Tyson Foods certainly isn`t chicken about the luncheon-meat business.
Top dog in fresh chicken-Tyson outsells the next two competitors combined-the Springdale, Ark., firm is bidding to become a significant player in the $2.7 billion-a-year lunch meat category.
Trouble is, Tyson is going head-to-head with Oscar Mayer Foods` tandem of its own brand, which owns a category-leading 27 percent market share, and sister label Louis Rich, which accounts for another 10 percent-plus, in second place. There are a flock of other established brands nationally and regionally, including ConAgra`s Butterball.
”We think we have the potential for success (in this business),” says a source at Tyson, a firm with overall sales of $4 billion.
A Johnny-come-lately in lunch meats, Tyson entered the category by picking up a regional brand with its 1989 purchase of Holly Farms. It now is introducing a line of fully cooked premium chicken-breast slices in five varieties.
This new line will boost to 14 the number of items in the Tyson line, which includes a Weaver brand acquired in that 1989 buyout. Weaver has distribution here, but the Tyson name likely will replace it eventually.
Tyson has less than a 1 percent share of lunch meat, and if the firm can grab 5 percent or more, said to be a goal, it would rank as a stellar achievement. The firm`s presence and market share ought to benefit from expanded distribution beyond the 38 percent of the country now covered. Tyson is aiming to become a national marketer by year`s end.
Despite the new launch, Tyson and its competition are being challenged by what has been a soft lunch meat market since mid-1991. Industry sales have been flat, if not on a slight decline. Deli business in supermarkets has hurt prepackaged luncheon meat sales.
Nevertheless, Tyson is synonymous with chicken; the firm hopes to leverage the name much the way Louis Rich has done with turkey lunch meats.
Oscar Mayer last year withdrew from several test markets its Chicken Originals, a processed chicken line that included chicken bologna and chicken hot dogs. When and whether Oscar Mayer plans to re-enter the category isn`t known, though the firm previously has indicated it intends to return. Tyson`s new launch may nudge Mayer back into the battle.
– Ty Ballou, vice president-marketing at Chicago-based Ragold Inc., manufacturer-importer of Velamints, next week joins D.L. Clark Co. in Pittsburgh as VP-marketing and sales. Clark, a former Leaf Inc. property recently acquired by private investors, sells such brands as the Clark candy bar and Slo Poke, a caramel sucker.
– Women`s Advertising Club of Chicago Wednesday announces its 1992 Adwoman of the Year in what appears to be a tossup. We`ll guess the choice is Maureen Moore, senior VP-creative director at Cramer-Krasselt Chicago.
On the move: Steve Pliska named director of marketing for Guest Quarters Suite Hotel in Chicago. . . . Keith Everett appointed director of marketing, and Donn Green named manager of marketing services at Zebra Technologies Corp., a Vernon Hills manufacturer of bar-code labeling systems. … Michelle Mueckenhoff appointed manufacturer relations coordinator at the Dairy Council of Wisconsin, a Westmont, Ill.-based organization.
Strictly Personal: Birthday greetings to Jim Snediker, William E. Reinberger, Mort Westman and Lowell Wallace.
Focus Media, the North Hollywood, Calif.-based media-buying service, its hands on a big slug of media-buying responsibility from client Sears Merchandise Group, is said to be scouting the Chicago market to set up a service office. Presumably, Focus Media, which pried away spot TV and radio, TV syndication and cable TV from Ogilvy & Mather, will hire a Chicago person to head it.
– Newell Co.`s Counselor Co. division, one of the top two players in the consumer-scale market with its Counselor and Borg brands, won`t have a new parent after all. Freeport-based Newell had retained L.F. Rothschild & Co. in New York to determine outside interest in acquiring Counselor, which only five years ago picked up the Borg brand from West Bend Co. Newell, itself very active on the acquisition front, apparently had a change of mind about Counselor, though observers say the company didn`t fetch the price it wanted. As previously reported here, Counselor employees had been told that the marginally profitable scale operation was put on the block because the parent firm wanted to focus on other businesses. William Thiele, president of Counselor, reports that the firm`s 1991 dollar sales approximated the year-earlier figure, but that unit volume declined to 2.4 million from 2.8 million in 1990. Counselor`s chief competitor, Health o Meter Inc., a Chicago- based firm, may have the edge in annual volume; both are believed to have unit market shares in the 25 to 35 percent range.
McDonald`s ”Indiana Jones” video promotion at year`s end sold ”in the millions,” the fast-service chain reports, giving a boost to the 8 million or 10 million copies previously sold by Paramount. Now, McDonald`s is said to be considering a promotion of 110-mm cameras-a Concord brand retailing for $8-in the Canadian market.
On Tap: Merchandising Executives Club of Chicago`s Jan. 30 ”President`s Night” dinner at the Marriott O`Hare features as speakers Charles V. McCarthy, president of Campbell Soup Co.`s Campbell Sales Co. unit; Glenn Alexander, senior VP of Cotter & Co., the wholesaler-distributor of the True Value chain; and Orion Samuelson, VP and director of farm services for WGN Radio and Tribune Radio Networks. For information, contact James C. Alexander, 312-332-1601.
Appointment: Bodine Electric Co. to Sullivan Communications Group in Mt. Prospect for marketing communications, including advertising.
