Tyson says CEO search may take few months

CHICAGO (Reuters) - It may be a few months before Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N) names a permanent chief executive, the interim CEO of the world's largest meat company said on Thursday.

Candidates from outside the company may be considered, Leland Tollett told Reuters in a statement.

"As I've previously said, our goal is to select someone from our existing talent pool. Viable internal candidates continue to be evaluated by the Tyson Board of Directors, which has not ruled out the possibility of considering external candidates," said Tollett.

Tollett had previously said the CEO search could take three months to three years. Tollett has been serving as the interim CEO since early January, when Richard Bond resigned and left the company.

"We are ahead of my expected timetable in restoring our company to where it needs to be financially. Therefore, I believe that a new CEO will be named closer to the front end of my original estimate than the back end, but probably not in the next few months," he said.

(Reporting by Bob Burgdorfer, editing by Matthew Lewis)