Holly Poultry has opened an 80,000-square-foot production facility in Anne Arundel County, Maryland — a dedicated retail operation built to support accelerating velocity across its Easy Street brand, its One Fine Chicken line, and a growing book of private-label business. The company, which has served foodservice customers for more than 30 years, is making a structural bet that the fresh poultry case has room for differentiated, convenience-forward products at multiple price points.
The Retail Case Opportunity
The move matters to buyers and category managers because it signals that Holly Poultry is building infrastructure ahead of demand, not behind it. Easy Street — pre-diced, dry-seasoned No Antibiotics Ever chicken thighs in flavors including Korean BBQ, Street Taco, Peruvian, Shawarma, and Chili Crisp — is already on shelf at Giant Food, The Giant Company, Harris Teeter, ShopRite, Shaw's, and Hannaford. At top-performing accounts, the brand is averaging more than 30 units per store per week on a three- to four-flavor set, a velocity figure that grocery buyers will recognize as meaningful traction in a competitive fresh case.
One Fine Chicken addresses the volume tier: No Antibiotics Ever fresh chicken priced below traditional national brands, targeting everyday shoppers who want quality without a premium-aisle price. Together, the two brands give Holly Poultry a flanker-plus-value architecture that mirrors strategies used successfully in other fresh protein categories — and gives retail partners a reason to allocate multiple shelf positions.
What This Signals for Procurement
For foodservice and retail procurement teams watching the fresh poultry supply landscape, the Anne Arundel investment is a capacity signal worth tracking. The new plant is designed specifically for retail production requirements — different line configurations, packaging formats, and compliance standards than foodservice — which means Holly Poultry is not simply repurposing existing infrastructure. Zach Fine, CEO of Holly Poultry, framed it plainly: the facility creates room to serve current retail customers while opening conversations with new grocery partners and private-label prospects.
Private-label dynamics are particularly relevant here. As regional and national grocery chains continue to invest in their own brand programs — often seeking co-manufacturers with both food-safety credentials and product-development capability — a poultry supplier with 30-plus years of foodservice discipline and a new dedicated retail plant is a credible candidate for those conversations. Operators and distributors looking for fresh protein sourcing intelligence should note that mid-Atlantic regional capacity in fresh poultry is now meaningfully expanded.
Scale and Workforce
The facility is expected to generate 140 net new jobs, a figure that also reflects the scale of the production commitment. Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation president and CEO Amy Gowan cited the investment as a reinforcement of Maryland's food manufacturing base. For the broader mid-Atlantic foodservice and retail supply chain, a purpose-built facility of this size coming online in the region adds a domestic sourcing option at a moment when supply-chain regionalization remains a procurement priority.
Brands building retail velocity in the fresh case — particularly those with No Antibiotics Ever positioning and flavor-forward convenience formats — are increasingly relevant to both grocery and foodservice operators looking to capture consumers who move across channels. Holly Poultry's dual-brand approach, backed by private-label manufacturing capability, positions it as a supplier worth evaluating for brand launch and retail readiness conversations.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
