The slump in profits of Tyson Foods, a U.S.-based company based in Arkansas (and branches also in Italy, in Verona) but above all one of the world's largest players in the animal protein sector, is not stopped. The company after closing the first quarter of 2023 with a vertical slump in profits (from $1.12 billion to $316 million) and having filed a second quarter with another killer drop (-80%), now announces the closing of the third quarter of fiscal year 2023 with revenues of more than $13.1 billion, down 3% from the previous year However, the vertical slump in profits continues: -82% operating profit for the quarter at $179 million and adjusted eps also plunges 92% to $0.15.

With these numbers, Tyson Foods missed Wall Street's expectations for third quarter revenues and earnings, hurt by falling chicken and pork prices and slowing demand for beef products. The loser, of course, was the stock on the stock market, which lost 4% yesterday after falling nearly 10%. 

The company, in an official statement, "confirms the closure of four additional poultry plants to reduce costs and improve capacity utilization". This is seen by analysts as a last-ditch effort to salvage something as the company grapples with falling profits and reduced consumer demand, squeezed by inflation and rising interest rates. 

In fact, the four new closures just announced are in addition to the two disclosed in March, namely that of Glen Allen, Virginia, a poultry plant with 692 employees, and that of Van Buren, Arkansas, with 969 employees. Two closures that sparked the ire of employees who went on strike in April to protest company policy. Liquidity is about $3.7 billion as of July 1, 2023: the company also announced that it had entered into $1.75 billion in new term credit facilities and had completed the acquisition of Williams Sausage Company.

For the nine months of FY 2023, sales were more than $39.5 billion, "unchanged from the previous year", but operating profit at $68 million plunges 98 percent from the previous year, with ebitda at 0.2%. "Although current market dynamics remain challenging, Tyson Foods is fully committed to pursuing our vision of sustainable growth and margin improvement -stressed Donnie King, the company's chairman and ceo-. I am encouraged by the improvements we achieved this quarter, including our Tyson Core Business lines that continue to outperform our peers in volume growth".

"The difficult decision to close four chicken plants in North Little Rock, Arkansas; Corydon, Indiana; and Dexter and Noel, both in Missouri -King added-, demonstrates our commitment to take bold action and achieve operational excellence to improve performance, including reducing costs and improving capacity utilization, and to build on our strategy to make Tyson Foods stronger over the long term".