🠈  ConAgra  🠊

ConAgra Brands

ConAgra Brands is a conglomerate that owns food distribution services, production facilities and popular store brands. The company had $7.8 billion in revenue in 2017. Their headquarters are in Chicago. The company trades on the NYSE with the symbol CAG.

This page shows select transactions in the company's merger chain.

• 1919: Frank Little and Alva Kinney created Nebraska Consolidated Mills NCM in Grand Island, Nebraska.
• 1922: They relocated their headquarters to Omaha.
• 1942: NCM opened its livestock feed business.
• 1951: Company signed agreement with Duncan Hines, a food reviewer who started a bakery, to make pre-packaged cake mixes.
• 1956: NCM sold it Duncan Hines division to Proctor & Gamble.
• 1971: NCM changed its name to ConAgra.
• 1980: ConAgra acquired Banquet Foods. They bought dozens of small brands in the 1980s.

  History of Banquet Foods

  Banquet Foods created frozen dinners and other quick serve foods.

  • 1953: Banquet started creating frozen meat pies.
  • 1970: The conglomerate RCA acquired Banquet.
• 1983: Conagra acquired Amour Food Company from Greyhound Bus for $166 million.

  History of Armour

  Armour is a huge brand of meat products. Conagra acquired meat processing plants which it sold to Smithfield.

  • 1852: John Plankington created the Plankington Packing Company.
  • 1863 Philip D. Armour and John Plankinton established the Plankinton, Armour and Company. in Milwaukee. They expanded to Kansas City, Chicago and NYC.
  • 1884: The partnership dissolved and Plankington kept the Milwaukee operation which became the Cudahy Packing Company.
  • Dale Carnegie was the firm's best sale's person as he knew "How to Win Friends and Influence People".
  • 192?: Frederick H. Prince acquired controlling interest in the firm.
  • 1948: The company made soap as a by-product. They rebranded formula AT-7 as Dial Soap.
  • 1966: company began creating deodorant products and shaving creams under the Dial brand name.
  • 1967: company incorporated its consumer products business as Armour-Dial, Inc.
  • 1970: Greyhound Bus Company acquired Armour after General Host attempted a hostile takeover.
  • 1983: Greyhound stripped of Dial and Armour Star Foods before selling to Conagra.
• 1987: Conagra acquired Monfort

  History of Monfort

  • 1930: Warren H. Monfort started a feedlot north of Greeley, Colorado
  • 1960: With a herd of 100,000 cows, Monfort bought a slaughterhouse in Greeley from Capitol Pack, Inc..
  • 1984: Monfort purchased 21 Armour meat-processing facilities.
  • Labor problems in the 1980s forced the Monforts to sell to Conagra.
• 1989: Conagra acquired Swift

  History of Swift and Company

  • 1855: Gustavus Franklin (G.F.) Swift, age 16, begins his own meat-market business in Cape Cod with a $20 investment.
  • 1875: Swift incorporates his business.
  • 1900: Company opens shops in London, England.
  • 1920: Company introduces a peanut butter brand called "E. K. Pond."
  • 1920: Company gross sales exceed $1.1 billion
  • Swift rebranded their peanut butter "Peter Pan" after a character in a novel by J. M. Barrie.
  • 1982: Company is renamed Swift Independent Packing Company SIPCO
  • 1989: ConAgra acquired Swift and merged it with Monfort Inc. to create Monfort Pork Division in Greeley, Colorado.
  • 1994: Conagra renamed division Swift & Company.
  • 2002: spun off its meat packaging division as Swift & Company.
  • 2016: Swift was acquired by Brazilian firm JB SA. for $225 million and assumption of $1.2b in debt.
• 1990: ConAgra acquired Hunt-Wesson Foods

  History of Hunt-Wesson Foods

  Hunt-Wesson Foods is a food brand offering ketchup, canned tomatoes and cooking oil.

  • 1888: Joseph and William Hunt created Hunt Bros. Fruit Packing Co. in Sebastopol, California.
  • 1943: Norton Winfred Simon sold Val Vita Food Products for controlling interest in Hunts (a reverse acquisition).
  • 1960: Hunts merged with Wesson Oil & Snowdrift Company.

    History of Wesson Oil

    Wesson Oil is a popular brand of cooking oil.

    • 1899: David Wesson developed a method to deodorize cottonseed oil. His marketed the brand Snowdrift at the Southern Oil Company.
    • 192?: Southern spun off Wesson Oil & Snowdrift Company.
    • 2009: Wesson switched to a mix of canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil or sunflower oil.
    • 2018: The FTC nixed a plan to sell Wesson to Smuckers as it would give Smuckers 70% of cooking oil market.
  • 1968: Hunt's introduced Hunt's Snack Pack pudding cups.
  • 1969: Hunt's introduced the Manwich brand.
• 1990: Conagra acquired Beatrice Foods from KKR in a $1.3 billion transaction.

  History of Beatrice Foods

  Beatrice Foods is a food conglomerate with several hundred brands.

  • 1894: George Everett Haskell and William W. Bosworth leased a warehouse from a bankrupt firm in Beatrice, Nebraska. They produced and sold butter.
  • 1913: Beatrice moved to Chicago.
  • 1939: Beatrice Creamery Company acquired Blue Valley Creamery Company.
  • 1946: Beatrice rebranded as Beatrice Foods Co.
  • 1960: Beatrice acquired Hoffman and Company from Holloway.
    • 1926: Company tried making round milk chocolates. They came out duds. but they sold their Milk Duds anyway.
    • 1928: Holloway acquired Hoffman.
  • 1968: Beatrice acquired Sexton Foods.

    History of Sexton Quality Foods

    Sexton Foods was a food distribution service that became US Food Services

    • 1883: John Sexton, age 25, invested $400 and formed a corporation with George A. Hitchcock to create Hitchcock & Sexton Company in Chicago.
    • 1897: Sexton began publishing a mail order catalog called Sexton Quality Foods.
    • 1898: company incorporated as John Sexton & Co. engaging in wholesale foods.
    • 1921: Sexton had established distribution warehouses in San Francisco, Dallas and Omaha.
    • 1924: Sexton acquired The Commercial Truck Company of America which was based in Philadelphia and had 26 electric trucks.
    • 1941: Sexton expanded to Dallas by leasing the building that later gained infamy as the Texas Book Repository.
    • 1943: Sexton acquired the J.C. Stewart Company which provided wholesale foods.
    • 1953: Sexton acquired a food production company called Columbia Conserve Company located in Indianapolis.
    • 1960: The company held an IPO on the NASDAQ as John Sexton & Co.
    • 1961: Sexton had over 1,400 employees and $49.5 million in sales. They had 50,000 customers which included restaurants, schools, hospitals, clubs, etc.
    • 1961: John Sexton & Co. conducted a secondary offering of 70,000 share of stock at $23.50.
    • 1964: Sexton acquired National Brands Inc. which was a wholesaler based in Miami, Fl.
    • 1968: Beatrice acquired Sexton but operated its as an independent division until 1983.
  • 1976: Beatrice acquired Krispy Kreme which makes doughnuts.
    • 1982: Joseph A. McAleer, Sr., a franchisee, bought Krispy Kreme in a $22 million leveraged buyout.
  • 1984: Annual sales in were about $12 billion.
  • 1984: Beatrice acquired Esmark for $2.6 billion making Beatrice the largest food producer

    I need to expand this section. The purchase included Max Factor, Playtex and Avis Rent a Car,. (Note, Wikipedia deleted the Esmark Page).

  • 1985: Beatrice sold its chemical division to Imperial Chemical Industries.
  • 1986: Beatrice sold its dairy group that included Meadow Gold to Borden.
  • Kohlberg Kravis Roberts acquired Beatrice for $8.7 billion which was the largest leveraged buyout to date.
    • 1986: KKR sold international holdings to The Lewis Company which created TLC Beatrice
      • TLC sold the Canadian holdings to Onex to create Beatrice Canada.
    • 1986: KKR put the non food holdings including Samsonite and Culligan into a company called E-II Holdings Inc. which it spun off.
• 1992: Conagra acquired JM Swank
  • 1954: JM Swank was founded as a bakery broker
  • 2016: Platinum Equity acquired Swank which provides 2,000 ingredients for bakeris. (The Gazette)
• 1993: Conagra spent $480M to buy brands from Nabisco.
• 2000: Conagra acquired International Home Foods which American Home Foods spun off in 1996. Brands included: Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, PAM and Gulden's Mustard.⁷
• 2001: Conagra restated earnings in a financial scandal.
• 2002: ConAgra sold its fresh meat operations as Swift & Company to Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc.
• 2006: ConAgra Foods sold its refrigerated meats business (Butterball, Eckrich, Armour) to Smithfield Foods.
• 2006: Conagra sold its malt holdings to Castle Harlan which created United Malt Holdings.
• 2012: Conagra acquired Ralcorp, which is a collection of brands spun off Ralston Purina in 1994.
• 2014: Conagra acquired TaiMei Potato Industry Limited based in Shangdu, Inner Mongolia.
• 2015: Conagra moved its headquarters to Chicago.
• 2016: Conagra spun off Lamb Weston (NYSE: LW).
• 2017: Conagra acquired Angie's Artisan Treats.
• 2018: Conagra Brands acquired Pinnacle Foods for $8.1 billion.

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References:

1. Washington Post - ConAgra acquires Beatrice (Drawn 9/22/2018)
2. Chicago Tribune - Borden Buys Beatrice's Diary Group (Drawn 9/22/2018)
3. Wikipedia - Sexton Foods (Drawn 9/22/2018)
4. Washington Post - Esmark Accepts sweetened Beatrice Deal (Drawn 9/22/2018)
5. Funding Universe - Swift & Company (Drawn 9/23/2018)
6. Funding Universe - Monfort (Drawn 9/23/2018)
7. Conagra - International Home Foods (Drawn 10/6/2020)

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