Description
Conagra Brands, Inc. is an American packaged foods company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Conagra makes and sells products under various brand names that are available in supermarkets, restaurants, and food service establishments.
History
Founding and success
Conagra was founded in 1919 by Frank Little and Alva Kinney, who brought together four grain mills as Nebraska Consolidated Mills (NCM) with its head Grand Island, Nebraska. The headquarters were moved to Omaha in 1922. The company ran at a profit until 1936, when Kinney retired. In 1940, the company began producing flour at its own mill, and in 1942 ventured into the livestock feed business. That year president R. S. Dickinson opened the company's first out-of-state facility in Alabama with a flour mill and animal feed plant.
After researching new uses for its flour, NCM funded the establishment of the Duncan Hines brand of cake mixes in 1951 as a way to market more flour. This venture was very successful, leading the company to its current place as the third largest flour miller in the U.S. However, this did not lead NCM to consider other food ventures, and instead it sold its 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, NCM chose not to expand into the businesses that used its flour, instead turning in the opposite direction and focusing more on raw foods like poultry and expanding its livestock feed business.
Decline and comeback
In 1971, Nebraska Consolidated Mills changed its name to "ConAgra", a portmanteau of con for consolidated and agra, similarly short in English for agriculture. 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, C. Michael "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 vulnerable to volatile commodity prices.
In response, the company set off on a two-decade-long buying spree, purchasing over one hundred 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 (including Hunt-Wesson and Swift-Eckrich) among others, as the leveraged buyouts of the 1980s resulted in the divestiture or breakup of many major American consumer product firms. In 1993 alone it purchased $500 million in smaller firms, and in 1998 it purchased another $480 million in brands from Nabisco.
Accounting issues
On May 23, 2001, ConAgra Foods, Inc., (the predecessor to Conagra Brands) said it would restate its earnings for 1998, 1999 and 2000, due to accounting and conduct matters at its United Agri Products Cos. unit. For fiscal 1998, revenues was cut from $24.27 billion to $24.19 billion.
On March 24, 2005, ConAgra Foods, Inc. (the predecessor to Conagra Brands) said the results for fiscal 2003 and 2004 would be restated to reflect a reduction in after-tax profits of $150 million to $200 million in total.
Meat industry sell-off
In 2002, ConAgra Foods sold its fresh meat operations under the name Swift & Company to Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, Inc. and Booth Creek Management.
In 2006, ConAgra Foods sold its Chicago-area-based refrigerated meats business (Butterball, Eckrich, Armour) to Smithfield Foods.[7] ConAgra maintained a presence in Chicago by moving its Hunt-Wesson business there from California.
Ralcorp purchase
On November 27, 2012, Conagra officials announced the company was purchasing Ralcorp, pending Ralcorp shareholder approval, for approximately $4.95 billion. Stockholders of Ralcorp Holdings, Inc. would receive $90 per share. The deal completed in January 2013 and made ConAgra the largest private-label packaged food business in the United States.
Job losses and exit from Nebraska
On October 1, 2015, Conagra announced that it would cut about 1,500 jobs and relocate its headquarters to Chicago as part of a restructuring plan. The move of headquarters from Omaha to Chicago was completed in late June 2016 with the opening of their new HQ at the Merchandise Mart building. It is the first time since 1922 that ConAgra has not been headquartered in Omaha and the first time in the company's history, dating back to its 1919 founding, that the headquarters will not be in the state of Nebraska.
Lamb Weston spin off
On July 14, 2014, Conagra announced that it had acquired TaiMei Potato Industry Limited, a potato processor in Shangdu, Inner Mongolia. This acquisition expands ConAgra Foods' Lamb Weston operations in a market that has growing demand for frozen potato products.
On November 18, 2015, Conagra announced it was spinning off its Lamb Weston division into a separate company that would be based in Kennewick, Washington. They also announced that ConAgra Foods would be renamed Conagra Brands when they moved HQ to Chicago in 2016. Thomas Werner (unrelated to the television producer and Boston Red Sox owner) and Timothy McLevish were named executive and executive chairman.
The Lamb Weston (NYSE: LW) spinoff was completed on November 9, 2016, with the new company headquartered in the suburbs of Boise, Idaho, with major manufacturing facilities in Oregon and Washington. At the same time, ConAgra Foods changed their name to ConAgra Brands, complete with a brand new logo.
Angie's acquisition
On September 22, 2017, Conagra announced that it was acquiring Angie's Artisan Treats, maker of Angie's Boomchickapop popcorn. The acquisition was completed on October 23, 2017.
Pinnacle Foods Acquisition
On June 27, 2018, Conagra Brands announced the acquisition of Pinnacle Foods for $8.1 billion. The acquisition closed on October 26, 2018.
