Mifflin Company

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