 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 . 
