PIC is the leading porcine genetics company globally, with a one quarter share of its addressable market. It sells genetically superior sows, boars and semen in over 40 countries worldwide, which are used to breed pigs with desirable characteristics for pork production. It is the largest business within Genus, the UK-listed animal genetics company, accounting for nearly 80% of group profits. PIC’s origins date back to 1955 in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, where a group of farmers led by Ken Woolley – known as the Wallingford Pig Study Group – met regularly at The George pub. They were discussing why UK breeding practices lagged those of other European countries, and how they could apply science to pig breeding to improve their pigs. They sought the help and advice of a group of scientists, and began implementing the recommendations in a selective breeding programme. The resulting genetic improvements were slow but steady: more pigs per litter, quicker weaning, more weight with less feed, and leaner carcasses.

This rigorous, statistically based approach seemed to work a lot better than picking animals in the show ring based on appearance and heritage, and it had massive commercial potential. In 1962, the Wallingford Pig Study Group became the Pig Improvement Company (PIC), and it would revolutionise pig production in the UK – the average number of pigs in a litter was 7 back then, for example, whereas today it is just under 14. Encouraged by its initial success at home, PIC first ventured abroad in 1968, when it established a presence in France, and later set up businesses in Canada in 1970, Australia, the US and Germany in 1973, and Brazil in 1977. Dalgety, the London-listed food and agriculture conglomerate, acquired PIC in 1970. In the late 1990s, when Dalgety was forced to radically restructure in an effort to shore up its balance sheet, PIC was the only business it kept. Seven years later, and by then called Sygen International, PIC was acquired by Genus, its current owner.