Hormel Foods Corporation (HRL)
Meat and packaged food plants, mostly U.S. Read October 19, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending October 26, 2025, filed December 5, 2025. Ranked 36 of the 39 Consumer Defensive companies read so far, by the share within reach now.
Within reach now
10%
End of 2028
16%
Employees, annual report
20,000
Leading staffing pattern
Animal Slaughtering and Processing
Share of the working time within reach, long-run pace, four times in five
- Now10%
- End of 202714%
- End of 202816%
- End of 203016%
What changes for its people by the end of 2028, by its industries' figures
- Stays with people 83%
- Becomes checking a model's work 13%
- Handed over with lighter checks 3%
A food company whose filing states its total, its U.S. share and its union share but counts nothing by product, so the meat and other food patterns follow description.
The figures on this page come from the company's own annual report and from BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. They are estimates with a stated method. Nothing here says what the company will do: within reach is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
What follows from the reading
Share of working time within reach of AI, on the long-run pace at four in five: 10% now, 14% at the end of 2027, 16% at the end of 2028, 16% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 16% desk work, 7% people work and 77% body work. These are the site's industry estimates weighted by the shares below: estimates with a stated method and range, not a forecast of what the company will do. By the same patterns, at the end of 2028 about 83% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 13% becomes checking a model's work and 3% could be handed over with lighter checks, from the industries' own figures, not the company's roles.
Headcount
20,000 employees as of October 26, 2025 (stated). Over 90 percent of the approximately 20,000 active employees are located within the U.S., read as 90%.
The filing: “As of October 26, 2025, the Company had approximately 20,000 active employees, with over 90 percent located within the U.S.”
The workforce as industry patterns
| Pattern | Share | Reason, from the filing |
|---|---|---|
| Animal Slaughtering and Processing | 75% | By description (c): the filing describes a meat and poultry company (its SIC is meat packing plants) whose Retail (62% of fiscal 2025 revenue) and Foodservice (33%) segments are led by pork, turkey and processed meat products; the plants that make them are animal slaughtering and processing, read at three quarters since the filing counts no employees by product. |
| Other Food Manufacturing | 25% | By description (c): the nut butters, snack nuts and other packaged foods the company also makes are other food manufacturing, read at a quarter since no count by product is stated. |
What the filing says about the workforce: About 20,000 active employees, over 90% in the U.S.; approximately 20% covered by collective bargaining agreements, with contracts at two facilities covering about 700 employees expiring in the next fiscal year; about 50% of team members have five or more years of service; about 1,200 safety assessments completed each month.
Companies read with the same leading pattern
Other companies whose largest staffing pattern is also Animal Slaughtering and Processing, largest first, each read from its own annual report. Within reach now and at the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Tyson Foods (TSN, 133,000 employees)10% now, 16% by 2028
- Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (PPC, 63,000 employees)9% now, 13% by 2028
- Smithfield Foods, Inc. (SFD, 34,500 employees)9% now, 14% by 2028
What the filing says about AI
2 sentences in the filing name AI. The filing's two AI sentences are risk factors: cyber attackers' use of enhanced technologies such as AI, and negative publicity including fictitious media content produced by AI.
- “However, the Company may be unable to anticipate security incidents, detect attacks, or implement adequate preventive measures as cyber threats continue to evolve and cyberattacks have become more sophisticated and frequent, including through the use of enhanced technologies and capabilities (such as artificial intelligence) by threat actors with a wide range of expertise and motives.”
- “It may be difficult to address negative publicity or sensationalism across media channels, regardless of its accuracy or the reputability of its source, including as a result of fictitious media content (such as content produced by artificial intelligence or bad actors).”
Its annual reports, year by year
Sentences naming AI in each annual report, counted by one rule, beside the median report in the Index that year. Each count links its filing. Every company, by year and sector
- Fiscal 20210median 0
- Fiscal 20220median 0
- Fiscal 20230median 1
- Fiscal 20240median 4
- Fiscal 20252median 10
Headcount by filing year
As reported in each year's annual report, with the filing. A year marked not read had no figure the reading could take from the report's text.
| Period | Employees | Filed | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-10-26 | 20,000 | 2025-12-05 | 10-K |
| 2024-10-27 | 20,000 | 2024-12-05 | 10-K |
| 2023-10-29 | 20,000 | 2023-12-06 | 10-K |
| 2022-10-30 | 20,000 | 2022-12-06 | 10-K |
| 2021-10-31 | 20,000 | 2021-12-10 | 10-K |
| 2020-10-25 | 19,100 | 2020-12-04 | 10-K |
| 2019-10-27 | 18,800 | 2019-12-06 | 10-K |
| 2018-10-28 | 20,100 | 2018-12-07 | 10-K |
| 2017-10-29 | 20,200 | 2017-12-20 | 10-K |
| 2016-10-30 | 21,100 | 2016-12-21 | 10-K |
| 2015-10-25 | 20,700 | 2015-12-16 | 10-K |
| 2014-10-26 | 20,400 | 2014-12-17 | 10-K |
| 2013-10-27 | 19,800 | 2013-12-18 | 10-K |
| 2012-10-28 | 19,700 | 2012-12-19 | 10-K |
| 2011-10-30 | 19,500 | 2011-12-21 | 10-K |
| 2010-10-31 | 19,300 | 2010-12-21 | 10-K |
| 2009-10-25 | 18,600 | 2009-12-16 | 10-K |
| 2008-10-26 | 19,100 | 2008-12-23 | 10-K |
| 2007-10-28 | 18,500 | 2007-12-27 | 10-K |
| 2006-10-29 | 18,100 | 2007-01-12 | 10-K |
| 2005-10-30 | 17,600 | 2006-01-13 | 10-K |
| 2004-10-30 | 15,600 | 2005-01-13 | 10-K |
| 2003-10-25 | 16,000 | 2004-01-23 | 10-K |
| 2002-10-26 | 15,500 | 2003-01-24 | 10-K |
| 2001-10-27 | 15,600 | 2002-01-25 | 10-K |
| 2000-10-28 | 12,200 | 2001-01-26 | 10-K |
| 1999-10-30 | 12,100 | 2000-01-28 | 10-K |
| 1998-10-31 | 11,200 | 1999-01-29 | 10-K |
| 1997-10-26 | 11,000 | 1998-01-23 | 10-K |
| 1996-10-26 | 11,000 | 1997-01-24 | 10-K |
| 1996-01-26 | 10,600 | 1996-01-26 | 10-K |
| 1995-01-27 | 9,500 | 1995-01-27 | 10-K |
Limits of this reading
- Pattern shares rest on the filing's description of its products (c); segments are by channel, not by product, and no count by product is stated.
- The U.S. share is stated as over 90 percent, read as 90%.
Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0000048465-25-000059, the filing. Read by Claude Fable 5.1 under rubric version 1, by the method. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
The report on Hormel Foods Corporation, $29
This page as a document to keep, with what it does not show: the share within reach at every date on three paces and two reliabilities, a typical workforce of this shape at the stated headcount role by role and task by task (the industries' staffing, never the company's roster), where to start, what changes for the people and what they would learn, every sentence in the filing that names AI, the headcount by year, the companies read with the same leading pattern, the method and a citation line. To print or save as a PDF, open again in your browser for a year.
See the report, $29See the sample first: Walmart's report is free
Questions about this company
- How much of Hormel Foods Corporation's working time is within reach of AI?
- An estimated 10% now and 16% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five, from the workforce Hormel Foods Corporation's own annual report describes and BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. It is an estimate with a stated method. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings, and it says nothing about what the company will do.
- How many people does Hormel Foods Corporation employ?
- 20,000 as of October 26, 2025, as its annual report for the period ending October 26, 2025 states. About 90% in the U.S.
- What kinds of work make up Hormel Foods Corporation's workforce?
- Read from its annual report as a blend of 2 industry staffing patterns, the largest Animal Slaughtering and Processing; by those patterns the work is about 16% desk work, 7% people work and 77% body work. Each share has a one-sentence reason on this page that can be checked against the filing.
- What does Hormel Foods Corporation's annual report say about AI?
- 2 sentences in the filing name AI. Its annual reports for fiscal 2021 to 2025 name it in 0, 0, 0, 0 and 2 sentences, year by year. They are counted and quoted on this page, never judged: a count says how much a filing talks about AI, not what the company does with it.
- How is this estimated?
- Claude Fable 5.1 read the annual report under the Index's written rubric (version 1) on October 19, 2026: the stated headcount, the share in the U.S. when stated, and the workforce as a blend of industry staffing patterns. The estimates are the site's industry estimates weighted by those shares, from O*NET tasks with estimated lengths and METR's measurements of how long a task AI models can finish. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
Embed these figures on your site
A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.