The Greatest Gains chart is designed to showcase the companies that have shown the strongest growth over the past year. These are not necessarily the largest companies in the country; several of them did not make the cutoff for the Top 100 Report. However, their successful years deserve to be mentioned as well.

Typically, the Top 100 serves as a good indicator of how the industry has performed, and what the expectations were for the coming year. If the industry is going through strong periods, we will see record sales, acquisitions, expansions and other initiatives.

For the first time in recent memory, there is a new company at the top of The National Provisioner's annual Top 100 Meat and Poultry Processors Report. Backed by growth in its beef and pork divisions, JBS Holdings holds the top spot in this year’s survey of the meat and poultry industry.

The news headlines of the past year have been dominated by upheaval and uncertainty, but the stories surrounding the meat and poultry industry were more positive. Those stories were a part of the largely positive response from the industry to this year’s annual Top 100 Processors Report.

The news from the Top 100 meat and poultry processors and the news about the meat industry have had two very different tones this year.