People of Walmart unite to....

Prime Future 158: the newsletter for innovators in livestock, meat, and dairy

People of Walmart unite to…get in the meat business?

**Before the fun suckers get carried away, this is 100% theoretical and hypothetical and for the fun of the thought exercise only. Everybody be cool.

A meat industry buddy texted me recently, "I think that within 5 years, Walmart buys Tyson Foods." 🤯 Ok that’s a bold prediction that sounds worthy of exploring…

Why it (hypothetically) matters

Because it would shake up the protein landscape up, down and sideways. It could signal the start of taking vertical integration to an entirely new level.

Keep in mind that while the grocery wars in the US have heated up in recent years, the field is still fairly open, despite Walmart’s dominant position:

We all know retailers have been tip-toeing into processing in recent years in the US, from Costco building a poultry complex to supply their infamous $4.99 rotisserie chickens to Walmart building a fluid milk bottling plant and creating their own aligned beef supply chain.

So while it's not conceptually unprecedented, a move this large would be practically unprecedented in animal protein (in the US anyway).

Does this even make sense tho? Let’s consider the why’s and why not’s.