Tyson Dominates Poultry Industry, Magazine Says
by July 23, 2001 8:41 am 116 views
Poultry magazine’s annual top performers edition lists Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale as the top performer in 2000 in a landslide over second-place Perdue Farms Inc. of Salisbury, Md.
Meanwhile, O.K. Foods Inc. of Fort Smith was ranked No. 11 overall, with Simmons Foods Inc. of Siloam Springs No. 16, George’s Inc. of Springdale No. 18 and Peterson Farms of Decatur No. 30.
Tyson had sales of $7.2 billion in 2000, almost tripling Perdue’s $2.55 billion. Perdue has both chickens and turkeys.
Tyson’s 69,000 employees and 56 plants were also far ahead of the nearest competitor. Perdue has 19,500 employees and 20 plants.
In individual categories, Tyson was No. 1 in all six chicken distribution fields — fresh retail, foodservice, branded product, private label, further processing and ready-to-eat. And in the chicken product form, Tyson led in whole bird, breasts, tray pack, controlled atmosphere packaging, individually quick frozen, cooked frozen and cut up.
O.K. Foods had $560 million in sales with 4,000 employees in seven plants. Simmons Foods had $427 million in sales, with 4,400 employees in three plants, George’s had $325 million in sales with 2,300 employees in three plants. And Peterson had $130 million in sales with 1,450 employees in its lone plant.