Tyson Foods Outlines Company Strategy to Investors

Now that Tyson Foods, Inc. TSN has achieved earnings stability in recent years, the company is looking toward earnings growth. "Accelerate, Innovate, Cultivate" is the company's strategy to grow its business, Donnie Smith, Tyson's president and chief executive officer, today told investors at the BMO Capital Markets 2012 Farm to Market Conference. Dennis Leatherby, executive vice president and chief financial officer, also represented Tyson at the conference. "We will accelerate growth through our international businesses in China, Brazil, Mexico and India, and we will grow our value-added product sales domestically," Smith said. "We will innovate through products, processes and analytics, and we will cultivate our team members through practical talent development programs." The "Accelerate, Innovate, Cultivate" strategy is built on a foundation of managing business fundamentals and on a strong capital structure. Tyson's balance sheet gives the company flexibility to build or buy assets to fill product offering gaps while continuing to invest in its existing infrastructure, Smith said. "De-risking and optionality are terms we use to describe how we will manage our capital structure to drive a sustained competitive advantage," Smith said. Tyson has gone from a net debt to capital ratio of about 55% at the beginning of fiscal 2002 to 20.5% at the end of fiscal 2011, putting the company in a better position to capitalize on changing protein fundamentals, even in times of challenging market dynamics.