Tyson CEO: Smart Chicken brand has growth potential

Noel White, the new CEO of Tyson Foods, says the company’s decision to acquire Tecumseh Poultry earlier in 2018 has proven to be a good one.

Roy Graber Headshot
(Andrea Gantz)
(Andrea Gantz)

Noel White, the new CEO of Tyson Foods, says the company’s decision to acquire Tecumseh Poultry earlier in 2018 has proven to be a good one.

While participating in a conference call with reporters on November 13, White said that Tecumseh Poultry, also known as MBA Poultry, and its Smart Chicken brand of organic and air-chilled chicken helped Tyson Foods better reach “a segment of the market that we didn’t actively participate in a big way.” He added that since Tyson acquired Tecumseh Poultry, headquartered in Waverly, Nebraska, the results have been exactly what were expected.

“It’s been a very good addition to the Tyson portfolio,” said White, who became president and CEO of Tyson Foods on September 30.

When asked if Tyson Foods would continue to market the Smart Chicken brand and promote the air-chilled aspect of processing, White said there were no plans to change anything from a branding perspective. However, he said he felt Tyson Foods could expand the brand’s reach.

“We do want to grow the business, to expand the business,” said White. “We have both domestic coverage, as well as internationally, so we can expand the sales capability of Tecumseh Poultry.”

There is an available capacity that would accommodate that growth as it is needed, he added.

Tecumseh Poultry, at the conclusion of 2017, was the 26th largest poultry company in the United States, having processed 2.62 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken on a weekly basis.

White’s conference call coincided with the release of Tyson Foods’ fourth quarter financial results of fiscal year 2018. The inclusion of Tecumseh Poultry helped the company increase its net sales for the quarter when compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017, before Tecumseh Poultry was acquired. “Sales volume increased primarily due to incremental volume from business acquisitions,” the company stated in a press release.

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