Help power Marketplace this winter when you support the show today. Donate Now!
COVID-19

Tyson Foods appoints new CEO while meat industry struggles with continued COVID-19 challenges

Erika Beras Aug 4, 2020
Heard on:
HTML EMBED:
COPY
Food companies like Tyson have not been able to make up all of the ground they lost during the pandemic through grocery store sales. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
COVID-19

Tyson Foods appoints new CEO while meat industry struggles with continued COVID-19 challenges

Erika Beras Aug 4, 2020
Heard on:
Food companies like Tyson have not been able to make up all of the ground they lost during the pandemic through grocery store sales. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Tyson Foods has named a new CEO: Dean Banks. He’s taking over the meat processing giant this fall at a tough time for the industry. The company just reported a steep decline in quarterly profits, down 22% from last year, largely the result of the pandemic.

It’s been a difficult few months for the meat processing industry. Thousands of workers have had COVID-19. Factories closed and reopened. And, according to Ohio State University logistics professor Terry Esper, companies like Tyson have had to repackage food that was meant to supply food service. But that isn’t easy.

“Preparing food for food service is totally different than preparing food for retail,” Esper said. “Food service doesn’t require the same branding, it doesn’t require the same packaging.”

Before COVID-19, people ate out at restaurants, arenas, hotels and university cafeterias. In fact, according to Christopher Muller, a professor of hospitality at Boston University, about half of all meals were served away from home. The big food companies were supplying those places.

And now, “we just haven’t made up for it in the grocery business,” Muller said.

Tyson says one area of weakness is the products it supplies to schools. The company said in an email that problems there may continue depending on states’ reopening plans.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.