August 3, 2020
(Reuters) – Tyson Foods Inc <TSN.N> on Monday named Dean Banks, a former project lead at Google-parent Alphabet Inc’s <GOOGL.O> experimental research division, as its next chief executive officer, as the company navigates unprecedented production challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shares of the biggest U.S. meat processor rose 2% in premarket trading.
Before joining Tyson as a director in 2017, Banks was a former project lead at Alphabet’s ‘X’ division, a research and development unit that acts as a nursery for the technology giant’s many offshoot projects.
Banks will take over from current CEO Noel White in October and White will assume the role of executive vice chairman.
Coronavirus outbreaks at the company’s meatpacking plants slowed production in the quarter to June and although slaughterhouses have reopened, widespread worker absenteeism over fears of getting sick still poses a challenge to an industry struggling to restore normal meat output.
Tyson’s sales fell to $10.02 billion from $10.89 billion, in the third quarter ended June 27. Analysts had expected revenue of $10.56 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Excluding items, the company earned $1.40 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of 94 cents per share.
(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)
