Tyson Foods

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tyson Foods, Inc.
Type	Public (NYSE: TSN)
Founded	1931
Headquarters	Springdale, Arkansas, USA
Key people	John Tyson, Chairman and Richard Bond, CEO
Industry	Food processing
Products	Meat
Revenue	$26 billion
Employees	107,000
Website	www.tyson.com/

Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN) is an American multinational corporation based in Springdale, Arkansas, that operates in the food industry. The company is the world's largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork, and annually exports the largest percentage of beef out of the United States. With 2005 sales of $26 billion, Tyson Foods is the second-largest food production company in the Fortune 500, the largest meat producer in the world, and according to Forbes one of the 100 largest companies in America.

The company makes a wide variety of protein-based and prepared food products at its 123 food processing plants. Tyson Foods has approximately 107,000 employees, who work at more than 300 facilities in the United States and throughout the world. Many of their employees are at their 84 company-owned chicken grower operations. Tyson also has 6,729 contract chicken growers.

Tyson Foods is one of largest U.S. marketers of value-added chicken, beef and pork to retail grocers, broad line foodservice distributors and national fast food and full service restaurant chains; fresh beef and pork; frozen and fully-cooked chicken, beef and pork products; case-ready beef and pork; supermarket deli chicken products; meat toppings for the pizza industry and retail frozen pizza; club store chicken, beef and pork; ground beef and flour tortillas.

Tyson Foods is a supplier of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wal-Mart, Wendy's, McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, Kroger, Costco, Harps, IGA, Yum!, Beef O'Brady's, small restaurant businesses and prisons.

Contents 1 History 2 Corporate operations 2.1 Sustainability reporting 3 Production and facilities 4 Products and brands 4.1 Tyson Renewable Energy 5 Corporate citizenship 6 Criticism 7 References 8 External links

[edit] History

In 2001, Tyson Foods acquired IBP, Inc., United States' biggest beef packer and number two pork processor, for US$3.2 billion in cash and stock. Tyson has also acquired such companies as Hudson Foods Company, Garrett poultry, Washington Creamery, Franz Foods, Prospect Farms, Krispy Chickens, Ocoma Foods, Cassady Broiler, Vantress Pedigree, Wilson Foods, Honeybear Foods, Mexican Original, Valmac Industies, Heritage Valley, Lane Processing, Cobb-Vantress, Holly Farms, and Wright Brand Foods, Inc. on the way to its rise as the World's top food processor and marketer. It also acquired along with its purchase of IBP, Inc., the naming rights to an event center in Sioux City, IA, USA

[edit] Corporate operations

Tyson employs 107,000 people, many at their 84 company-owned chicken grower operations. As well as, Tyson has 6,729 contract chicken growers.

Current members of the board of directors of Tyson Foods are: Richard Bond, Lloyd Hackley, Scott T. Ford, Jim Kever, Jo Ann Smith, Leland Tollett, Barbara Tyson, Don Tyson, John Tyson, and Albert Zapanta.

[edit] Sustainability reporting

The Tyson Foods 2005 Sustainability Report (English, 3.99MB | en Espanol, 2.44MB) provides an overview of the company's triple bottom line reporting. The information in this report, unless otherwise noted, covers fiscal year (FY) 2005 (October 3, 2004 to October 1, 2005). It primarily focuses on Tyson operations within the United States, with some additional information provided on international operations.

[edit] Production and facilities

Every week, Tyson's 54 chicken plants process 42.5 million chickens, their 13 beef plants process 170,938 cattle, and six pork plants process 347,891 pigs. The largest meatpacking facility owned by Tyson Foods is their beef production plant in Dakota City, Nebraska.

• Prepared foods: 27
• Case-ready beef and pork: 3
• Fully-cooked beef and pork: 1
• Animal protein: 9
• Pet food: 19
• Tanneries/hide treatment facilities: 8
• Tallow refinery: 1
• Cold storage warehouses: 65
• Forward warehousing/distribution centers: 10
• Hatcheries: 64
• Feed mills/feed blending facilities: 40

[edit] Products and brands

Tyson produces many kinds of products. A couple of them are Buffalo Wings, Boneless Buffalo Wings, and Chicken Nuggets and Tenders.

[edit] Tyson Renewable Energy

Tyson's processing plants are left with a vast supply of animal fats. The company's Tyson Corporate Strategy and Development department looked at ways to commercialize usage of this leftover material, by coverting it into biofuels. As a result the company created a business unit called Tyson Renewable Energy^[1]. The unit is also examining the potential use of poultry litter to generate energy and other products.^[2]

[edit] Corporate citizenship

The company's primary philanthropic focus is hunger relief. Since 2000, Tyson Foods has given nearly 41 million pounds of chicken, beef and pork to hunger and disaster relief. In the past six years, the company has also broadened its financial and in-kind support to include nationwide partnerships with leading hunger relief organizations meeting the needs of hungry children including Share Our Strength, America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network, Lift Up America, and Feed the Children.

[edit] Criticism

From December 2004 through February 2005, an undercover investigator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claimed to have worked on the slaughter line of a Tyson Foods chicken processing plant in Heflin, Alabama. Using a hidden camera, he allegedly documented the treatment of the more than 100,000 chickens killed every day in the plant. PETA alleges that workers were instructed to rip the heads off of birds who missed the throat-cutting machines. He claims he saw birds scalded alive in the feather removal tank, and he said that managers said that it was acceptable to scald 40 birds alive per shift. Interestingly the job the investigator was hired to do was to prevent the alleged abuses he videotaped: preventing birds from going into the scald tank alive. The investigator claims plant employees were also seen throwing around dead birds just for fun. PETA has asked Tyson to implement Controlled Atmosphere Killing. For this reason, PETA is boycotting businesses that use Tyson as a supplier, such as KFC and distribution channels such as Sunset Strips.

Tyson, as of 2006, has concluded a preliminary study into an alternate method of preparing chickens for slaughter and will be asking the University of Arkansas to conduct similar research, the company announced in 2006.

At the request of customers and as part of the company's commitment to animal welfare, Tyson has spent the past two years examining and testing the use of Controlled Atmosphere Stunning (CAS). This production method involves the use of a gas mixture to render chickens unconscious before slaughter.

“

While our research has concluded controlled atmosphere stunning may be an acceptable alternative, we have not currently found it to be more humane than conventional electrical stunning. However, we also believe there’s merit in the continued study of CAS and other technology. We're going to ask the agricultural science officials at the University of Arkansas to initiate their own CAS study, using their own scientists and methods, to see if they reach the same conclusion.

”

-- Bill Lovette, senior group vice president of Poultry and Prepared Foods for Tyson Foods.^[3]

Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas will coordinate the research, and share the board position. Tyson has committed $1.5 million to help establish the Chair, which will be involved in overseeing research and classes focused on the humane management and treatment of food animals.

[edit] References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ Tyson Foods and Renewable Energy to Provide Alternative Use for Chicken Litter in Delmarva
3. ^ http://www.tyson.com/Corporate/PressRoom/ViewArticle.aspx?id=2403

[edit] External links

• Corporate web site
• Consumer web site