![]() Logo used since 1994 | |
Formerly | Libby, McNeill & Libby |
---|---|
Company type | Subsidiary |
Industry | Food |
Founded | 1869 |
Founder | Archibald McNeill Arthur Libby Charles Libby |
Fate | Acquired by Nestlé in 1970 |
Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois |
Products | Canned food and beverages Frozen foods |
Owner | Libby Brand Holding (trademark owner) |
Parent | Nestlé |
Subsidiaries | Libby Brand Holding ConAgra |
Website | libbys.com |
Libby's (Libby, McNeill & Libby) was an American company that produced canned food and beverages. The firm was established in 1869 in Chicago, Illinois. The Libby's trademark is currently owned by Libby's Brand Holding based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is licensed to several companies around the world (including Nestlé [1] and Conagra Brands [2] ).
The company was founded as "Libby, McNeill & Libby" in Chicago, Illinois, by Archibald McNeill and the brothers Arthur and Charles Libby. [3] The business began with a canned meat product, beef in brine, or corned beef. The company started small and later began experimenting with the preservation of ox, beef, and pork tongues. [4] The product became well-known when the company began to package the meat in a trapezoid-shaped can starting in 1875. [5] By 1880, it had 1,500 employees in Chicago. [6] In 1918, William F. Burrows was recorded as the company's chairman. [7]
By the middle of the 1930s, Libby's had about 9,000 employees only in the Chicago area. Its annual sales surpassed $100 million during the 1940s. Before and after World War II, Libby's had canning operations outside the United States in Belgium and France, at Leer in northern Germany, and in the United Kingdom.
Libby, McNeill & Libby was acquired by Nestlé in 1970. [8] In the 1970s, "Libbyland"-branded frozen dinners were marketed towards children, using a mascot called "Libby the Kid". [9]
Nestlé introduced Juicy Juice in 1977, and it was branded under Libby's name. In 2006, Nestlé began to market Juicy Juice. In 2014, the Juicy Juice brand and business was sold by Nestlé to Harvest Hill Beverage Company, a portfolio company of Brynwood Partners. [10] [11]
In 1982, Libby's canned vegetable business was acquired by S.S. Pierce Company (now Seneca Foods) and its canned fruits business was acquired by California Canners and Growers (Cal Can). [12] [13] In 1984, Cal Can merged with Tri-Valley Growers. In 2000, Tri-Valley Growers went bankrupt and the bulk of its operations, including the rights to the Libby's canned fruit business, was acquired by Signature Fruit LLC in 2001. [14] In 2006, Seneca Foods acquired Signature Fruit. [15]
Niagara Trading Company (now NTC Marketing, Inc.) acquired a long-term license for the Libby's name for canned pineapple and juices in 1983. [16] [17]
In 1998, Libby's canned meat business was sold by Nestlé to International Home Foods. [18] In 2000, International Home Foods was acquired by ConAgra. [19]
In 2006, Nestlé sold the Libby's trademark to a Swiss entity that became known as "Libby Brand Holding".
In November 2009, Libby's announced that because of poor weather on its Illinois pumpkin farms and a depleted back stock, a canned pumpkin shortage was likely as Thanksgiving approached. Libby's accounts for the vast majority of canned pumpkin production in the United States, and the shortfall prompted Libby's to establish farms in multiple states as a hedge against another mass shortage like the one that happened in 2009. [20]
In 2010, Walton & Post, Inc. acquired a long-term license for the Libby's trademark for several items, including nectars, creamers, and prepared meals.
In 2015, Peaty Mills plc. acquired the Libby’s trademark license for preserved foods in the UK, Ireland and Portugal with the exceptions of corned beef, pumpkin and fruit juices. The trademark license for fruit juice in the UK is held by Refresco.
Libby's trademark in Canary Islands, Spain and Portugal is licensed to Establecimientos Industriales Archipiélago S.A. [21]
In the 1970s, Libby's had a successful television advertising campaign featuring their jingle, "When it says Libby's Libby's Libby's on the label, label, label, you will like it, like it, like it, on your table, table, table." [22] [ better source needed ] [23]
The J.M. Smucker Company, also known as Smuckers, is an American manufacturer of food and beverage products. Headquartered in Orrville, Ohio, the company was founded in 1897 as a maker of apple butter. J.M. Smucker currently has three major business units: consumer foods, pet foods, and coffee. Its flagship brand, Smucker's, produces fruit preserves, peanut butter, syrups, frozen crustless sandwiches, and ice cream toppings.
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.
Juicy Juice is a brand of juices that targets children and sold in the United States using the slogan "100% Juice."
Tropicana Brands is an American fruit-based beverage company. It was founded in 1947 by Anthony T. Rossi in Bradenton, Florida. Between 1998 and 2021 it was a subsidiary of PepsiCo. In August 2021, 61% of Tropicana was sold along with the rest of PepsiCo's juice brand portfolio for $3.3 billion to PAI Partners. PepsiCo retained the remaining 39% of the companies ownership.
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.
Um Bongo is a brand of juice drinks produced by Sumol + Compal. It was first produced in 1983 by Nestlé, under the Libby's brand, for consumption in the United Kingdom, and was later licensed for production in Portugal. The trademark is currently held by Sumol + Compal, who produces and sells the drink in both countries.
Hunt's is the name of a brand of preserved tomato products owned by Conagra Brands. The company was founded in 1888, in Sebastopol, California, as the Hunt Bros. Fruit Packing Co., by Joseph and William Hunt. The brothers relocated to nearby Santa Rosa in 1890, and then to Hayward in 1895. This small canning operation grew rapidly, focused on canning the products of California's booming fruit and vegetable industries. By 1941, the plant shipped a hundred million cans of soup, fruits, vegetables, and juices annually.
The Ferrara Candy Company is an American candy manufacturer, based in Chicago, Illinois, and owned by the Ferrero Group.
Seneca Foods Corporation is an American food processor and distributor headquartered in Fairport, New York, USA. Seneca Foods Corporation conducts its business almost entirely in food packaging, which contributed to about 98% of the company's fiscal year net sales in 2017. Canned vegetables represented 65%, fruit products represented 23%, frozen fruit and vegetables represented 11% and fruit chip products represented 1% of the total food packaging net sales. Non-food packaging sales, which were primarily related to the sale of cans and ends, and outside revenue from the company's trucking and aircraft operations, represented 2% of the fiscal year 2017 net sales. Approximately 12% of the company's packaged foods were sold under its own brands, or licensed trademarks, including Seneca, Libby's, Aunt Nellie's, CherryMan, Green Valley, Read, and Seneca Farms. About 52% of the packaged foods were sold under private labels and 26% was sold to institutional food distributors. The remaining 10% was sold under a contract packing agreement with B&G Foods North America under the Green Giant label.
Eagle Family Foods Group LLC, doing business as Eagle Foods, is an American food company based in Cleveland, Ohio. The company was founded in 2015 by Paul Smucker Wagstaff after acquiring ownership of the Borden canned milk brands.
The William Underwood Company, founded in 1822, was an American food company best known for its flagship product Underwood Deviled Ham, a canned meat spread. The company had a key role in time-temperature research done at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1895 to 1896, which led to the development of food science and food technology as a profession.
Princes Group is an international food and drink group involved in the manufacture, import and distribution of branded and customer own-brand products. Founded in 1880 and headquartered in the UK, since 1989 it has been owned by the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation.
Gardein is a line of meat-free foods produced by Conagra Brands. In 2003, the company was founded by Yves Potvin, who remained as the CEO of Gardein until 2016. In November 2014, Pinnacle Foods purchased Gardein for $154 million. Pinnacle was acquired by Conagra in 2018.
The Campbell Soup Company, doing business as Campbell's, is an American company, most closely associated with its flagship canned soup products; however through mergers and acquisitions, it has grown to become one of the largest processed food companies in the United States with a wide variety of products under its flagship Campbell's brand as well as other brands including Pepperidge Farm, Snyder's of Hanover, V8, and Swanson. With its namesake brand Campbell's produces soups and other canned foods, baked goods, beverages, and snacks. It is headquartered in Camden, New Jersey.
Brynwood Partners is an American private equity investment firm focused on leveraged buyout and other control investments.
DeMet's Candy Company is a food company based in Connecticut, United States. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yıldız Holding.
International Home Foods (IHF) was an American manufacturer, distributor and marketer of food products, based in Parsippany, New Jersey. It was acquired in 2000 by ConAgra Foods and merged into ConAgra's Grocery Products division. IHF's best known brands were Chef Boyardee pasta products, Bumble Bee Seafood, PAM cooking spray, and Gulden's mustard.
Post Holdings, Inc. is an American consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in St Louis, Missouri with businesses operating in the center-of-the-store, refrigerated, foodservice, and food ingredient categories. Its Post Consumer Brands business manufactures, markets, and sells both branded and private label cereal products. Its Michael Foods Group business supplies value-added egg products and refrigerated potato products to the foodservice and food ingredient channels. Through its Post Refrigerated Retail business, Post offers potato, egg, sausage, and cheese refrigerated side dishes products. Post participates in the private brand food category through its investment in 8th Avenue Food & Provisions, a leading, private brand centric, consumer products holding company.