Inside the C-Suite: How Tyson Food is pivoting its factories to deal with retail industry

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Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforous spoke with Tyson Foods CEO Noel White about how the company is deaeling with the coronavirus pandemic.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance. No doubt you have gone to the grocery store throughout this pandemic, and you have seen empty shelves as Americans flock to stores to stock up as they spend time at home. And so we decided to reach out to the CEO of Tyson Foods, which is America's largest food company. And in our C-suite segment today I got to actually correspond with CEO Noel White via email, and he was able to tell me what they're doing there to assure that the food is going to get on store shelves.

He did say-- and it's important that everyone hear this and understand this-- that the food supply in the US is ample. It is more than sufficient. We are not having supply-chain issues. But he did say that Tyson is pivoting away from supplying the food-service industry, mainly restaurants and, of course, hotels, which we know have ground to a halt. And so he is pivoting their factories at Tyson to deal with the retail industry, and he said they can do this quickly by changing packaging at individual plants. They can pivot quickly because of their scale. And he is calling this the most significant shift they have ever initiated.

So, Brian, it looks like Tyson definitely understands that they play a vital role during this pandemic, and they're trying to get product to market as quickly as possible.

BRIAN SOZZI: Alexis, you know me. I love me some chicken. I just have not seen chicken in my local supermarkets going on 2 and 1/2 weeks. So I think in the supermarkets there remains a lot of out of stocks.

But listen, we've had [INAUDIBLE], Restaurant Brands CEO. We've talked to Papa John's CEO Rob Lynch. So far the US food chain is holding up well. And we talked to PepsiCo North America food chief yesterday Steven Williams. He said [INAUDIBLE] hang in there. So I think this thought that we're going to run out of food, even though we are seeing it in pockets of supermarkets, might be a little misguided.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right. You know, also I just wanted to share this inspirational quote. Noel White on his blog, on his website shared a quote from the food master Jimmy Dean. And it said, "I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." I think suffice it to say we're all adjusting our sails right now during this unprecedented time.

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