- Business
- Gradus AD is a Bulgaria-based vertically integrated poultry and meat processing holding company engaged in the breeding, farming, slaughtering, processing, and distribution of poultry products. The company operates across the complete poultry production value chain through dedicated business segments, offering products and services that include parent stock breeding and production of broiler hatching eggs; incubation and day-old broiler chicks; specialized compound animal feed manufacturing and grain storage; fresh, chilled, and frozen whole chicken and cut portions including breasts, fillets, wings, thighs, and offal; processed poultry meats, delicatessen products, frankfurters, sausages, smoked cuts, and ready-to-cook convenience foods marketed primarily under the Gradus brand; and renewable electricity generation from agricultural biomass via its biogas power plant. Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, the company operates an extensive network of breeding facilities, fattening farms, hatcheries, feed mills, and processing plants across Bulgaria, supplying domestic retail chains, foodservice providers, and industrial clients, while exporting hatching eggs and poultry products to markets across the European Union, the Middle East, and North Africa through subsidiaries such as Gradus-1 EOOD, Gradus-3 AD, Gradus-98 AD, Lora-2004 EOOD, Millennium 2000 EOOD, and Gradus Bioenergy EOOD. In recent developments, Gradus AD has executed strategic operational optimization initiatives, including upgrading biosecurity protocols and modernization across its breeding and hatchery assets, reallocating capital through share repurchase programs, adjusting production capacities in response to epizootic conditions in European poultry markets, and expanding its export channels for hatching eggs and value-added processed poultry products.