GoodMark Foods

Last updated
GoodMark Foods
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Food industry
Founded1970;55 years ago (1970)
DefunctJune 18, 1998 (1998-06-18)
FateAcquired
Successor ConAgra
Headquarters
Raleigh, North Carolina
,
United States
Area served
United States
ProductsMeat snacks, packaged meats, and extruded grain snacks
Number of employees
1,100
Parent ConAgra
Website www.conagra.com

Goodmark Foods was an American food manufacturing company, based in Raleigh, North Carolina. [1] [2] It produced "meat snacks, packaged meats, and extruded grain snacks," [2] especially Slim Jim jerky meat snacks. [3] It is owned by ConAgra. [2]

Contents

Company history

Slim Jim snacks originated in Philadelphia. [4] Its manufacturer Cherry-Levis Food Company was sold to General Mills in 1967 for about $20 million [4] and renamed Slim Jim, Inc. [5] In 1970, General Mills purchased Jesse Jones Sausage Co. in Garner, North Carolina, and formed GoodMark Foods, Inc. to make Slim Jims there. [5]

Ron Doggett, a General Mills finance executive involved in the purchase of Cherry-Levis, had moved to North Carolina to participate in managing the operations. "In June 1982, he directed a unique leveraged buyout with three other executives of GoodMark from General Mills, who had put the subsidiary up for sale." [3] They took the company public in 1985. [6] The company's stock was traded on NASDAQ as GDMK. [1]

It was acquired by ConAgra, Inc. in 1998 [2] for $225 million. [6] GoodMark's annual sales were about $170 million at that time. [1] Doggett retired as chairman, president and CEO in 1999, a year later. [3] [5]

Products and brands

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 "GoodMark Foods and ConAgra Have Definitive Agreement for GoodMark to Merge With ConAgra". PRNewswire.com (Press release). ConAgra, Inc. June 18, 1998. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Company Overview of GoodMark Foods, Inc". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "Laureate: Ron E. Doggett (December 2, 1934 - ): Inducted 2004". HistoryNC.org. North Carolina Business Hall of Fame (Junior Achievement of the Carolinas, Inc.). Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Adolph Levis, creator of Slim Jim snacks, dead at 89". The Tuscaloosa News . Associated Press. March 21, 2001. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "GoodMark Foods, Inc. History". FundingUniverse.com. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  6. 1 2 "ConAgra Inc. buys GoodMark Foods Inc. for $225 million". Triangle Business Journal. American City Business Journals. February 15, 1999. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.