Tyson Foods will open a new R&D facility next month that will develop products for its consumer goods and foodservice divisions.
The “Discovery Center” will house 19 kitchens and consumer research facilities, as well as a pilot plant where Tyson can test production of new chicken, beef and pork items. The center, located at the company’s Springdale, AR, headquarters, will use Tyson’s “discovery” product-development process to get new items to market “in a matter of days” rather than the typical four to six weeks, said Wendy Davidson, Tyson’s senior VP of Food Service National Accounts. That “discovery” process uses input from foodservice customers to pinpoint consumer trends, and create items to meet consumers’ tastes.
“For our national [foodservice] customers, the ability to take something from ideation to market in the span of a week, for them to be able to test that in a particular store is an incredible advantage,” Davidson said.
About half of the test kitchens are outfitted with foodservice equipment, and demonstration kitchens will showcase new items. Tyson is enabling its R&D staffers to get culinary degrees to become certified “culinologists” at the center. The company’s marketing team will continue to work closely with the R&D staff on product launches.
The R&D center fits Tyson’s efforts to form “a culture of agility,” mandated by CEO Richard Bond when he took charge of the company in May. Bond also vowed to cut costs, and return to a “commodity mindset” for Tyson’s commodity meats business, which accounts for about half its sales.
But Tyson is serious about boosting its value-added business, too. In September, the company hired Gillette Co. veteran Robert DeMartini as Group VP-consumer products to oversee operations, marketing and sales for its full Consumer Products division (including Deli, Processed Meats, Wholesale Clubs and Retail). DeMartini had been senior VP-general manager of Gillette’s Grooming division; his 20-plus years of marketing national brands suits Tyson’s need to develop more high-margin value-added items.
“We believe Rob’s extensive experience with building brands and marketing packaged goods will be of great value to our company. His position is especially important to the execution of our business strategy, which includes successfully creating more value-added products,” said DeMartini’s boss, Senior Group VP Bill Lovette, when DeMartini was hired.
Tyson’s sales fell 2.2% to $19.09 billion for the nine months ended July 1; its cost of sales rose nearly 1% to $18.4 billion for the time period. Prepared-food sales fell 5.8% to just under $2 billion for the nine months; chicken and pork sales fell, too, with beef sales up 1.5% to $8.8 billion.
Network
