Food Business News - March 13, 2012 - 20

Tyson Foods on the prowl for prepared foods opportunities
Continued from Page 1 resources, and we have very strong relationships. “So the push will be into prepared foods across a number of segments. I’m not going to talk about speciﬁc targets within category. We’re having very good success promoting Wright Brand bacon. We’re having very good success promoting other traditional food products because we do have a very competitive structure and good brand recognition with Tyson.” The company’s Prepared Foods business unit had sales of $3.2 billion, or 10% of total company sales, during ﬁscal 2011, which ended Oct. 11, 2011. The business unit operates 23 facilities and produces a variety of products ranging from processed meats such as pepperoni, hams, hot dogs and bacon as well as pizza crusts, tortillas, soups, sauces and meal kits. Tyson Foods is the largest supplier of pepperoni and pizza toppings to the food

Tyson Foods fiscal 2011 sales by segment
Pork 14% Prepared Foods 10% Other 1%

Chicken 34%

Beef 41%

Total: $32.3 billion
service segment and the second largest manufacturer of ﬂour and corn tortilla chips in the United States. Its products are sold under a variety of brand names including Tyson, ITC, Wright Brand,

Russer’s, Jordan, Iowa Ham and others. From an international perspective, Mr. Lochner said Tyson Foods has a lot of people inquiring about what kinds of opportunities interest the company. “Our core expertise is in chicken production, live and further processing,” he said. “That we believe we do better than anybody else. And there’s a need worldwide for that expertise, so we’ll either grow it organically or through acquisition as the timing and the return on invested capital warrant.” Mr. Lochner also said the amount of meat protein available to consumers has declined in recent years and is expected to continue to decline for the foreseeable future. “We are operating in a different world than we were a few years ago,” he said. “After decades of steady growth, U.S. per capita consumption of (meat) protein declined 11% from the peak in 2006, a trend that is likely to continue.” American consumers are eating less protein because there is less available to eat, Mr. Lochner said. Strong export demand is sending more meat and poultry overseas. In addition, Mr. Lochner said less protein is being produced because of the pressure on the proﬁtability of livestock and poultry farming. As input costs have risen, food inﬂation has accelerated, creating margin shifts and causing disruptions to the meat protein supply chain. FBN

Tyson to renovate beef plant, may close another
DAKOTA CITY, NEB. — Tyson Foods, Inc. announced plans to renovate its beef processing facility in Dakota City. Once the project is complete, sometime in mid-2013, the company said it may close a smaller beef processing facility located in Denison, Iowa. Tyson Foods said the multi-million dollar project will improve parts of the Dakota City facility that were built nearly 50 years ago. Areas of the facility scheduled to be renovated include the carcass cooler, rendering, box handling operations, employee lockers and the employee cafeteria. “Dakota City is our ﬂagship plant, and this investment means we expect it to continue to be one of our top performers and an important market outlet for the region’s cattle producers,” said Noel White, senior group vice-president of Tyson Fresh Meats, a business unit

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March 13, 2012

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Food Business News - March 13, 2012

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