SWOT Analysis - Maple Leaf Foods vs. Tyson Foods

                                          Made Available within the City of Toronto archives, Series 1057, Item 766

Maple Leaf is not alone in it's meat-processing business. It's largest competitor and overall the worlds largest processing and marketing company is Tyson Foods, a multinational corporation based in the USA that earns over 30 billion dollars in revenues annually. To add to this mix, Tyson owns Hillshire Brands and Pinnacle Foods, the only other two companies that can be considered competitors to Maple Leaf Foods. This puts this industry at an interesting perspective, with Maple Leaf being an independent company while Tyson acts as a multitude of companies under one so-called flag.

Let's examine Maple Leaf's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within this market compared to Tyson Foods.

Strengths (Advantages)

• Household name thanks to over a century of history in Canada.
• Diverse product list without resorting to buying out every competitor.
• Price-range scales from cheaper brands to products that attempt quality over quantity, thus satisfying multiple needs.

Weaknesses (Disadvantages)

• Canada is a much smaller market than the USA.
• With the above in mind, one may think the company is too disorganized to not have spread further within a century, or has other inherent issues.

Opportunities (Potential Advantages)

• The company is currently in the process of restructuring, giving room for international expansion, downsizing of liabilities, potential investments. With the right moves they could easily impress stockholders.
• Despite not being a multinational company they own enough brands to guarantee safety in terms of investments, meaning that the future market is open-ended in terms of decisions.
• Maple Leaf Foods is not fully privatized, which can be a last-resort option or something with more thought put into it. 

Threats (Potential Disadvantages)

• Tyson Foods continues to purchase every competitor, increasing their stock portfolio as well as inventory, which would require Maple Leaf Foods to come out with entirely new products to put up a challenge.
• Michael McCain, owner of Maple Leaf, wouldn't be out of his mind to sell the company too. It would be positive if utilized but ultimately would be a major loss in terms of market competition.
• There have been recalls due to various contamination's, straining their image. The results of how much damage these caused has yet to be fully foreseen.

Till next time, I'm Patryk. Stay classy, San Diego.

- Patryk Szuszkiewicz