RIP: Donald Tyson

The founder of Tyson Foods has died at the age of 80:

In a career that spanned five decades, Mr Tyson transformed Tyson Foods through serial acquisitions from one of many chicken producers – it was 14th in size in the US in 1968 – to the country’s largest.

In 1968, it supplied 1 percent of the country’s chicken. Last year, Tyson accounted for 20 percent of chicken consumed in the US, according to the National Chicken Council.

Mr Tyson served as chairman emeritus when his son engineered the acquisition of IBP, a leading producer of meat and pork, in 2001, after which Tyson Foods became the world’s largest meat company. In 2009, Brazil-based JBS eclipsed Tyson, taking over the number-one spot after its acquisition of Bertin and Pilgrim’s Pride.

Like Frank Perdue, another major figure in the development of the industry in the US, Mr Tyson benefited from the steady growth in chicken consumption across America in the latter half of the 20th century. Mr Tyson was not well known outside the industry, or politics, where he was an active player for much of his career.

In 1980, Mr Tyson helped the company develop a relationship with McDonald’s, supplying chicken meat for the restaurant chain’s experimental new product, the “Chicken McNugget”. The relationship continues to this day.

Posted by on January 6th, 2011 at 9:08 pm


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