During the past several years, Tyson Foods has closed some of its older and less efficient plants.
Executives with the company indicated during the Barclays Global Consumer Conference on September 5 that no new plant closures are on the horizon, and the company’s aim is to make sure it’s current network of plants is working at optimum efficiency to produce the protein products desired by consumers.
“We really like our asset base,” said Brady Stewart, chief supply chain officer and president of Tyson’s beef and pork segments. “We really like our path forward with our current asset base.”
Recent plant closures
Tyson Foods’ most recent plant closure involved a pork plant in Perry, Iowa. But before that, in 2023, the company announced plans to close six of its poultry plants, and over the following months, all six of those facilities have been shuttered while most of the production done at those plants was transferred to other plants within the company network.
“We’ve made some network design changes recently with our Perry, Iowa, plant closure. That was a very difficult decision for us, but ultimately closed it at the end of June to really get our network right, and so it gives us better capacity utilization and efficiencies in our existing assets,” Stewart said.
Stewart and Tyson Chief Financial Officer Curt Calaway mentioned how the company’s poultry segment is now operating more efficiently, and while other factors have contributed to that improvement, the changes made with the plants played a big factor.
Enhancing existing facilities
Making sure Tyson is producing protein products at maximum efficiency also means making adjustments to its plants best utilize available resources and to match the demand trends.
“There’s a lot of spending that’s occurred within our existing facilities to continue to streamline and automate, and bring forth our operational excellence agenda,” he said.
New plants and international growth
Even though Tyson closed seven plants, it has also added to its network.
Calaway mentioned a new bacon facility in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and a fully-cooked chicken plant in Danville, Virginia.
The company has also “invested in a number of international plants,” Calaway said.
“Protein growth -- it’s greatest opportunity continues to be outside the United States, and we’ve made a number of investments over the last several years, not only through the M&A lens, but also through organic opportunities,” he said. “We have invested in a number of new facilities over the last three years ... But our opportunity going forward is going to be to continue to fill up those plants with value-added opportunities for our customers, and really maximize the investment that we have made, both through inorganic and organic opportunities.”
