Dive Brief:
- Tyson has reorganized its top corporate structure to put more of a focus on its different segments: chicken, prepared foods, and beef and pork, reports Arkansas Business.
- Three company executives have been made group presidents effective immediately. Doug Ramsey will oversee poultry, Sally Grimes heads up prepared foods, and Noel White is in charge of the beef, pork and international segment. The group presidents will be responsible for growth strategy and execution in all the product categories and customer channels their segments serve, according to a company press release.
- Meanwhile, Andy Callahan, president of North American Foodservice and International, and chief growth officer Monica McGurk are leaving as a result of the restructuring.
Dive Insight:
The announced changes simplify Tyson’s corporate structure and streamlines company leadership, instead giving the group presidents “end-to-end” responsibility for their respective segments. By restructuring this way, president and CEO Tom Hayes has acknowledged that today’s dynamic food environment requires big companies to be more agile and quicker to respond to changes as well as make faster and better decisions.
“A dynamic market demands we become more agile while focusing on consumers, customers and the businesses that deliver our revenue and profit,” said Hayes in a company press release. “This simple design creates individual responsibility for the performance of our segments to enable faster, better, decisions.”
When he began his new role as CEO in January, Hayes set new goals for the company, including a focus on innovation, additional acquisitions, and paving the way for the next phase of protein growth. The organizational realignment is just the latest in a string of changes since Hayes took the helm.
Early this year, the manufacturer announced a phase-out of antibiotics in its branded chicken products, a move that helps the company tap into consumer demand for cleaner products. After hinting at increased acquisition activity for more than a year, Tyson bought AdvancePierre, maker of ready-to-eat sandwiches and snacks, in April. Shortly thereafter, it announced plans to divest three non-meat businesses — Kettle, Van’s and Sara Lee Frozen Bakery — to instead fully focus on its protein portfolio.
Then in May, Hayes commented that the management team had been weighing whether to divest or spin off its fresh beef and pork operations. Ultimately, it was decided that it made sense to keep the fresh meat business in its portfolio — at least for now. The newly announced organizational realignment may hint that more changes could be afoot. A separate and autonomously run beef and pork segment certainly makes it easier to spin off the division in its entirety, should the right opportunity arise.
Tyson isn’t the only big food company shaking things up. Earlier this year, General Mills unveiled a new global business structure, intended to promote growth and efficiency through more streamlined company leadership, maximized global scale and more agile operations. Hain Celestial restructured its executive team, putting executives into areas where their strengths would be better utilized. Coca-Cola recently overhauled its c-suite under new CEO James Quincey, making changes to reinvigorate and help grow the beverage company.
Growth and agility are buzzwords surrounding the Tyson shake-up as well. It will be interesting to see how the company has fared over the past few months when it reports its third-quarter earnings Monday.