Meat&Poultry - May 2012 - 22

Cover Story

Super success
Ranking the industry’s top processors
BY KIMBERLIE CLYMA
kclyma@sosland.com

very year, the Meat&Poultry staff, led by Dana Holt, manager of directories and databases, sets out to rank the top processors in the

meat and poultry industry (including international companies with operations in North America). It is a challenging task requiring preparation and countless hours of emailing, faxing and follow-up phone calls followed by many hours of compiling and analyzing the data. The goal of this annual listing is to provide an overview of the meat and poultry processing industry’s leading companies based on annual sales and to include any changes resulting from mergers, acquisitions or closures. Companies on this year’s Top 100 ranking range from just more than $32.2 billion in annual sales (Tyson Foods Inc.) down to $185 million in sales. This year’s listing tops out at 99 due to the fact that multiple companies reported identical sales, which required the 100th position to be preempted by those companies. The top-10 spots in the 2012 ranking were occupied by nine of the 10 same companies as 2011. The five companies that held their ranking in the top 10 included: Tyson Foods Inc. (No. 1); JBS USA (No. 2); Cargill Meat Solutions (No. 3); ConAgra Foods Inc. – Consumer Foods Segment (No. 6); and Hormel Foods Corp. (No. 7). The new addition to the top 10 was National Beef Packing Co. LLC which moved to the No. 8 spot with $6.8 billion in sales from No. 11 in 2011 with $5.7 billion in sales (This past December, Leucadia National Corporation acquired 79 percent ownership interest in National Beef). As a result, Keystone Foods LLC moved from No. 8 to No. 9; Kraft Foods/Oscar Mayer moved down to No. 10 from No. 9; and OSI Industries LLC moved out of the top 10 to No. 11 this year. After sliding from the No. 4 spot in 2010, with $12.48 billion in sales, to the No. 5 ranking in 2011, with $11.2 billion in sales, Smithfield Foods Inc. moved back to the No. 4 position this year after its sales increased to $12.2 billion. Sysco Corp. returned to its 2010 ranking of No. 5. Some notable industry changes that impacted the 2012 ranking include: ● Industria Bachoco, S.A.B. de C.V., following its acquisition of O.K. Industries Inc., moved to the No. 21 spot (from No. 25 in 2011) with an increase in sales to $1.798 billion from $1.198 billion the year prior. ● AFA Foods moved from No. 47 to No. 27 in this year’s ranking. However, after media coverage of “pink slime” cut demand for some of the company’s products, it sought bankruptcy court protection in early April. AFA “continues discussions with potential buyers to secure the highest and best outcome for its business,” officials said in a statement. ● Triumph Foods LLC, a one-plant pork operation out of St. Joseph, Mo., moved from the No. 100 spot to the No. 32 rank this year after its sales increased from $180 million to $1 billion. ● Odom’s Tennessee Pride Sausage Inc., which is ranked No. 98, was acquired by ConAgra Foods Inc. in April. Processors are encouraged to request a survey to ensure this annual list is as accurate as possible. ■
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Meat&Poultry - May 2012

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