Glendinning to resign as Tyson Foods prepared foods president

Less than a year into his role as president of prepared foods at Tyson Foods, Stewart Glendinning is resigning effective Sept. 14. The departure was made public Thursday (Sept. 7) in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Glendinning joined Springdale-based Tyson Foods in December 2017 as chief financial officer, a position he held for nearly five years until he moved to the group president role over the company’s large prepared foods business. John Randal Tyson replaced Glendinning as CFO in October of last year.

“We are grateful for Stewart’s contributions throughout his time at Tyson Foods, including serving as Tyson’s Chief Financial Officer and President of Prepared Foods,” the company said in a statement to Talk Business & Politics. “We wish him continued success in his new role. Prepared Foods continues to be a key growth pillar for Tyson Foods, and we have a great team supporting it.”

Glendinning has managed all aspects of the prepared foods portfolio, including brands like Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farm. He was charged with growing the division which also includes culinary and research. Prior to joining Tyson Foods, Glendinning was president and CEO of Molson Coors International. He spent more than 12 years at Molson Coors.

Tyson CEO Donnie King praised Glendinning a year ago when he moved to the prepared foods business, saying he had “the financial and operational background, as well as the proven organizational management skills, needed to help unlock the full potential of our iconic consumer brands within Tyson’s Prepared Foods business.”

King said Glendinning was uniquely equipped to run the prepared foods segment, having spent five years at the company and more than a decade at Molson Coors International, where he served as president and CEO, having also run businesses in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Glendinning earned $4.438 million last year, which included a base salary of $787,000, unchanged from the prior year when he was CFO. Glendinning replaced Noelle O’Mara, who ran the prepared foods segment for three years.

Tyson’s prepared foods business was 18% of the company’s total sales in the recent fiscal year and was valued at $9.54 billion. The business processed 73 million pounds of meat products per week in its 34 facilities. For the first nine months of fiscal 2023, the segment produced revenue of $7.343 billion, up 2.3%. It has also been the best-performing Tyson segment with operating income up 11% through the first three fiscal quarters of this year.

The company overall has not been as fortunate, reporting steep operating losses in chicken and pork with a challenging outlook in beef as well.