Don Tyson Says Meat Company Seeks Global Growth

SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Investors are waiting for Don Tyson's second act.

Sitting in a quiet office in a long row of executive suites at the headquarters of the world's biggest meat company, Tyson promises he has one.

The plan is fittingly ambitious for a man who pioneered a new industrial model for meat production and helped turn a small chicken company into a $27 billion a year enterprise. In short, Tyson plans to duplicate his company's domination of the U.S. livestock industry, but on a global scale.

"Our company, as I would view it today, is in kind of a consolidation stage, getting ready for our growth overseas," Tyson said in a rare and extensive interview with The Associated Press.

If the strategy succeeds, it could do far more than deliver profits to the company and its shareholders. As Tyson Foods Inc. replicates its uniquely American model of corporate meat production throughout the developing world, the company could fundamentally transform rural economies in nations like India, Brazil and China.

In Tyson's view, there is little choice but to start anew in the emerging world.

The company's stock price skyrocketed during the 1970s and '80s but has lagged for nearly a decade. Chronic overproduction of chicken, export bans on U.S. beef because of mad cow disease and increasingly high grain prices have sapped the company's profit potential at home.

"We have done about as much in the United States as we can do," Tyson said.

Source: The Associated Press