Tyson Foods fully intends to grow its international business, and key to that growth will be an emphasis on chicken products and Asian markets.
Speaking during the Tyson Foods Virtual Investor Day on December 10, Chris Langholz, Tyson’s group president, international, said he sees a lot of potential for the company’s growth outside of the United States.
“Our aspiration for our international business is simple: To drive profitable growth in key demand markets with locally relevant products enabled through supply chain to service customers,” he said.
Geographical focus
For Tyson Foods, its international business grew substantially the assets gained in China, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia in 2018, through the acquisition of Keystone Foods. The following year, that presence grew with the acquisition of BRF facilities in Thailand and Europe.
“These acquisitions helped deepen our relationships with valuable foodservice customers,” said Langholz.
But as Tyson seeks to grow its operations overseas, one of the key building blocks Langholz mentioned is “where to play.”
And when making choices on where to play, it is important to look where animal protein consumption is projected to grow the most.
When examining projections of global protein consumption, Langholz noted that the world is expected to consume 95 billion more pounds of animal protein incrementally by 2030. Breaking that down geographically, it is projected that Asia will account for about 64 billion of those pounds.
Tyson is eager to help Asia meet that demand.
“Our footprint in Asia is already meaningful, but there’s space for growth, particularly in China,” he said.
Protein of choice
Tyson Foods’ main animal proteins offered in international markets are chicken, pork and beef. So deciding which proteins to emphasize through its growth efforts, chicken appeared to be the sensible choice.
“Chicken is winning internationally, so we are differentially investing to grow in locally relevant categories with a focus on chicken first,” he said.
Using similar projections as he did when examining geographical areas, Langholz stated that of the nearly 95 billion incremental pounds of protein consumption projected, nearly 44 billion pounds will be chicken.
That’s encouraging, because in Asia, in addition to the popularity of Tyson products at the foodservice level, Tyson is also gaining traction in the retail markets.
“The Tyson brand is one of the most recognized and respected retail brands in all of China. And we’re using that to our advantage,” he said.
