Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
FDL FOODS INC.
FDL FOODS INC. Successor to the DUBUQUE PACKING COMPANY. FDL, one of the nation's major meat packers, had plant capacity to slaughter up to eleven thousand hogs daily. The Dubuque plant had an annual production of 250 million HOTDOGS with daily production reaching 96,000 hourly.
In 1982 FDL was ranked 31st in sales among the nation's top one hundred meat packers despite the fact that its earnings began late in the year when the company started business. In 1984 FDL ranked 14th among the nation's top one hundred packers with sales in 1983 of $760 million. These earnings came despite a strike at the plant during the summer. Meat Industry Magazine ranked FDL 6th among full-line packers and 7th among the pork packers in the category of specific markets.
The July 1995 announcement by Hormel that it no longer needed fresh pork was an economic blow to FDL. With no apparent buyer for the plant in view, FDL laid off more than nine hundred workers in the kill and cut operations. Discussions with Iowa Beef Processors (IBP, Inc.) to purchase the plant were held, but on July 1, 1996, the sale of FDL to FARMLAND FOODS INC. for $10 million was completed.