Eckrich is a prepared meat brand owned by Smithfield Foods, a subsidiary of China's WH Group. [1] Eckrich sells smoked sausages, cold cuts, hot dogs, corn dogs, Vienna sausages, breakfast sausages and bacon under the Eckrich brand name. [2]
Eckrich was founded as a local meat market in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA, in 1894 by Peter Eckrich, an immigrant from Waldsee, Germany. The firm expanded in the local market, becoming a wholesaler in 1907 and incorporating as Peter Eckrich and Sons in 1925. It closed its last retail operation in 1932 and operated exclusively as a wholesale meat vendor. In 1972, thirty years after Peter Eckrich had died, Beatrice Foods bought the firm and merged it into its Swift and Sons meat processing division in 1986 as Swift-Eckrich. Beatrice Foods' brands were sold off over the late 1980s, culminating in 1990 with the sale of many of its brands, including Eckrich, to ConAgra. ConAgra sold Eckrich to Smithfield Foods on October 2, 2006. [3]
All 11 of Peter's children worked delivering meat for the company. Peter's brother Henry took over leadership of the business from Peter and was succeeded by Donald P. Eckrich, who served as president and chief operating officer of Beatrice Companies and president Eckrich. He was the grandson of the founder of the company. [4]
Smithfield refreshed the design of Eckrich packaging for deli meats in 2020 by working with COHO Creative Agency out of Cincinnati, Ohio. [5]
Hormel Foods Corporation is an American food processing company founded in 1891 in Austin, Minnesota, by George A. Hormel as George A. Hormel & Company. The company originally focused on the packaging and selling of ham, sausage and other pork, chicken, beef and lamb products to consumers, adding Spam in 1937. By the 1980s, Hormel began offering a wider range of packaged and refrigerated foods. The company changed its name to Hormel Foods Corporation in 1993, and uses the Hormel brand on many of its products; the company's other brands include Planters, Columbus Craft Meats, Dinty Moore, Jennie-O, and Skippy. The company's products are available in 80 countries.
Conagra Brands, Inc. is an American consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Conagra makes and sells products under various brand names that are available in supermarkets, restaurants, and food service establishments. Based on its 2021 revenue, the company ranked 331st on the 2022 Fortune 500.
Chef Boyardee is an American brand of canned pasta products sold internationally by Conagra Brands. The company was founded by Italian immigrant Ettore Boiardi in Milton, Pennsylvania, U.S., in 1928.
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The Sara Lee Corporation was an American consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois. It had operations in more than 40 countries and sold its products in over 180 countries. Its international operations were headquartered in Utrecht, The Netherlands. While no longer operated independently, as of 2020, Sara Lee still exists as a current brand name under the auspices of holding company Kohlberg & Company, making frozen cakes, etc. at its present facility in Illinois, United States.
Armour & Company was an American company and was one of the five leading firms in the meat packing industry. It was founded in Chicago, in 1867, by the Armour brothers led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company had become Chicago's most important business and had helped make Chicago and its Union Stock Yards the center of America's meatpacking industry. During the same period, its facility in Omaha, Nebraska, boomed, making the city's meatpacking industry the largest in the nation by 1959. In connection with its meatpacking operations, the company also ventured into pharmaceuticals and soap manufacturing, introducing Dial soap in 1948.
Hebrew National is a brand of kosher hot dogs and sausages made by ConAgra Foods. In 1982, Hebrew National opened a non-kosher division under the name National Deli; it was sold off in 2001, and is now based in Florida.
Beatrice Foods Company was a major American food processing company founded in 1894. Over the years, Beatrice added many well-known, high-value brand acquisitions to its portfolio that had become household names such as Tropicana, Dannon, Krispy Kreme, Jolly Rancher, La Choy, Playtex, Milk Duds, Swiss Miss, Peter Pan, Wesson, Martha White, Samsonite and Avis Car Rental.
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Lightlife Foods is a company that produces food for plant-based diets. In 2018, its worth was estimated at $80 million. It is best known for its plant-based veggie dog, Smart Dog, which launched in 1993. In 2019, the company launched a plant-based burger to compete with Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat. Lightlife Foods is a carbon-neutral company.
Smithfield Foods, Inc., is a pork producer and food-processing company based in Smithfield, Virginia, in the United States, that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese conglomerate WH Group. Founded in 1936 as the Smithfield Packing Company by Joseph W. Luter and his son, the company is the largest pig and pork producer in the world. In addition to owning over 500 farms in the US, Smithfield contracts with another 2,000 independent farms around the country to raise Smithfield's pigs. Outside the US, the company has facilities in Mexico, Poland, Romania, Germany, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. Globally the company employed 50,200 in 2016 and reported an annual revenue of $14 billion. Its 973,000-square-foot meat-processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was said in 2000 to be the world's largest, harvesting 32,000 pigs a day.
Premium Brands Holdings Corporation is a Canadian specialty food manufacturing and distribution company. It is a publicly traded corporation on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
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WH Group, formerly known as Shuanghui Group, is a publicly traded Chinese multinational meat and food processing company headquartered in Hong Kong. Sometimes also known as Shineway Group in English-speaking countries, the company's businesses include hog raising, consumer meat products, flavoring products, and logistics. It is the largest meat producer in China.
Sizzlean was a cured meat product manufactured throughout the 1970s and 1980s and marketed as a healthier alternative to bacon. Swift & Co. originally produced the product and rolled it out to major United States markets in 1977. In 1990, ConAgra Foods acquired Swift from Beatrice Foods and continued to market the product until about 2005.
OSI Group is an American privately owned holding company of meat processors that service the retail and food service industries with international headquarters in Aurora, Illinois. It operates over 65 facilities in 17 countries. Sheldon Lavin is the owner, CEO and chairman.