As Tyson Foods prepares to close on its acquisition of BRF’s facilities in Thailand and Europe, the company looks forward to gaining more access to the Asian and European markets.
Tyson in February announced its intent to acquire four processing facilities in Thailand, one in the Netherlands and one in the United Kingdom. Speaking during a conference call with reporters on May 6, Tyson Foods’ CEO said he expects that planned transaction to close within the third quarter of the 2019 fiscal year, which began at the end of March.
Tyson’s 2018 acquisition of Keystone Foods already gave the company an expanded presence in Asia and Australia, and the addition of the BRF assets in Thailand will further grow that presence. However, the new facilities in Europe will give it an entry into that continent’s poultry industry as well.
Both European plants are further processing plants, so no new live operations will be added in the Netherlands or the U.K., White explained.
“We look at our international platform from both a supply standpoint as well as demand standpoint,” said White. “Thailand, Southeast Asia, historically has been a low-cost, high-quality supply platform for Europe as well as other countries, so we would plan to ship (the raw material) from Thailand to the U.K. and the Netherlands, and further manufacture those products. So it does get us, from a demand standpoint, an entry into obviously a very large market.”
Tyson Foods earlier stated that it would acquire the BRF assets for US$340.million.
BRF, which is headquartered in Brazil, has posted disappointing financial results in recent years. It announced in 2018 that it would divest of its operations in Thailand, Europe and Argentina and focus on more profitable markets.
BRF had earlier announced deals to sell its Argentinian pork business, Campo Austral; its Argentinian poultry business, Avex; and Quickfood, another Argentina-based company that processes beef patties, wieners, cold cuts and frozen vegetables.
