Tom Hayes Isn't Chicken

Animal meat is going the way of cigarettes and combustion engines. Tyson’s new CEO can’t wait

- Amanda Little

“Now that is a beautiful belly,” Tom Hayes says, running his hand along the plastic-wrapped contours of a slab of meat about the size and shape of a Gutenberg Bible. It’s lying on a stainless steel table in a test kitchen at the Discovery Center, a laboratory for product innovation at Tyson Foods Inc. in Springdale, Ark. Hayes, who’s served as chief executive officer since December 2016, lifts and rotates the block of meat, examining the cut with loving attention. “Ever seen a pork belly, Liz?” Hayes asks his director of executive communications, Liz Coffey, who’s touring the research and development centre for the first time. She has not.

“I think you should hold the pork belly,” Hayes says, his tone half-joking, half-reverent. He carries the slab with outstretched arms and lays it in Coffey’s hands, conducting what seems to be a spontaneous benediction.

Tyson produces 1 of every 5 pounds of meat consumed in the U.S. Hayes and his 122,000 employees annually process and sell $15 billion worth of beef, $11 billion of chicken, and $5 billion of pork. They also formulate, package, and sell $8 billion in prepared foods under a brand roster that includes Hillshire Farm, Jimmy Dean, Ball Park Franks, Original Philly Cheesesteak, and Aidells Sausage. Half of the products are distributed by retail grocers; most of the rest go to McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC, and other food-service outlets.