Tyson Foods’ financial woes continued in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to its earnings announcement today, which showed revenue down 2.8% from the same period in 2022 as well as a Q4 loss of $450 million — the third straight quarterly loss for the company, which has continued to be clobbered by inflated costs and oversupply combined with weakened demand for its products.
For fiscal 2023, Tyson posted a $648 million loss, a complete and utter reversal of fortunes in comparison to the 2022 fiscal year, when the company raked in a whopping $3.238 billion income. Sales volume for beef declined 3.2% for the year, with pork down 2.2%. Tyson’s chicken business unit posted a 3.4% sales volume increase for fiscal 2023, but all three of the aforementioned business units posted losses in Q4 and FY23.
Meanwhile, the company’s Prepared Foods business unit continued to stand out as a positive performer, posting $118 million in operating income in Q4, up from $111 million in the same period in 2022.
Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023 was reported at $13.35 billion, down from $13.74 billion in the same quarter in 2022. Tyson’s beef and pork business units saw sales volume decreases from the previous year’s Q4, with beef declining 6.7% and pork down 0.2%. The company’s sales did beat analyst expectations for the quarter, and the company claimed performance had improved in the second half of the 2023 fiscal year.
Even with that glimmer of positivity, Tyson Foods believes 2024 sales will come in “relatively flat” compared to fiscal 2023’s sales of $52.88 billion, well below analysts’ expectations of $57.37 billion. Meanwhile, the company neither confirmed nor denied the August reports of a potential sale of the company’s China poultry business, with CFO John R. Tyson quoted in reports as saying it was “business as usual” in China for the company.
“While economic headwinds persist, we are moving in the right direction and managing what we can control,” Donnie King, Tyson’s president and chief executive officer, told analysts. He also warned that the company’s closure of six poultry plants, announced at various points this year, was expected to dampen profits in the chicken business unit into the first quarter of fiscal 2024.
