ConAgra Foods
ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) is one of North America's largest packaged foods companies and has its headquarters in Omaha. ConAgra's products are available in supermarkets, as well as restaurants and food service establishments.
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[edit] History
ConAgra was founded in 1919 by Alva Kinney, who brought together four grain mills as Nebraska Consolidated Mills. In 1940, it began producing flour at its own mill, and in 1942 ventured into the livestock feed business. Consolidated Mills funded the establishment of Duncan Hines in 1951 as a way to market more flour by selling cake mixes. This venture was very successful, in fact now they are the third largest flour miller, but did not lead Consolidated to consider other food ventures. Instead, they sold their assets in Duncan Hines to Procter & Gamble in 1956. As American households purchased more and more prepared and instant foods in the 1950s and 1960s, Consolidated chose not to expand into the businesses that used their flour, instead turning in the opposite direction and focusing more on raw foods like poultry and expanding its livestock feed business.
In 1971, Consolidated Mills changed its name to ConAgra, from the Latin Con, meaning With and Agra meaning From the Earth. The 1970s brought the company to the brink of ruin as it lost money expanding into the fertilizer, catfish, and pet product industries and as commodity speculation wiped out ConAgra's margins on raw foods. In 1974, Charles M. Harper ("Mike" Harper), an experienced food industry executive, took over the firm and brought it back from the brink of bankruptcy. Nonetheless, ConAgra's business model left it at the mercy of volatile commodity prices. In response, the company set off on a two decade long buying spree, purchasing over 100 prepared food brands starting with its 1980 purchase of Banquet Foods. It moved heavily into the frozen food business and the packaged meat industry, and then picked up a selection of other brands from firms like RJR Nabisco and Beatrice Foods among others, as the leveraged buyouts of the 1980s gutted and sold off many major American consumer product firms.
[edit] Company
ConAgra is organized into three businesses: Consumer Foods, Commercial Products and International. Consumer Foods manufactures and markets many brands that are sold in convenience stores, supermarkets, restaurants and stadiums. Commercial Products provides food and ingredients to major foodservice establishments and commercial customers worldwide. They work closely with their customers to develop unique solutions to fit their needs. International markets more than forty brands in retail channels outside the United States. ConAgra products can be found in over 100 countries including Mexico, Canada, Japan, China, and the United Kingdom.
[edit] Brands
ConAgra has many favorite brands and offers popular products across a variety of food channels. Some familiar favorite brands include Healthy Choice, Egg Beaters, Hunts, Chef Boyardee, Banquet, Swiss Miss, ReddiWip, Orville Redenbacher's, and Slim Jim.
[edit] External links
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This article uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at ConAgra Foods. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the CC by-sa 3.0 License. |
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