Tyson Foods to buy Keystone Foods
On Aug. 20, Tyson Foods announced it had reached a definitive agreement to buy Keystone Foods business from Marfrig Global Foods for $2.16 billion in cash. Keystone Foods is one of McDonalds’ major suppliers of beef, chicken and fish. Its value-added product portfolio includes chicken nuggets, wings and tenders, beef patties and breaded fish fillets.
The deal will include six processing plants and an innovation center in the US with locations in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as well as eight plants and three innovation centers in China, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia.
“Keystone is a leading global protein company and will be a great addition to Tyson Foods,” said Tom Hayes, president and CEO of Tyson Foods. “This acquisition will expand our international presence and value-added production capabilities and help us deliver more value to our foodservice customers. Keystone provides a significant foundation for international growth with its in-country operations, sales and distribution network in high growth markets in the Asia Pacific region as well as exports to key markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We look forward to serving customers with these additional capabilities and to welcoming Keystone’s dedicated team members to the Tyson Foods family,” Hayes said in a statement.
Tyson expects to generate annual synergies of approximately $50 million by the third year of the acquisition.