Keystone Foods achieved a successful third quarter for its 2017 fiscal year, seeing an increase in net revenue and sales volume.
Keystone Foods reported a net revenue of $713 million, a year-over-year increase of 4 percent. The company’s sales volume increased by one percent. Keystone is a subsidiary of Brazil-based Marfrig Global Foods and the tenth largest broiler company in the United States.
Frank Ravndal Jr., CEO of Keystone Foods, said while speaking during Marfrig’s quarterly earnings call on November 14, that the strong performance is an example of how the company is already delivering on the objectives of its Strategy 2021, a five-year program it developed in 2016.
The five pillars of Strategy 2021 are:
- Expand customer relationships
- Be the partner of choice for consumers
- Drive mix to higher value-added products
- Unlock growth with commercial capabilities
- Robust investment plan to increase capacity
Ravndal said the first three pillars are the “what” of the plan, while the final two are the “how.”
Ravndal spoke favorably about the customer relationships the company currently had, adding that it wants to continue “to develop and deepen and expand the relationships we have,” but he said Keystone Foods will also continue to seek new customers across a greater number of channels.
‘Partner of choice’
Keystone Foods is gaining new customers, and its reach is particularly growing in the Asia Pacific/Middle East/Africa (APMEA) region, according to Ravndal.
“Keystone continues to establish itself as the partner of choice with new customers. In addition to the positive momentum with global QSR (quick service restaurant) brands, we are growing with local QSRs in certain APMEA markets, and continue to find attractive growth opportunities across Keystone in several newer channels, including convenience and industrial,” he said.
Investing in capacity, capabilities
Keystone Foods, according to Ravndal, is investing in increasing its capacity, as well as its capabilities. The company is working to fill demands for value-added products, which he said includes both promotional items and niche market items such as chicken raised without antibiotics.
“Keystone has been working with … customers to support menu items that drive store traffic, and we’ve seen strong results during the quarter on both core menu items as well as promotional items.
