2. Tyson Foods Inc.: 2,029,720,000 head slaughtered annually in 2018
Tyson Foods Inc. operates subsidiaries in the U.S., China, Brazil and Mexico. It is based in Springdale, Arkansas. Founded in 1935, the company is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TSN. Tyson is a leader in the production of chicken, beef and pork as well as prepared foods, including bacon, breakfast sausage, turkey, lunch meat, hot dogs, pizza crusts and toppings, tortillas and desserts. The company supplies retail and foodservice customers throughout the United States and approximately 115 countries. It employs approximately 122,000.
In its fiscal 2018, Tyson’s total operations generated $40.1 billion in sales. By segment, sales broke down to approximately 39 percent beef, 30 percent chicken, 22 percent prepared foods, 12 percent pork and less than 1 percent other. Tyson Foods produced 192.34 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken on a weekly basis in 2018, an increase of 17.53 million pounds – or about 10 percent – from 2017. The company’s 2018 sales were $13.786 billion, an increase from $11.409 billion in 2017.
Tyson Foods Inc.’s 2018 included sales, acquisitions, investments in new ventures and alternative protein companies and a transition at the top. In February 2018, Tyson Foods announced it had sold Kettle, a maker of sauces, dips, soups and side dishes for $125 million. The sale was part of the company’s push to remove non-core businesses during the year. Other non-protein businesses, Sara Lee and Van’s, were also sold to private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. in 2018.
In March 2018, it entered an agreement to sell Circle Foods, a producer of frozen and refrigerated handheld Mexican foods, uncooked tortillas and Indian flatbreads, to Ajinomoto Windsor, a Japanese manufacturer of Asian and ethnic foods and appetizers. Tyson acquired Circle Foods in 2013. In August 2018, it announced an agreement to sell its pizza crust business to Peak Rock Capital.
In May 2018, the company announced an agreement to buy the poultry rendering and blending assets of American Proteins, and AMPRO Products for $850 million. The deal was designed to enable Tyson Foods to recycle more animal products for feed, pet food and aquaculture, among other things, and expand its presence in the growing animal feed ingredient business.
In June 2018, it acquired Tecumseh Poultry LLC, also known as MBA Poultry, for an undisclosed amount. Tecumseh was a leading producer of organic branded chicken and produced the air-chilled Smart Chicken brand. In August 2018, it reached a definitive agreement to acquire Keystone Foods from Marfrig Global Foods for $2.16 billion. In 2018, WATT Global Media ranked Keystone Foods LLC as the 10th largest broiler company in the U.S. The deal closed in November 2018.
In May 2018, the company broke ground on a new, $300 million chicken processing plant in Humboldt, Tennessee. The facility is expected to open by the end of 2019. The plant will produce pre-packaged trays of fresh chicken for retail grocery stores nationwide. It is expected to process 1.25 million birds per week, increasing Tyson Foods’ overall production capacity by the same amount.
In December 2018, Tyson announced its plans to build a new, $30.6 million distribution center in Denton, Texas. In January 2018, Tyson’s venture capital arm Tyson Ventures invested in Memphis Meats, a startup cultured meat company aiming to produce meat from animal cells.
In February 2018, Tyson Ventures invested in Tovala, a Chicago-based food startup that makes smart countertop steam ovens with fresh ready-to-cook meals. In May 2018, Tyson Ventures made a further investment in cell-cultured meats with a stake in Future Meat Technologies, a Jerusalem-based biotechnology company advancing a distributive manufacturing platform for cell-cultured meats.
In May 2018, the company’s Tyson Innovation Lab launched the ¡Yappah! brand of products made from food that might otherwise be wasted. Its premier product, Protein Crisps, are made from vegetable and grain-based ingredients as well as chicken breast trim.
In September 2018, Noel White – formerly Tyson’s group president of its beef, pork and international segments – was named president and CEO. He replaced Tom Hayes, president and CEO since the end of 2016, who stepped down for personal reasons, according to the company. Tyson’s 2018 Top Broiler Companies data includes production figures from Keystone Foods Inc. and MBA Poultry LLC (Tecumseh Poultry).
View 11 years of data about Tyson Foods Inc.
