Original Tyson HQ-----------------------Current Tyson HQ

In 1931, John Tyson moved to Springdale, Arkansas, with his wife and one-year-old son, Don. He made a living hauling hay, fruit, and chickens for local growers. In 1936, John pioneered the first long-haul trip from Arkansas to the more lucrative Chicago poultry markets. Within a year, he had extended his hauls to Cincinnati, Detroit, Cleveland, Memphis, and Houston. When shortages of baby chicks threatened his trucking business, John bought a hatchery. When he couldn’t get the feed he needed, he started a commercial feed business, grinding and mixing his own. In 1947,Tyson Feed and Hatchery was incorporated.

By 1952, 19 other companies in the Springdale area had jumped on the poultry bandwagon. Don Tyson left his agricultural studies at the University of Arkansas to join his father’s battle against a vulnerable and fluctuating market. The Company struggled through hard times with poultry disease and difficult markets. But in 1957, Tyson built its first processing plant on the north side of Springdale. Then in 1961 Tyson entered the commercial egg business. So the circle was complete with Tyson by then having operations from eggs through processing.

In 1966 Don Tyson was named President of the company. Then in 1967 Tyson lost its founder when John and Helen Tyson were killed in a car/train accident in Springdale. In 1971 the name was changed to Tyson Foods, as it is to this day.

Tyson has continued to grow and expand beyond poultry, becoming active in hog production, flour and corn tortillas, seafood, pasta and beef. But it also has continued to expand its poultry business though acquisitions. The Company now has operating partnerships with companies in India, China and South America. Tyson is also in a partnership to produce diesel fuel from chicken processing waste.

In 2009, Tyson donated over 8 million pounds of chicken, beef and pork to more than 40 food banks in 28 states. Since 2000,Tyson has donated over 71 million pounds of food, the equivalent of over 260 million individual meals.

Tyson has come a long way since 1936 when John Tyson made his first delivery of 500 Arkansas chickens to Chicago with a profit of $235.

Bibliography:
Tyson Foods Website: http://www.tyson.com/Corporate/AboutTyson/History/

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