Tyson Foods Completes Multibillion Dollar Hillshire Brands Merger

SPRINGDALE, AR & CHICAGO, IL

Tyson Foods, Inc. has completed its multibillion merger with The Hillshire Brands Company. This merger positions Tyson Foods as a leader in the prepared foods business.

“As of today, Tyson Foods and Hillshire Brands are officially together in one great company,” said Tyson Foods CEO Donnie Smith. “Part of our strategic growth plan has been to shift toward higher-margin prepared and branded foods. This transaction gives us a portfolio of complementary, proven brands as a new springboard and accomplishes in a short time what would have taken us years to build on our own.”  

The combination creates a single company with more than $40 billion in annual sales and a portfolio that includes recognized brands such as Tyson®, Wright®, Jimmy Dean®, Ball Park®, State Fair® and Hillshire Farm®, according to a press release. 

The integration of the companies, which teams of people have been working on since July, is expected to generate synergy savings of $255 million in fiscal 2015 and more than $500 million by fiscal 2017.

“During this process, I’ve had a chance get to know many people on the Hillshire Brands team and the great work they’re doing, and I’m more convinced than ever that the future of our combined companies is bright,” Smith said. “As excited as I am about our new brands, I’m equally excited about the combined talent of the two companies.” 

With the merger completion, a new leadership team has been selected and includes a mix of existing senior leaders from Tyson Foods and Hillshire Brands. 

• Andy Callahan, former President of Hillshire’s retail business will manage all retail consumer brands.
• Sally Grimes, former Chief Innovation Officer and President of Hillshire’s Gourmet Food Group, will lead Tyson’s innovation, sales and global brand strategy teams.
• Donnie King, former President-Prepared Foods, Customer and Consumer Solutions for Tyson Foods, will oversee Tyson’s legacy poultry, fresh meats and non-branded prepared foods businesses as well as the combined Tyson Foods and Hillshire foodservice businesses.
• Steve Stouffer, Noel White, Wes Morris, Tom Hayes, David Van Bebber, Sara Lilygren, Dennis Leatherby, Hal Carper, Mike Roetzel and Russell Tooley will all report to Donnie.
• Ken Kimbro, Tyson Foods’ Human Resources Function since 2001, will be retiring, and Mary Oleksiuk, former Chief Human Resources Office for Hillshire Brands, will be replacing him.
• Malik Sadiq, Senior Vice President-Asia Pacific, will oversee Tyson International on an interim basis, taking James Young’s place who will be transitioning to the company’s Cobb-Vantress breeding stock subsidiary in coming months.

“This is an awesome team and they’re prepared to make this integration process smooth and efficient while we continue to exceed the expectations of our customers and consumers,” Smith said.

As a result of the completion of the merger, Hillshire Brands common stock was delisted and trading ceased on the New York Stock Exchange and Chicago Stock Exchange.

Congratulations on the completion of the merger, Tyson and Hillshire!

Tyson Foods