Peanut company and its president keeping a low profile

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Over three decades, Peanut Corporation of America has built a customer base that put its products in thousands of foods nationwide.

Meanwhile, it has remained nearly unknown in its hometown Lynchburg area. Its headquarters are in the back of the home of company president Stewart Parnell, tucked away near the end of Wiggington Road just over the city line in Bedford County.

Several well-connected members of the community said they knew little about Peanut Corp. or its president before the company became the center of a nationwide investigation into a salmonella outbreak.

Since then, as national media literally has come knocking on Parnell’s door, the family has continued to keep a low profile.

Parnell has not spoken publicly about the outbreak and has repeatedly denied interview requests. Public relations officials hired by the company last month have said little. Even the company’s Web site, which once boasted of Peanut Corp.’s history and gave details about its operations, has been deleted except for one page with a few press releases.

After a month without public appearances, Parnell could step to center stage this week. He was invited to speak at a congressional hearing on the outbreak and the recalls of 1,500 food products.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce called the hearing to probe shortfalls in the nation’s food safety system — shortfalls that came to light as the nation focused on this company that once was hardly known in its own town.

A spokeswoman for the committee could not say whether Parnell has confirmed he would attend the hearing. A Peanut Corp. media spokesperson did not return phone calls.

Stewart Parnell’s father, Hugh Parnell Sr., got into the peanut business in the early 1970s, first selling chopped peanuts to candy suppliers out of his Lynchburg home.

The Peanut Corporation of America was formed in 1977, and he bought a roasting plant in Gorman, Texas.

He sold peanuts under the brand name, “Parnell’s Pride.”

Parnell is a Brookville High School graduate, and his children went to Brookville, too.

Lynchburg City Councilman Bert Dodson, a member of Brookville’s class of ’71, said he went to high school and played football with Stewart Parnell. “We weren’t close in high school, but we knew each other and I respected him,” Dodson said. “He was a decent football player.”

After high school Dodson occasionally ran into his former teammate. “He was always busy, always on the move. I remember he was always going somewhere,” Dodson said.

Stewart Parnell, a licensed pilot, was spending a lot of time flying to the plant in Texas and to the West Coast to get new customers. Other Parnell family members took care of administrative duties at the headquarters in Hugh Parnell’s home in Windsor Hills.

By the early 1990s Stewart Parnell had more than 1,000 peanut customers, according to a document he filed in a 1993 lawsuit. That suit involved a company that had hired him to sell peanuts. A dispute arose and that suit was settled out of court.

According to a company history previously on its Web site, the firm had more than $30 million in sales in 1994. It was sold to a large conglomerate in 1995. Stewart Parnell stayed with the company, along with his brothers, Mike and Hugh Jr., and he bought it back in 2000. Later he acquired facilities in Blakely, Ga., and Suffolk.

With just a few employees here, Peanut Corporation of America stayed off of Lynchburg’s radar until January, when federal health officials said salmonella bacteria was found in a jar of peanut butter made at a Georgia plant by a company based in Lynchburg.

That was a surprise to Lee Cobb, a top leader in the region’s economic development for 25 years. “I had never heard of the company,” Cobb said in a recent interview.

He said he did not recall ever meeting the Parnells. “I thought I knew just about everybody in Lynchburg who had (a corporate headquarters) here.”

Rex Hammond, who has been president of the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce for 10 years, said he had heard of the Parnells and the company only in passing. He said the firm hasn’t been a member of the chamber since 1991.

“A lot of businesses … that do business on a national or international basis, their influence is felt outside the community … without creating a stir locally (or) participating a great deal locally,” Hammond said.

Stuart Fauber, president of the Greater Lynchburg Community Trust and former president of SunTrust on Main Street, said he’s unaware of Parnell family members being deeply involved with local nonprofits, as many officials at other Lynchburg-area businesses are.

However, “A lot of times people get involved in helping things that (other) people don’t know about,” Fauber said.

A Campbell County man recalled one such time when one of the Parnells helped him.

Kelley Russell said his son had to spend a few months in UVa Medical Center with a head injury. When he went to see his son, he had to sleep on the floor. Then Hugh Parnell Jr., whose son Russell had coached on a basketball team, offered to help. “Hugh came in and paid my motel bill for a week, so I wouldn’t have to drive back home,” Russell said. “I thought that was very special.”

Still a pilot, Stewart Parnell is a customer of Falwell Aviation. “I’ve known him for a long time,” said Kyle Falwell, manager of the Falwell airport. “I’ve always known him to be a good businessman.”

His stepmother, Beth Falwell, is Stewart Parnell’s sister. She was one of the few family members to speak out in recent weeks, as the family business has faced recalls and multiple lawsuits.

Speaking in tears in a late January interview with WSLS, she insisted the company had done nothing wrong. She also said reports about unsanitary conditions at Peanut Corporation of America’s Georgia plant were exaggerated.

Kyle Falwell would not comment on the salmonella situation. “It’s just unfortunate that the family’s having to go through that,” he said.

Staff writer Alicia Petska contributed.