Itta Bena, Miss. (April 13, 2021) – Heartland Catfish Company is proud to announce a milestone achievement of celebrating 25 years in business in 2021.
“It is a privilege to celebrate our 25th anniversary, especially in the wake of a tumultuous year for many industries, including the food service and retail customers we serve,” said Danny Walker, CEO of Heartland Catfish Company. “We are proud to deliver consistent, high-quality, on-flavor U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish to our customers year in and year out, and we continue working hard to uphold our founder’s high standards and legacy of honor, integrity, frugality, determination, hard work and Christian principles.”
Heartland Catfish Company was founded in 1996 by William Tackett, his son, Jim Tackett, and son-in-law, Joe Walker. Tackett originally built his first catfish pond in 1968 in Humphreys County, Miss., and grew to expand into Leflore and Sunflower Counties, where he and his family farmed, built more catfish ponds and began a catfish hatchery with brooder and fingerling operations. The farming operation grew to some 7,500 acres of water for catfish and 10,000 acres of cropland.
It was difficult to transport the vast quantities of fish to farmer-owned cooperative processors in the area, so Tackett and Tackett Fish Farms launched plans to process their own fish, founding Heartland Catfish Company in 1996 in Itta Bena, Miss. with a 34,000 square-foot catfish processing plant. In its first year of operation, the company processed 12 million pounds of live catfish.
In 2001, the company constructed a new 78,000 square-foot plant connected to the original facility, with capacity to process 75 million pounds of live catfish per year. In 2008 Heartland purchased a processing facility in Greensboro, Ala., growing processing capacity to 110 million pounds of live catfish per year. Several years later and upon expansion of its original processing facility in Itta Bena by an additional 25,000 square-feet, the Greensboro facility was closed in early 2020 and all operations were consolidated to Heartland Catfish Company’s Itta Bena headquarters, where production reached 115 million pounds of catfish processed annually.
In its 25-year history, Heartland Catfish Company has brought thousands of jobs to the state of Mississippi, and is regarded as one of the largest vertically integrated entities in the U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish industry. Heartland Catfish Company’s catfish products can be found in grocery stores and restaurants across the country.
Heartland Catfish Company is planning to celebrate its 25th anniversary with customers and catfish consumers throughout the year by sharing its history and values, spotlighting customers and more, pending the state of COVID-19 in the United States. Employees, customers, vendors and community members are invited to celebrate alongside Heartland Catfish Company using #HeartlandCelebrates25 on social media.
About Heartland Catfish Company
Founded in 1996, Heartland Catfish Company has grown into one of the country’s largest U.S. farm-raised catfish produce and processor, headquartered in Itta Bena, Miss. Owned by the Tackett Family of Tackett Fish Farms, Heartland Catfish Company is the largest single producer of farm-raised catfish in the United States and sells fresh and frozen catfish products to retailers and restaurants around the country. Follow Heartland Catfish Company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram and visit www.heartlandcatfish.com to learn more.
