“It’s been a great year for us – 2017 was an exceptional record year for Tyson. We’re excited about 2018, having another record year,” Hayes said. “In addition to the financial success, we also had a foundation that was built. We set a new purpose for the company which is to raise the world’s expectations for how much good food can do. And we’re flushing out a lot of great initiatives behind that. We’ve redefined our strategy and refined it further again which is focused on three words – grow, deliver and sustain.”
The company’s grow, deliver, sustain initiative is guiding Tyson’s directives for 2018 and beyond.
Grow – Our businesses through differentiated capabilities.
Deliver – Ongoing financial fitness through continuous improvement.
Sustain – Our company and our world for future generations.
“We want to grow our business continuously. We are squarely focused on that in all of our segments,” Hayes said. “We want to continue to deliver that with a cost base that is tight, and continues to allow us to leverage that growth to make great bottom line results.”
The company reported record GAAP operating income of $2.93 billion and record Adjusted operating income of $3.26 billion for FY 2017, which was up 15 percent from FY 2016. Net income attributable to Tyson was $394 million, or $1.07 per share, up from $391 million, or $1.03 per share, reported a year ago. Sales for the fourth quarter were $10,145 million, compared with $9,156 million reported in the year-ago quarter.
In addition to its record financial results, Hayes shared insights on the company’s outlook for sustainability and technology, and the company’s new management team.
“We established a new management team to implement our strategy and it includes a chief sustainability offer – Justin Whitmore. He’s on board to guide our efforts there. We also added Chief Technology Officer Scott Spradley, from Hewlett Packard Enterprises,” Hayes said. “These two things – sustainability and technology – go hand in hand.”
On Aug. 2, the company shared its plans for restructuring with the announcement of the departure of two executives – Monica McGurk, chief growth officer, and Andy Callahan, president, North American
