Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN) reported second-quarter financial results on Monday. The transcript from the company's second-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
Tyson Foods reported second quarter sales of $13.7 billion and an adjusted operating income of $497 million, indicating strategic success and momentum in their diversified protein-centric approach.
The company highlighted strong performance in its chicken segment with a 12.2% margin, driven by operational excellence and strategic customer partnerships, while genetics improvements are expected to further enhance future performance.
Prepared Foods saw a 4.8% sales increase with a 14% margin, gaining market share across several categories and benefiting from disciplined execution and innovation.
Beef segment faced challenges due to cattle cycle volatility but is expected to improve with footprint optimizations, while pork benefited from stable operations and balanced supply-demand dynamics.
The company raised its AOI guidance for the year, indicating confidence in continued robust demand for high-quality protein and operational improvements, despite external market pressures.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good morning and welcome to the Tyson Foods second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the Star key followed by zero. After today's presentation there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press Star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press Star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Cottle, vp, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
John Cottle (Vice President, Investor Relations)
Good morning and welcome to Tyson Foods second quarter fiscal year 2026 earnings conference call. On today's call, Tyson Foods President and Chief Executive Officer Donnie King, Chief Financial Officer Curt Callaway and Chief Operating Officer Devin Cole will provide prepared remarks. Following the prepared remarks, we will have a Q and A session. We have also provided a supplemental presentation which may be referenced on today's call and is available on Tyson's investor Relations website and via the link in our webcast. During today's call we will make forward looking statements regarding our expectations for the future. These forward looking statements made during the call are provided pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements include all comments reflecting our expectations, assumptions or beliefs about future events or performance that do not relate solely to historical periods. These forward looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions which may cause actual results to differ materially from our current projections. Please refer to our forward looking statement disclaimers on Slide 2 as well as our SEC filings for additional information concerning risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our projections. We assume no obligation to update any forward looking statements. As we mentioned last quarter segment results are presented on a segment operating income level and will be discussed on an adjusted basis. The primary difference between segment operating income and the method used in previous quarters is that we no longer allocate corporate expenses and amortization down to the segment level. We have recast previously reported quarterly results for the previous three fiscal years to reflect the new format. The segment change has no impact on consolidated historical US GAAP financial results. The recast financial information is accessible through the Events and Presentation section of the Company's investor relations website at ir.tyson.com Please note that references to earnings per share, segment operating income, operating income and operating margin in our remarks are on an adjusted basis for our fiscal periods unless otherwise noted. For reconciliations of these non GAAP measures to their corresponding GAAP measures Please refer to our earnings press release now. I will turn the call over to Donnie.
Donnie King (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you John and thanks to everyone joining us today. Overall, I'm pleased with our performance in the second quarter and we are raising our AOI guidance for the year to incorporate better performance year to date and continued confidence in the future of our business. I'd like to reinforce what we're building at Tyson, a diversified protein centric company positioned to capture growing demand for high quality protein. Animal protein remains top of mind for consumers and continues to gain momentum as a foundational part of a healthy diet. We are directly tied to and stand to benefit from this long term trend. We're focused on disciplined execution, a diversified multi protein portfolio and a balanced approach to capital allocation. Our scale and operating capabilities support cash generation across cycles enabling us to reinvest in the business, reduce leverage over time and return capital to shareholders consistent with our capital priorities. We remain committed to our long term strategy that creates value for customers, consumers and shareholders and will continue to be transparent with our investors along the way. Our shift to segment operating income is working as intended. This change empowers our business leaders to pursue volume growth and enhance their decision making based on a more direct view of the impacts of those decisions without corporate expenses and amortization which are more fixed in nature. As stated previously, we will continue to focus on reducing spending and maximizing efficiencies in our corporate functions and see more Runway with both initiatives. Let me tell you more about the quarter and Devin and Kurt will elaborate. Our second quarter results with $13.7 billion in sales and $497 million in adjusted operating income demonstrate that our strategy is working and is gaining momentum for both Tyson Foods and and our customers. We remain focused on continuous improvement and our team is energized by the opportunities ahead within chicken. We delivered another impressive quarter with $523 million in segment operating income at a 12.2% margin while navigating a more normalized commodity environment and typical Q2 seasonality. Strong execution on the controllables and more efficient marketing and promotional spend drove improved performance. Demand remains robust and our customer centric approach is working. Overall, year over year chicken volume was up 1.7% with retail and food service volumes growing nearly three times faster than total volume, reflecting momentum with our strategic customers. Importantly, these results were not driven by broad price increases with base pricing being slightly lower in the quarter, but rather we saw improvements in product mix and executed well operationally. Our end to end chicken business, including our chicken genetics business, is performing at a high level as we continue to deliver on our commitments, but we see ample opportunities for more improvement and growth. This is another example of how our chicken business is outperforming compared to a commodity chicken business. Moving to prepared foods segment operating income increased to $352 million even as commodity costs were higher year over year and our margin expanded to 14% reflecting strong demand share gains and disciplined execution. Sales grew 4.8% and volume grew 0.4%. Importantly, we continue to drive innovation and our brands are winning in the marketplace. In Q2, we gained share in volume, dollars and units. Our brand strength and focus on customer relationships, along with improved promotional efficiency and targeted MAP investments are delivering strong return on investment. Turning to beef, our segment results reflected the expected volatility in the cattle cycle. We successfully completed the previously announced strategic decision to optimize our manufacturing footprint. As a result, our second quarter results reflect only a portion of these operational adjustments, which are intended to improve utilization and strengthen our cost position. Importantly, we're staying focused on the levers we can control plant utilization, operating discipline, customer mix and execution, and we expect the benefits from these actions to build as we move through the year. Our outlook for the remainder of the year implies lower losses in the back half than the front half of the year. We continue to expect results below historical margin levels until cattle supplies normalize. Our pork segment performed well in a stable operating environment. All parts of the pork value chain, from hog supply pork production through retail and food service customers are in relative balance, allowing for more predictable and stable operating margins. Pork's relative value to beef is likely to benefit revenue for the balance of the year. Finally, our international segment continued its momentum and had another good quarter. As we've discussed, there is increasing demand for protein, which helps us drive strong revenue and cash flow even through economic ups and downs. We also benefit from being a producer of several different animal proteins as the timing of these cycles can vary. This trend insulates us from an otherwise fragile macro environment. Consumer confidence recently fell to a record low while inflation is still elevated more than 3%. At the same time, food service traffic rebounded in the second quarter, reinforcing the value of our diversified portfolio across retail and food service. We also benefit from our scale as we can provide lower unit costs, better service levels and maintain a healthy market share as we produce approximately 1 in 5 pounds of US chicken, beef and pork. Our long history and strong position in the marketplace solidifies our business for the long run. Protein continues to be a priority for consumers. As a leading animal protein provider, we are well positioned to meet this demand with products that deliver complete nutrition, including all nine essential amino acids. This, along with our shift to simple ingredients like those found in your pantry, is resonating and gaining traction with consumers. Together, these factors support stronger returns through disciplined investment, expanding profitability and consistent cash return to shareholders. Consumers are choosing protein and they're leaning into brands they trust for quality, taste and convenience. That plays directly to Tyson Foods strengths where we're winning in chicken and prepared foods, driving share, volume and margin. According to Nielsen data, total food and beverage category retail volume declined 1% with dollars up 1.7% over the 13 weeks ending in March. In contrast, our Tyson retail branded products, which includes our national and regional brands, grew by 2.3% in volume and 3.6% in dollars, outperforming the broader categories. We are also winning in digital across key retailers. Our digital dollar growth is materially stronger than in store performance, reflecting our ability to compete and win in omnichannel shopping. A few examples include Tyson branded value added chicken up 6.5%, Adele's dinner sausage increased by 9.7%, Hillshire lunch meat grew by 7.6% and Wright and Jimmy Dean bacon increased by 6.8%. Our Hillshire snack combos have also achieved double digit growth. In addition to the volume growth, all five categories grew dollars and share, reinforcing that we're winning with consumers while improving the quality of our growth. We're also performing well in food service with volume growth of 60 basis points. In terms of how we're driving innovation in our portfolio, we are using AI driven insights that sharpen how we identify emerging preferences and translate them into action. This enables us to bring on trend consumer led products into the marketplace. In practice, the integration of AI allows us to better connect what consumers are telling us with what shows up on shelves and menus. The capability is accelerating our innovation pipeline, improving decisions around distribution and pricing and strengthening the effectiveness of marketing and new customer acquisition. One example of this is in our Jimmy Dean brand. Using these insights, we're pioneering the next wave of higher protein breakfast. Our recent launch of a Jimmy Dean protein breakfast platform is off to a phenomenal start bringing higher protein versions of consumer traditional favorites like sandwiches and bowls that are showing stronger velocity and consumer takeaway. We're pairing those core items with innovation like Jimmy Dean high protein waffles that is the new and incremental to our prepared foods business. Early consumer responses have been very positive and it's bringing new and younger consumers to the brand. We have already begun to capture meaningful share at retail and we see a compelling Runway to build on this momentum. As we expand distribution and continue to innovate, our retail performance remains superior to that of our primary competitors in comparable business segments across the industry. Over the past 12 months, our prepared foods retail business has driven strong gains in volume, market share and profitability, outpacing our peers. However, our valuation continues to reflect discount relative to those peers. Investors who recognize the value today will benefit the most. This is why Tyson Foods is uniquely situated for success in today's environment. Demand for our products continues to grow and we're well positioned to capture this momentum. While some companies face challenges in generating demand, our share gains demonstrate both our strength and our expectation for further growth, an essential driver of our ongoing success. Our protein centric offerings combined with disciplined capital allocation enable us to capitalize on the opportunities that stem from strong performance and allow us to continue to thrive in the Marketplace. As a 90 year old American company, we provide trust and consistency across cycles. As you've heard us say many times, we're not standing still. Overall, these strengths allow us to deliver lasting value to our customers, consumers, team members and shareholders. Looking ahead, the opportunities before us are more promising than ever and I'm very confident in our portfolio and in our strategy. With that, I'll turn it over to Devin to take you through the segments in more detail.
Devin Cole (Chief Operating Officer)
Thank you Donnie and good morning. In the second quarter our team made progress toward our strategic objectives. We remain committed to holding ourselves accountable to our customers and consumers expectations. Now let's review our segment performance. Prepared Foods delivered a strong quarter with sales up 4.8% versus last year and volume up 0.4%. Segment operating income was 352 million, up 7% year over year and margin expanded to 14%. Reflecting continued progress on our multi year plan to enhance profitability, we gained share in volume, dollars and units in the quarter. Volume share was up 70 basis points and dollar share was up 50 basis points driven by strong protein demand and our disciplined execution with notable wins in bacon, lunch, meat, dinner, sausage and snacking. Volume growth reflects distribution gains, innovation and improved promotional efficiency supported by targeted MAP investments as consumers prioritize convenient, nutritious, high protein solutions. Looking ahead, we expect continued growth in segment operating income for the full year and remain well positioned in this business for the long term. In chicken we delivered segment operating income of 523 million and a margin of 12.2% despite a more normalized pricing environment and the typical seasonality we see in Q2, sales were up 3.5% year over year driven by favorable mix and volume growth. With total chicken volume up 1.7%, retail and food service volumes grew nearly three times faster than total volume, reflecting strong consumer demand and momentum with our strategic customers. Our diversified pricing strategies and improved mix kept average selling prices stable even as base pricing was down. That stability and our bottom line results were driven by a better product mix tied to strategic customer growth and stronger operational performance. Execution continued to improve across the controllables live performance yield, asset utilization, labor productivity and end to end supply chain discipline, supporting our sixth consecutive quarter of year over year volume and net sales growth and reinforcing the consistency and predictability of our chicken business. We also wanted to highlight the success we are seeing in our chicken genetics business which is competing at a high level again. This has been driven by the hard work of our genetics and live production teams. Alongside family farmers who are the best at what they do, this business is delivering meaningful sustainable results and creating real economic value for our customers. Combined with our shift toward a more value added product mix, our strategic customer alignment and our chicken genetics business differentiates Tyson from commodity chicken competitors and strengthens the value proposition we deliver to customers and shareholders. Growth was strong across retail and food service with nearly all sub channels delivering positive volume growth. We are strengthening service and quality with our strategic customers while continuing to expand our value added and premium portfolio to meet demand for convenient high quality options. Taken together, our strategic customer partnerships and disciplined execution are strengthening our chicken business model. As it becomes more consistent and predictable, we see more Runway ahead in our beef segment. We remain committed to disciplined execution and the actions within our control as we operate in a dynamic market environment. Beef sales increased slightly in the second quarter compared to the prior year. Our updated operational footprint is aligning with lower cattle availability and we are seeing the benefits of a higher capacity utilization. While the quarter included variability in industry conditions, we believe the harvesting plan adjustments better position us to compete effectively this year and over the long term with the right size production footprint. We expect to see increasing benefits from these actions in the coming quarters. Segment operating income declined compared to the prior year as higher cattle costs more than offset higher cutout values even as consumer demand remains strong. As we navigate the current cycle, we remain committed to operational excellence across our footprint and advancing additional initiatives that support stronger, more consistent long term results. In pork Segment operating income was 41 million with a margin of 2.6% driven by increased sales reflecting strong consumer demand. Hog supplies for our facilities were adequate during the quarter with reliable pork raw materials and a tighter, more integrated network. We're improving mix and lifting value in prepared foods by driving higher utilization across bellies, hams and trimmings. We will continue to push for higher utilization as it will improve access, quality and landed cost of our raw materials. Overall, I am encouraged by the incremental steps we have taken in the second quarter and I am confident that we have room to grow and improve across the operational and controllable aspects of our business in 2026 and beyond. We are focusing on our strategic customers and consumers while delivering value to our shareholders. With animal protein remaining a clear winner in the mind of consumers. The diversity of our portfolio enables us to make investments by partnering with our strategic customers to drive category expansion. With that, I will turn it over to Kurt to walk through our financial results and outlook in more detail.
Curt Callaway (Chief Financial Officer)
Thanks Devin. As a large cap value company, our multi protein, multi channel portfolio combined with our team's focus on operational execution and in a dynamic macro environment performed well compared to the overall food industry during the quarter. We see more Runway ahead and are confident in our performance for the remainder of the year. Now let's get into the financial details. For the second quarter, total company sales grew 4.4% to $13.7 billion compared to prior year, led by pork, with solid contributions from chicken and prepared foods reflecting the healthy demand environment for protein. Second quarter segment operating income was $751 million, slightly higher than the prior year. Corporate expenses and amortization were higher by $19 million compared to the same period last year. The increase was driven by a $15 million gain on a legal settlement last year as well as an $8 million loss this year related to our deferred compensation plan. Without these two items it would have been lower than a year ago. Total company adjusted operating income was $497 million, a margin of 3.6%. Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter were 87 cents, down 5% compared to last year. Turning to our financial position, our approach to capital allocation remains disciplined, deliberate and forward looking, supported by a strong balance sheet. We remain focused on maintaining financial strength, investing in the business and returning cash to shareholders. Free cash flow is critical to our strategy and we are encouraged by the cash flow trends in the first half of the year. Operating cash flow for the first half of the year was $829 million and capital expenditures were $397 million, resulting in free cash flow of $432 million. We ended the quarter with $3.7 billion in liquidity and net leverage of 2.2 times leverage. We reduced our gross debt by nearly $1 billion over the past 12 months including a reduction of nearly $300 million just this quarter. With our strong cash flow, we continued share repurchases with $92 million in the first half of the year and including dividends paid of $353 million. We have returned $445 million to shareholders year to date. Our balance sheet remains healthy as we prioritize financial strength, our investment grade credit rating and cash management to drive long term shareholder value. Let's take a moment to review our outlook for fiscal 2026. As a reminder, our accounting cycle results in a 53 week year in fiscal 26 as compared to a 52 week year in fiscal 25. The 2026 outlook is based on a comparative 52 week year. We still anticipate full year sales to be up 2 to 4% year over year. We have increased our range for total company adjusted operating income by $100 million at the midpoint with a current range of 2.2 to $2.4 billion. We anticipate interest expense of approximately $365 million, lower than previous guidance by $5 million and a tax rate of around 25%. We remain disciplined in managing cash with capex expected to be between 700 million and $1 billion and stronger free cash flow now in the range of 1.2 to $1.8 billion which is in line with our improved financial performance. Now to provide more color on our segment outlook in prepared foods, we still expect segment operating income to be 1.25 to $1.35 billion. We will continue to drive operational efficiencies and make strategic investments in the remainder of the year and remain on track with our plan. Following the strong year to date performance in chicken, we are increasing our expectations of segment operating income to a range of 1.9 to $2.05 billion, an increase of $200 million at the midpoint. We see continued evidence that chicken will be a preferred protein in the upcoming year and and we also expect our operational execution and performance to continue at a high level based on the continuation of tight cattle supply. We expect segment operating income in beef to be a loss between 500 and $350 million. This outlook reflects the current view of cattle availability and spread conditions partially offset by the footprint actions we implemented in the second quarter and the operating discipline we have underway. Beef remains strategically important to our multi protein portfolio and customer relationships and we are focused on long term competitiveness. Our outlook for Segment operating income for pork remains 250 to $300 million based on adequate supply of hogs, continued productivity and operational improvement, and robust consumer demand for pork. Our international segment performed in line with expectations and and our annual outlook remains 150 to 200 million dollars. Corporate expenses and amortization are anticipated to be 950 to 975 million dollars. No change from our previous guidance. Overall, I'm pleased with the second quarter's performance and remain confident that 2026 will be another strong year for the company. I will now turn the call back to Donnie.
Donnie King (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you, Kurt. In the second quarter we executed with discipline in a dynamic macro environment. As we enter the second half of the year, we're encouraged by our momentum and see opportunities to raise our performance. Ultimately, we provide high quality protein that tastes good, that is nutritious, affordable and convenient. This core theme remains central to our strategy and to our long term success and value creation. Our year to date performance reflects the focus and execution of our team members and we intend to build on this momentum throughout the remainder of fiscal 2026. With that, I'll turn the call back to John to begin the Q and A session. Thank you Donnie.
OPERATOR
We will now open the line for questions. Please note that our cautions regarding forward looking statements and non GAAP measures apply to both our prepared remarks and the following Q and A operator. Please provide the Q and A instructions. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press Star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press Star then two. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow up. If you have further questions, you may re enter the question queue at this time. We will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question today comes from Ben Thur with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Ben Thur (Equity Analyst)
Good morning Donnie, Devin, and Curt. First of all congrats on very strong results and a strong first half. So particularly on chicken. Can you maybe elaborate how sustainable the performance here is? What role genetics played in most recent months and if you've had any one time gains that we should be aware of?
Donnie King (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you. That would be my first question. Good morning Ben and thank you for the question. So let me start off with in this quarter and we did what we said we would do. We grew net sales, expanded margins in chicken and prepared foods and raised our full year guidance with respect to chicken. In particular, if I look in our Q2 great performance in Q2 we had, we beat the same or the prior year quarter, $112 million. And that really was in, I would say it's in three buckets which are really important to our overall strategy. Operational excellence is critical in our model. Our model focuses on mix and it's specifically branded and value added, fresh and frozen, and then strategic customer partnerships. And I'll speak today a little more about our genetics business. But in terms of overall chicken performance, our message is consistency. We expect 2H26 to look much like the first half. We raised our chicken guidance $200 million at the midpoint to 1.9 to 2.05 billion. I would tell you that momentum is real. We're a better company today than we have been. We're not relying on further commodity tailwinds. This is execution, not a commodity driven story. Our strategic customer demand plus our operational momentum gives us real conviction. We expect this fiscal year to land in line with better than 2025. And I would tell you that we're off to a great start. And if I look at, and I'll use this as a proxy, if I could, if I look at the base Q2 over Q2 really is in three buckets of equal, comparable proportion. It's our commercial model, meaning our mix. It means our partnerships with our customers, our strategic customers. It is our genetics business. Our genetics business is showing up here. And when I speak to that at this point, and I'll go in greater detail here in just a moment, that's about a third of the differential and their operations performance. This is end to end. This is not just inside the four walls of the plant. This is in live production. Inside plants from end to end is where the performance is. You know, as I was looking at this, you know, if I look at how commodity markets changed in the quarter, commodity markets were off pretty substantially. And so we were able to offset those commodity markets based on our pricing models and so forth. In terms of the genetics business. Well, let me answer this question first. You said are there any one time issues that we should be aware of that drove this performance? My short answer is no, that you're seeing our model work as it is designed. You know, I normally would not comment on a competitor's business, but there have been a number of things written relative to a fire at Cook Foods. Frankly, I know very little about the fire, but there's been a lot of speculation that our performance was driven by picking up volume from the Cook Foods fire. In our Q2, there is zero volume associated with Cook Foods fire. And if I look at the back half of the year, there could be some incremental volume associated associated with that because we have the capacity, but I would consider it nascent in terms of, of, you know, our overall volume and percentage of our branded value added mix. Let me pause and let you redirect
Ben Thur (Equity Analyst)
me just the genetics piece. You said you were going to give us a little more detail.
Donnie King (President and Chief Executive Officer)
You promised. Oh, I'm sorry, you're right, you're right. Forgive me. You know, our genetics business sits inside our chicken business. It's not a separate segment. It's been there a long time. It's absolutely a strategic asset for us. Our next generation genetics line is delivering superior live performance and real customer value. But this improvement also requires great execution and we're doing that as well. We had a strong quarter, but it wasn't chicken or genetics. Wasn't the whole story a little about our genetics business in terms of where it's been, where it is now? We've had a multi year journey relative to our genetics business where we didn't perform. We did not have genetics for a large bird. What I am telling you now and what you can look for in the future, I think this change is structural. Our breed that we've had in the past targeted toward a mid sized small size bird had performed well historically. It's actually performing better today than it did in the past. Our new breed is in very early stages. We've been testing and working on this breed, you know, let's call it five years. And it takes a long time for it to flow through the pyramid, but it's more targeted toward, toward a bigger bird, large bird deboning that we participate in, not to the extent of others, but it's designed for that. And so what you're seeing out of these numbers in genetics is associated almost exclusively with the impact to the actual genetics company. You're not seeing the impact yet as it rolls through the broilers or the meat birds that we, that we produce. We're very early in that and I'd say low mid single digits. But we've tested this thing for a long time now. And so what do you get with that? You get better, you get better feed efficiency, you get better egg production, you get better livability and hatch performance and you also get incremental breast meat to live on every animal. So it's a very, it's a very good asset for us. It performs well. And you know, we've had a number of, a number of quarters over the Last, let's call it the last four or five years. Where, you know, we've been okay there, we haven't had a big bird. We now are in a position that we have rectified that. And there's still more upside to come as this new genetics line rolls through our domestic poultry business with improved yields, improved costs and so forth. Well, that was very complete, Donny. Thank you very much.
Ben Thur (Equity Analyst)
And given the time, I'll pass it on to Javiers. Thank you very much.
OPERATOR
The next question comes from Peter Galbo with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Peter Galbo (Equity Analyst)
Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks. Thanks for the questions. Maybe if I. Donny, just to put a finer point on the genetics piece, I mean, again, it's not a business that we often hear a lot about. Maybe you can just kind of reorient us, you know, where this business is contributing from an EBIT standpoint in the chicken segment, even if it's in percentage terms today, you know, versus where maybe it was five years ago. And maybe it's as simple as it went from losing money to making money. But just if you can help us kind of dimensionalize it, I think it would be very helpful for people as they try to understand it a little bit better.
Donnie King (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Sure. Thanks, Pete. If I go back and look and remember this genetics business, it is when you make adjustments, you make selections. It is a multi year event. And we've been doing those changes, making those adjustments and trying to not trying, but actually delivering a product that I got to tell you, we're all very excited about. Now, across this timeline, multi year timeline, there have been periods where it's been, okay, there have been periods where we actually got to a loss in the genetics business, which sits inside our domestic poultry business. We're now seeing the genetics business actually contribute as those genetics are sold today to Tyson. And what we haven't seen yet, Pete, is the impact of those genetics flowing through the broiler operations. And the upside from that is pretty meaningful, really significant in terms of what the impact it will have on not only our domestic chicken business, but the segment in total. So we're very excited about that. We haven't talked about that a lot. It's been early. If I look at, and I quoted this number earlier on a prior question, as I look at the bridge on that, you know, about a third of our improvement in the quarter is a result. Quarter over quarter is a result of just our genetics business. And I would tell you, as you think about how to make that math work, you also have to consider in this bridge the downside to commodity markets. And so it is a fairly significant amount of money that is already contributing, and it will contribute more in the future. But I would tell you that our genetics business, you'd have to go back a number of years to see it perform at this level. And I think this, where we are today, will outperform anything we've ever done in our history. But it's. It's a structural advantage to our. To our business.
Peter Galbo (Equity Analyst)
Got it. Okay. No, that's very clear. Kurt. I was hoping maybe to pivot to the prepared foods business. There's been some discussion with your peers, but even broader peers in packaged food just about inflation as it relates to items like not only freight, but mostly around packaging. So just curious, kind of how you see the balance of the year, particularly in prepared and around some of the input cost dynamics, both from a raw material and a packaging standpoint. Thanks very much, guys.
Curt Callaway (Chief Financial Officer)
Sure. Let me answer that one as well. Strong execution and disciplined pricing. As we think about offsetting inflation, that's a primary mitigation lever that we have. We're seeing inflation pressures across multiple input categories. On feed, for example, grains for us were a tailwind in the first half of the year. It could be a little higher in the second half. I would tell you that's considered in our forecast. We've had strong execution in our live performance area. Gains have gained. The gains in our live performance area have offset any kind of feed pressure that we've seen. With respect to freight, higher freight and diesel costs are up versus the prior year. But for us, freight is the service. Ultimately, it's passed through to customers. We do not subsidize this cost. Commodity raw materials and think pork, beef, turkey. Inputs into our prepared foods are higher. For example, just to give you a number, prepared foods commodity costs were up $50 million in the Q2 and year to date, $150 million. Our pricing continues to catch up with those raw materials, but in terms of packaging, resin and packaging input costs or higher, we're managing through that with value engineering and supplier progress.
OPERATOR
Thanks very much. I'll pass it on. Thanks. The next question comes from Leah Jordan with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Leah Jordan
Thank you. Good morning and congrats on a great quarter. And thanks for all the color so far today. Just sticking with prepared foods here. I mean, you continue to gain market share across a number of the categories you operate in. Just seeming to provide more color on why you think that is. You know what you're doing differently than the peers out there. And then what are you seeing across the competitive landscape right now?
Donnie King (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Sure. Leo, this is Donnie. Let me answer that one. In terms of that, you know, we had a clean sweep in the quarter as it relates to share on volume units and dollars growing across all three measures simultaneously. But, but in terms of our prepared foods, you know, we've had, you know, strong demand and disciplined execution are driving the performance. You could almost full stop right there. And we've talked a lot about our multi year strategy, that it's working and that our business is growing. You know, we continue to control the controllables and think pricing, promotion, distribution, service. Our volume was up 0.4% in Q2 and sales were up 4.8%. That's back to back quarters of volume growth. We outperformed the total category for the third consecutive quarter. We had share gains in lunch meat, bacon snacking and smoked sausage. And in terms of, you know, how we think about that going forward, I think you should think about our brands. You should think about protein. You should think about the fact that we have a pipeline of healthy, nutritious products that meet consumer demand in existing and adjacent categories. We have the assets in place that will provide meaningful improvement in terms and we will provide meaningful improvement in operational excellence and have done so over the last eight quarters. You know, I would also point out, you know, we're the best performing in package goods. I would also point out that I think we're undervalued. You know, if you think about us trading at 8 times relative to all of the CPG peers out there. Let's think over recent years and the performance that has occurred, they've come to us, we haven't moved to them. I don't think we have understood the value yet. I've done a poor job of communicating the value of our prepared foods in our portfolio and the absolute jewel that it is. And so we're outperforming it's execution. We do what we say we're going to do. We have the brands and the value added and the mix. And like I said in chicken, these relationships with these strategic customers and those partnerships are winning every day for us. So I'll leave it at that and see if you want to redirect.
Leah Jordan
No, that, that's very helpful color and the results speak for themselves for sure. Maybe just switching over to pork here. You talked about a balanced market supporting that. But any more color on the confidence within that reiterated guidance range? I guess what gets you to the upper end here? It looks like you need a pretty notable acceleration or Increase in the back half.
Devin Cole (Chief Operating Officer)
Yeah, good morning, this is Devin. Yeah, it's a good point. Listen, I think a couple things to note maybe would help as you think about the rest of the year. As you mentioned, we did reaffirm our guidance of 250 to 300 million. And listen, we're going to have yet another very good year in our pork business as we think about that business. You know, we continue to increase the use of the raw material to support the growing prepared food side of our business that Donnie mentioned. And that's one of the most important facets of this for us. You know, if you think about too that the consumer demand is good relative to our fresh pork and tray pack business, it still is very much and increasingly so relative value versus beef. And so we are seeing, you know, strong demand across both food service and in retail for those products. And you know, if you think about maybe going back from Q1 to Q2, you know, seasonality is influenced there. Certainly Q1's always got a stronger kill schedule. We benefit from, you know, in increased hog placements post the holiday, some favorable pricing. And then as you get into Q2, we just have a normal ebbs ebb of our of our cycle. I would point out a few things that maybe is helpful as you think about Q2 relative to where we go from here. We did, you know, have some influence for some higher hog cost year over year and then we just simply had a few discrete drivers of higher operating expenses that occurred in the quarter that we don't foresee, you know, moving ahead. We had some overstaffing as we did some contingency planning as immigration status worked its way through. We got clarification on what that looked like. We had some relocating of team members that we were able thankfully to move from our Lexington closure into some of our port assets. We had a handful of maintenance and repair items and then as you've heard, you know, we had some weather related operational impacts. But again those are in the quarter as we look out, you know, for the remainder of the year. Very optimistic about this business in general.
Leah Jordan
Thank you, that's very helpful.
OPERATOR
The next question comes from Tom Palmer with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Tom Palmer (Equity Analyst)
Good morning. Thanks for the questions. Maybe to kick off just an update on the beef plant closure and kind of your views on how that ultimately impacts profitability for this year given both the higher utilization rates. But also I think there's some costs maybe to consider just in terms of moving product a bit farther. Thanks.
Devin Cole (Chief Operating Officer)
Yeah, good morning and thank you for that. Yeah, you know, you're right. We did have, you know, really what we considered the second quarter was really a transitional quarter for us as we moved into this new harvest footprint. You know, and also Q2, historically a our most volatile quarter relative to that particular business. You know, listen, I'm encouraged by, you know, by the beef business moving forward. There's no, no shying away from the fact that we are still in a beef cycle and the availability cattle are the main issue. But what I see happening with that team is we put them in a position to really win. And I'm seeing greater execution not only with our capacity utilization, but across all, across all of the, you know, the key metrics in the end to end operational piece of that business. Also seeing, you know, good consumer demand. You know, we are at a place here going into the back half of the year where cutout is, you know, even higher than it was this time last year. So it appears that, you know, the consumers as they kind of trade across that spectrum, maybe perhaps coming out of food service into retail and across the retail category, it looks like, you know, we're going to have a very good drilling season. So that appears to be, you know, a real positive for us. But again, the benefits that we will see relative to the decisive decisions that we made, they'll really move into the second half. We did change our, change our forecast for the year, but, you know, the reality is even that implies quite a bit of optimism in our ability to, to work through available cattle and make sure that we're operating at the, at the highest possible execution with regard to yield, labor efficiency, you know, capacity utilization, as mentioned, and most importantly, mix. But yeah, it is pointing to a better second half, that's for sure.
Tom Palmer (Equity Analyst)
Okay, thank you for that. And I did want to follow up just on the, on the pork environment. In your response to Leah's question, you noted the higher hog costs in the quarter. I know there are seasonal factors as we move through this year, but we have heard about increased disease in the, in the herd over the winter. The farrowing numbers and intentions have been pretty light. What's your view of the pork supply situation as we move through the back half of the year half of this year? And to what extent is that maybe a consideration as we move either kind of into the back half of the fiscal year, maybe even into the early parts of 2027 fiscal. Thanks.
Devin Cole (Chief Operating Officer)
Yeah, you know, it's a good point. And you know, we see some of the same reports that you referenced with higher Industry disease, both with PRRs and PEDV you know, unfortunately, that's not uncommon this time of year. The good news I can tell you relative to how we're thinking about this business is that, you know, first of all, our supply outlook looks very stable and we have not had any interruptions relative to disease. And I would point to the great execution of biosecurity in our supply chain and the hard work there. You know, I think, you know, light farrowing is a watch item. It's definitely not a red flag for us at this point, but, you know, I think it's something that we will continue to watch. But as we look at our forecast relative to our kill schedules and the hogs that we have committed in our supply chain, we don't see anything relative to us. It will be concerning in the back half.
Tom Palmer (Equity Analyst)
Good to hear. Thanks for the details.
OPERATOR
The next question comes from Andrew Streslik with bmo. Please go ahead.
Andrew Streslik (Equity Analyst)
Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. First one, a clarification. Donnie, you closed your prepared remarks by saying you were encouraged by the momentum in the business and that you see opportunities to raise the performance. So do you mean that there's more room for earnings upside or can you just clarify exactly what you meant by that?
Donnie King (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Well, in terms of all the business, there's room for upside. In terms of performance, just think of a continuous improvement. Think about operational excellence end to end. So you. Yeah, we've made a lot of progress. We are, I think, a fundamentally different company today than we were, let's say even a year ago, but much improved. And so all of that in my mind says that yes, there's upside as it relates to margins. And more importantly, I believe that the changes and the execution are structural in nature. We've right sized all of our footprints. You know, we're executing with excellence. We are aligned with strategic customers. We can, we've got, you know, three of the top 10 brands in protein and you know, and we're servicing our customers on time, in time and our innovation to support growth. One thing that we're seeing that just as a proof point is if you look at even in our prepared foods, our consumers, we index more to older consumers. We're now starting and beginning to index with younger consumers with some of the protein offerings and high protein offerings, I guess I should say. So we're excited about that and see a whole new opportunity in a consumer bank. Now I would also tell you, Andrew, that we're performing well, but we still have capacity in our footprint across poultry and prepared to really continue to grow that business without Significant capital outlay. Certainly, you know, all that is demand driven for us and we look forward to doing that. And, and we believe our volumes across poultry prepared and then in beef and pork as well. You know, we'll continue to see growth there. So we're excited about what we've got. We're executing very well. We do what we say we're going to do. And so I think all of that implies, you know, a structurally different, you know, outcome from a P and L perspective. And so I'm excited about that.
Andrew Streslik (Equity Analyst)
Okay, that's helpful and maybe leads to my other question and I hope it's not redundant really. But you know, you talked about there being a lot more that you can realize in terms of benefits on the chicken side. Even with this nice step up in performance on prepared momentum appears to be gaining. You talked about the benefits of plan optimization and beef building through the year. So I guess the question is when you look at the total company guidance for this year, what do you think it reflects in terms of how far along you are on this internal improvement journey? It seems like things will only should get better from here, you know, beyond 26, not putting a date on it, but feels like there's a lot more room to go. So I guess we're just curious to get your thoughts on that. Thanks.
Donnie King (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Sure. And you know, I look at it and you know, if you look at for example, you know, the mix of products, you know, we had volume growth in chicken, I think it's 1.7%. If you look at the branded value added, you know, it grew over three times that. That's right where we want to be. So that's what we've been working on for, for some time. There's also a number of things that we're doing relative to simple ingredients inside that product, the quality of those products, the consumer's experience with those products and you know, if you look at what we've done from a technology standpoint and where the market is going with from a digital perspective, you know, we're outpacing, you know, in store sales with digital by significant amount. And so there's where a lot of growth is. And so a lot of the tools and technology that we put in place helps us connect, get first party data and be able to communicate directly and as I referenced earlier with those younger consumers in particular. And so all of that feels really good. If I look at, you know, chicken, it's we've had six straight quarters of both volume and net sales growth. That's a trend to Me, that is structurally different. Prepared foods, two consecutive quarters of volume, third consecutive quarter of having volume growth, unit growth and share, or excuse me, dollar growth with that. So, you know, if I look across and back out a little bit, if I look at chicken, prepared foods, pork in our international business, all of those are performing very, very well. Our beef business is performing well on the controllables. I would argue that perhaps as good as it perhaps maybe ever has been, certainly in some time, but we're in the depths of this cycle that, you know, this 75 year low cattle cycle, we can't do anything about that. I don't, I don't, I stay awake and have stayed awake a lot of nights trying to figure out the answer to that. I don't have the answer to that. What I do have the answer for is us controlling what we can control. And that's what we're doing. And so, you know, I feel pretty good across the spectrum about our performance and more importantly the stickiness of that, the where we are as an organization in our level of execution.
Andrew Streslik (Equity Analyst)
Great, thank you very much.
OPERATOR
The next question comes from Heather Jones with Heather Jones Research. Please go ahead.
Heather Jones (Research Analyst)
Good morning. Congratulations on the quarter and thank you for the question. Both of my questions are on chicken. And first question, I was wondering, do you think it's a fair assertion that given the magnitude of your capacity and the value added side and your vertical integration, is it fair to think that Tyson is best positioned from a cost perspective and as a follow on to that, the genetics as it shows up in your meat birds, should we expect that to significantly increase that competitive advantage?
Donnie King (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Great question. In terms of our chicken business, what my focus has been is to move the conversation about our chicken business from a commodity chicken company to a truly branded value added chicken company. I think our chicken business is different and we have proven how it is different over time relative to our commodity peers. Now I would hurry on and say what I said earlier. I don't think we get rewarded for that. You know, we're sitting here chicken trading at seven and a half times that genetics business, for example, that I listed earlier, sitting inside chicken, you know, genetics Companies trade at 20, 25%. 20, 25 times. And so, you know, that's pretty significant. I did the math on that. That's worth about 9, 10 bucks a share to Tyson. So I think our genetics business, it has always been a point of difference. We've had some struggles with it based on not having a big bird genetics package and so but we've got that now. Now, in terms of I'll just fold in the genetics question in with this. You know, I feel good about where that is. But the sales of those genetics is what you're seeing that is different than what you've seen in recent quarters. But if I go back to, I don't know, 2015 or something like that, the genetics business would have had a higher contribution than perhaps what you've seen over the last four or five years. So I feel good about where that is and more importantly where it's going now, what is yet to come that is also upside is for our domestic chicken business is going to be when those genetics that we're placing at scale now throughout this Tyson enterprise, you know, there's significant segment operating income that will come from that and perhaps maybe larger than most would even consider. But you know, we feel good about that. And, but even in genetics business, what gives me the most confidence and conviction here is that we are taking those very same genetics and we are executing with excellence across our genetics business as well as our domestic and live operations of our poultry business. And that working together along and you couple that with family farmers that do an outstanding job for us. I feel good about that. I feel good about where we're going.
Heather Jones (Research Analyst)
Okay, thank you for that. And then thinking about the second half and just thinking about your guidance and the range. It applies in chicken specifically. And last year Q4 was particularly strong and I think the growing conditions were ideal, et cetera. But this year, as you noted, you have a lot of tailwinds. So is there a scenario where it would be reasonable to think we could have year on year growth in Q4 just given the factors you've outlined or just how should we think about the cadence of the back half for chickens specifically?
Donnie King (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you. Sure. Thanks. Thank you. Heather. Short answer is we think the back half will be as good as or better than the first half. We're trending on the upper end. Remember, we just raised guidance $200 million at midpoint. We're trending toward the upper end of that. So as I think about Q3 and Q4, I feel good about that. Again, you know, in terms of you think about the drivers, I'll restate those. Operational excellence, our mix of value added branded products, our strategic customer partnerships and our genetics business that will continue to flow through and provide that we're not factoring in tailwinds from the market. I said earlier on a question that there were some tailwinds in the first half, but they those look to be a little more challenging in the back half, but I feel good about our ability to execute and offset those things and continue to deliver. So I think I answered all those questions.
Curt Callaway (Chief Financial Officer)
Heather, just add, obviously, in the guidance range that we provided for chicken, by taking it up, you know, got us to about a, you know, could be a 52, 48% front half, back half, or 48, 52. So it's a balanced year. Obviously, we don't give quarterly guidance, but
Heather Jones (Research Analyst)
Okay. Thank you so much.
OPERATOR
This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Donnie King for any closing remarks.
Donnie King (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you for your time and continued interest in Tyson Foods. We look forward to sharing our progress with you next quarter.
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