ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) – After almost a lifetime in the chicken business and 21 years as a CEO, Mike Helgeson is retiring from the company that produces Gold’n Plump chicken.

Helgeson is stepping down from St. Cloud-based GNP Co. effective Nov. 3. Executive Vice President Steve Jurek, who’s been with the organization 37 years, will take over as president.

The 62-year-old Helgeson tells the St. Cloud Times that after 40 years in the business full-time, he decided the time was right to retire. He’s been working around the company his grandfather started in 1926 since he was 10. The company now processes 100 million chickens annually.

GNP Co. and its subsidiaries – including three chicken-processing plants, two hatcheries and two feed mills – were sold last December to The Maschhoffs of Carlyle, Illinois.