Tyson Foods Focuses on Prepared Food Market

SPRINGDALE, Ark. – Tyson Foods has been working on transforming itself from an exclusive meat-packing company into a prepared foods company, the Wall Street Journal reports. John Tyson, grandson of the company’s founder and current chairman and a controlling shareholder, is taking the company deeper into the prepared and packaged foods market.

“That’s part of the struggle that goes on—what is Tyson Foods today?” he said. The meat packing business is on the decline, due to record production of beef and poultry and climbing trade barriers and tariffs. Meanwhile, prepared foods now garner a fifth of the company’s $40 billion in yearly sales—twice what the category had 10 years ago.

The demand for high protein meals has bolstered Tyson’s meat sales. Meanwhile data scientists are taking a hard look at numbers in major metro areas in the United States to develop a forecast for meat consumption to help Tyson’s better prepare for sales and production on the meat side.

In addition, Tyson is also developing plant-based alternatives to meat, with a new product launch in that category set for 2019. The company wants to be prepared for whoever desires meat-free options. “We want to have choices for those consumers,” said Sally Grimes, Tyson’s president of prepared foods.

The July NACS Magazine feature, “An Epic Food Journey,” notes that traditional meat companies are banking on plant-based alternatives to traditional meat-based products. Tyson Foods’ venture capital group, Tyson Ventures, has invested in Beyond Meat, a company on a mission to replace animal protein with plant-based protein for products like burgers, sausage and chicken strips. Beyond Meat became a household name in 2016 for its meat-like veggie burger that “bleeds” when its pricked thanks to pulverized beet juice, which also gives the patty a red-meat appearance.