"C" is for Columbia Farms

"C" is for Columbia Farms. Columbia Farms commenced operations in 1982. Initially the property consisted of a feed mill and hatchery in Leesville, a processing plant in Columbia, and a distribution center in Charleston. Its workforce of 250 processed 250,000 chickens a week. Within a decade, Columbia Farms employed more than 1,000 workers, acquired a feed company in Lavonia, Georgia, added distribution centers in Conway, Greenville, and Florence as well as two in North Carolina and another in Massachusetts—and shipped 1.2 million birds every seven days. By 1992, it was the largest poultry processor in the state of South Carolina. In 1998, Nash Johnson and Sons’ Farms of Rose Hill North Carolina acquired the company. Columbia Farms actively promotes the export of chickens and chicken parts to customers around the world.