Restructuring and Related Charges

12 Months Ended

Oct. 03, 2020

Restructuring and Related Activities [Abstract]

RESTRUCTURING AND RELATED CHARGESIn the first quarter of fiscal 2020, the Company approved a restructuring program (the “2020 Program”), which is expected to contribute to the Company’s overall strategy of financial fitness through the elimination of overhead and consolidation of certain enterprise functions. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, the Company extended the 2020 Program as it identified additional opportunities to eliminate overhead by optimizing organizational structures and other activities. We have recognized $60 million of cumulative pretax charges in fiscal 2020 associated with the 2020 Program consisting of severance and employee related costs. As part of the 2020 Program, we are eliminating positions across several areas and job levels, with eliminated positions originating from the corporate offices in Springdale, Arkansas and Chicago, Illinois, as well as certain production facility and supply chain administrative positions. The majority of the positions have already been or are expected to be eliminated by the end of fiscal 2021.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, our Board of Directors approved a multi-year restructuring program (the “2017 Program”), which contributed to the Company’s overall strategy of financial fitness through increased operational effectiveness and overhead reduction. The 2017 Program resulted in cumulative pretax charges of $267 million which consisted of $117 million incremental costs to implement new technology and accelerated depreciation of technology assets, $53 million severance and employee related costs, $72 million technology impairment, and $25 million for contract termination costs. The 2017 Program concluded in fiscal 2020.

We recognized restructuring and related charges of $77 million during fiscal 2020, consisting of $60 million of severance and team member related costs from the 2020 Program and $17 million of incremental costs to implement new technology from the 2017 Program. For fiscal 2020, we recorded $17 million in Cost of Sales from the 2020 Program, and we recorded $60 million in Selling, General and Administrative in our Consolidated Statements of Income, of which $43 million is related to the 2020 Program and $17 million is related to the 2017 Program.

For fiscal 2019 and 2018 the restructuring and related charges related to the 2017 Program consisted of $41 million and $59 million, respectively, of incremental costs to implement new technology and accelerated depreciation of technology assets. These costs were recorded in Selling, General and Administrative in our Consolidated Statements of Income.

The following table reflects the pretax impact of restructuring and related charges during fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018 and the charges to date, by reportable segment (in millions):



	2018		2019		2020		Total charges to date
Beef	$	4	$	1	$	9	$	22
Pork	1		1		3		8
Chicken	30		21		34		141
Prepared Foods	24		18		28		152
International/Other	—		—		3		4
Total restructuring and related charges, pretax	$	59	$	41	$	77	$	327

We do not anticipate future costs of the 2020 Program to be significant, however, as the Company continues to evaluate its business strategies and long-term growth targets, additional restructuring activities may occur.

Our restructuring liability was $37 million at October 3, 2020 and we had no restructuring liability at September 28, 2019. The change in the restructuring liability was due to additional charges of $77 million, net of $40 million primarily consisting of payments, during fiscal 2020.