Cargill Inc., the privately held agriculture conglomerate, will operate its beef, pork, and turkey operations under the name of Cargill Meat Solutions by early next year, Cargill officials said on [October 29]. \r\n\r\nThe combined unit will likely be the nation's second largest meat company behind Tyson Foods Corp. and will have about 33,000 employees worldwide, company officials said. \r\n\r\nThe new unit, based in Wichita, Kansas, will include the beef and pork operations of Excel Corp. and Cargill's turkey operations. \r\n\r\n""Bringing the companies together under this one go-to-market strategy enables us to maximize the resources that we have,"" Norman Bessac, Cargill's vice president of retail marketing, told Reuters in a telephone interview. \r\n\r\nCurrent brand names such as Honeysuckle White turkey, Excel beef and pork, and Sterling Silver meats will continue to be used. \r\n\r\n""Our Excel beef boxes and pork boxes will still carry that brand name,"" said Bessac. \r\n\r\nCargill has been informally using the new name for about nine months, but it will not become official until January or February 2004. \r\n\r\n""We are in the process of the legal portion of changing the name and that is a very detailed process that takes a matter of months,"" said Bessac. \r\n\r\nREUTERS
