Applegate Farms, LLC Bruke Marketing Corporation Cidade do Sol Columbus Manufacturing Inc. Dan's Prize Inc. Fontanini Foods Hormel Foods Australia Pty. Ltd. Hormel Foods Canada Jennie-O Justin's, LLC Megamex Foods, LLC Okinawa Hormel Ltd. The Purefoods-Hormel Company Inc. (joint venture with San Miguel Food and Beverage) Sadler's Smokehouse
Hormel Foods Corporation, commonly known as Hormel Foods or simply Hormel, 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 over 80 countries worldwide.
Building in which Geo. A. Hormel started his business. Now a museum
The company was founded as George A. Hormel & Company in Austin, Minnesota, by George A. Hormel in 1891. It changed its name to Hormel Foods in 1993.
George A. Hormel (born 1860 in Buffalo, New York) worked in a Chicagoslaughterhouse before becoming a traveling wool and hide buyer. His travels took him to Austin and he decided to settle there. He borrowed $500 and opened a meat business.[5] Hormel handled the production side of the business and his partner, Albert Friedrich, handled the retail. Their partnership dissolved in 1891 as Hormel started his own meat packing operation in northeast Austin in a creamery building on the Cedar River.[6][7][8]
In 1915, Hormel began selling dry sausages under the names of Cedar Cervelat, Holsteiner and Noxall Salami.[9]:79 Hormel products began appearing in national magazines, such as Good Housekeeping, as early as 1916.[10]
1920–1950
The Hormel plant circa 1920
In 1921, when George's son Jay Hormel returned from service in the World War I, he uncovered that assistant controller Cy Thomson had embezzled $1,187,000 from the company over the previous ten years.[11] The scandal provided George Hormel with additional incentive to professionalize his company. He did so by arranging for more reliable capital management, by dismissing unproductive employees, and by continuing to develop new products,[12]:90–103 reportedly with the mantra “Originate, don't imitate".[13] In 1926, the company introduced Hormel Flavor-Sealed Ham, America's first canned ham,[14] and added a canned chicken product line in 1928.[11] Throughout the 1930s, Hormel ads were featured on the radio program The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.[15]
Hormel Chili and Spam were introduced in 1936 and 1937 respectively.[16][11] In 1938, Jay C. Hormel introduced the "Joint Savings Plan" which allowed employees to share in the profits of the company.[17]
By 1942, George and Jay established the Hormel Foundation to act as trustees of the family trusts.[21] The Foundation funded the Hormel Institute at the University of Minnesota, initially started with a study of the food value of soybeans.[22] The institute's scope later grew towards studying nutrition, animal diseases and food technology. Hormel's production increased to aid in World War II and 65% of its products were purchased by the U.S. government by 1945.[9]:77–78
1950–2000
In 1959, Hormel was the first meatpacker to receive the Seal of Approval of the American Humane Society for its practice of anesthetizing animals before slaughter.[23][9]:270
This Is Hormel (1964) hot dog segment
Little Sizzlers sausages were introduced in 1961 and Cure 81 hams were introduced in 1963. Unfortunately Little Sizzler's sausage has been discontinued per 10/10/19 email from Hormel's Customer Service.[16]
Not-So-Sloppy-Joe Sloppy Joe sauce made its debut in 1985.[24] In 1986, Hormel Foods acquired Jennie-O Foods[14] and also began an exclusive licensing arrangement to produce Chi-Chi's brand products.[25] The following year, Hormel Foods introduced the Top Shelf line of microwavable non-frozen products. The company added to their poultry offerings by purchasing Chicken by George, created by former Miss AmericaPhyllis George, in 1988.[26] That same year, Hormel Foods also introduced microwave bacon.[27] In 1984, Hormel introduced the Frank 'n Stuff brand of stuffed hot dogs.[12]
In August 1985, Hormel workers went on strike at the Hormel headquarters in Austin, Minnesota. In the early 1980s, recession impacted several meatpacking companies, decreasing demand and increasing competition which led smaller and less-efficient companies to go out of business. In an effort to keep plants from closing, many instituted wage cuts. Wilson Food Company declared bankruptcy in 1983, allowing them to cut wages from $10.69 to $6.50 and significantly reduce benefits. Hormel Foods had avoided such drastic action, but by 1985, pressure to stay competitive remained.[28]
Workers had already labored under a wage freeze and dangerous working conditions, leading to many cases of repetitive strain injury. When management demanded a 23% wage cut from the workers they decided to begin the strike.[29] It became one of the longest strikes of the 1980s.
The local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local P-9, led the strike, but was not supported by their parent union. A commemorative mural painted by Mike Alewitz and P-9 workers during the strike was destroyed by the UFCW months after the strike ended.[30] The strike gained national attention and led to a widely publicized consumer boycott of Hormel products. The strike ended in June 1986, after lasting 10 months.
2000–2010
Spam Museum
The Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota, was opened in 2001.[31] That same year, Hormel Foods acquired The Turkey Store, the business was combined with Jennie-O Foods to form Jennie-O Turkey Store.[32]
According to Triple Pundit, Hormel Foods began CSR reporting in 2006.[33] The company has been included in Corporate Responsibility magazine's list of the "100 best corporate citizens" for 10 consecutive years.[34]
In 2008 an article in the New York Times, "SPAM Turns Serious and Hormel Turns Out More", detailed an overwhelming spike in the demand for SPAM, perhaps due to the flagging economy.[35] In 2009 Hormel and Herdez del Fuerte created the joint venture MegaMex Foods to market and distribute Mexican food in the United States.[36] Brands included in the venture include Herdez, La Victoria, Chi Chi's, El Torito, Embasa, Wholly Guacamole, Del Fuerte, Dona Maria, Bufalo, and Don Miguel.[37]
In September 2008, animal rights organization PETA released a video recorded over the course of three months showing workers at a pig factory farm in Iowa abusing pigs.[38] The factory farm was owned by Natural Pork Production II LLP of Iowa until August 18, 2008, at which point ownership had transferred to MowMar LLP.[39] Hormel spokeswoman Julie Henderson Craven, who responded to the PETA video, called the videotaped abuses "completely unacceptable."[40] In their 2007 Corporate Responsibility Report, Hormel Foods stated that all suppliers are expected to comply with several welfare programs to ensure that the hogs purchased are treated humanely. Because of the investigation, several employees of the farm were fired and six individuals faced charges due to the abuse.[41]
2010–present
Hormel Plant, Austin, MN in 2023
In 2011, Hormel Foods announced a two-for-one stock split.[42] In 2013, Hormel Foods purchased Skippy—the best-selling brand of peanut butter in China and the second-best-selling brand in the world—from Unilever for $700 million; the sale included Skippy's American and Chinese factories.[43]
In May 2015, Hormel revealed it would acquire meat processing firm Applegate Farms for around $775 million, expanding its range of meat products.[44]
In 2015, the Hormel Health Labs division of Hormel Foods launched its Hormel Vital Cuisine line of packaged ready to eat meals, nutrition shakes and whey protein powders geared towards cancer patients and made available for home delivery. The line was developed in concert with three parties, as "Hormel brought food formulation, packaging and shelf stability knowledge, (chef de cuisine) Ron DeSantis brought taste and texture expertise, and the Cancer Nutrition Consortium offered the nutritional framework."[45]
In 2015, SPAMMY became available for purchase under Title I for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) feeding programs and Title II for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programs under the name fortified poultry-based spread (FPBS).[46] Four years earlier, the company had made an initial three-year commitment to deliver 1 million cans of this product to in-need families in Guatemala.[47]
Also in 2015, after an undercover investigation by a group known as Compassion Over Killing at an Austin, Minnesota processing plant, Hormel Foods announced it was "bringing humane handling officers to a Quality Pork Processors Incorporated facility to ensure compliance with its own animal welfare standards."[48] It has also told QPP to provide extra training, enhance compliance oversight and increase third-party auditing.[48][49] According to Reuters, "in one scene of the video, pigs covered in feces or pus-filled abscesses are sent down the plant’s conveyor belt. At one point, a knife is used to cut open abscesses on dead pigs."[48]
In 2016, Peak Rock Capital purchased the Diamond Crystal Brands Inc. unit, purchased by Hormel in 2002 for $155 million from Imperial Sugar.[50][51] Also in 2016, Hormel acquired the nut butter producer Justin's for 280 million.[52]
In 2016, 2017, and 2018, the company was named as one of the Human Rights Campaign's Best Places to Work for LGBT equality.[53] In 2019, Hormel was again named to one of the best places to work for LGBT equality, as the company obtained a 95 out of 100 score in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. The almost-perfect score was due to the area of "equivalency in same and different-sex domestic partner medical and soft benefits", where Hormel received half-credit for providing parity in some, but not all, benefits.[54]
In 2017, Hormel sold Clougherty Packing, owner of the Farmer John and Saag's brands, to Smithfield Foods.[55]
In October 2017, Hormel announced it would acquire deli meat company Columbus Manufacturing for $850 million.[56]
In 2017, Mercy For Animals released undercover video footage of pigs being abused at The Maschhoffs LLC., a Hormel pork supplier in Hinton, Oklahoma, with piglets being castrated and having their tails cut off without any anesthetic, piglets left to suffer from untreated illness or injuries, and mother pigs crammed into gestation crates unable to move.[57] In response, Hormel temporarily suspended its buying from the supplier.[57]
According to the Military Times, the company has been listed in the top 100 Best for Vets Employers category consistently since 2013.[58]
In April 2019, together with Harvard University Dining Services, the company hosted the Small Change Big Impact Food Summit at Harvard University.[59]
In September 2019, Hormel Foods announced that they had achieved their non-renewable energy use reduction goal a year ahead of schedule.[60]
Also in September 2019, the company launched a vegetarian meat alternative called Happy Little Plants for foodservice and retail customers.[61]
On September 18, 2020, Hormel Foods hosted the world's largest virtual pizza party, when more than 3,000 people joined a Zoom-hosted pizza party. In order to break the record, at least 500 photos of individuals needed to be uploaded during the one-hour event. The final tally was 907 photos.[62]
In February 2021, Kraft Heinz announced it would be selling its Planters and its other nuts businesses to Hormel for $3.35 billion.[63]
On April 18, 2020, local health officials shut down a Hormel Foods plant in Rochelle, Illinois, that employed 800 people after at least 24 workers tested positive for coronavirus.[64] On April 21, Hormel announced the closure of three meat processing plants, including its Alma Foods plant in Alma, Kansas. That plant employs about 100 workers and at least one worker tested positive for the coronavirus.[65] Hormel also closed its Don Miguel Foods factory in Dallas, Texas, which is a joint venture with a Mexico City company, Herdez Del Fuerte. The plant made pork, beef and chicken burritos and tacos, and employed about 700 workers.[66] On April 24, Hormel announced the closure of two plants in Willmar, Minnesota, after 14 workers tested positive for coronavirus. These Jennie-O turkey plants employed over 1,200 workers.[67]
In October 2020, Hormel launched a bacon scented protective mask giveaway charity promotion.[68]
In 2009, California-based MegaMex Foods was created as a joint venture by US-based Hormel and Mexico-based Herdez del Fuerte to manufacture, market and distribute Mexican-style sauces and related other foods in the United States.[74] Initial brands included Chi-Chi's, La Victoria, Búfalo, Doña María, and Herdez.
Don Miguel Foods Corporation was acquired by MegaMex in 2010. Don Miguel manufactured fresh and frozen prepared foods, such as mini tacos, flautas, taquitos, empanadas, burritos and roller grill items.[75]
In 2011, MegaMex acquired Texas-based Fresherized Foods, one of the largest provider of refrigerated guacamole in the United States and the manufacturer of Wholly Guacamole, Wholly Salsa, and Wholly Queso.[76]
In 2021, MegaMex expanded their offerings to the wholesale food service industry by debuting their Tres Cocinas brand of pepper pastes.[77]
"Spam" is a Monty Python sketch, first televised in 1970 and written by Terry Jones and Michael Palin. In the sketch, two customers are lowered by wires into a greasy spoon café and try to order a breakfast from a menu that includes Spam in almost every dish, much to the consternation of one of the customers. As the waitress recites the Spam-filled menu, a group of Viking patrons drown out all conversations with a song, repeating "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam… Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam!".
Spam is a brand of processed canned pork and ham made by Hormel Foods Corporation. It was introduced in 1937 and gained popularity worldwide after its use during World War II. By 2003, Spam was sold in 41 countries on six continents.
Austin is a city in, and the county seat of, Mower County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 26,174 at the 2020 census. The town was originally settled along the Cedar River and has two artificial lakes, East Side Lake and Mill Pond. It was named for Austin R. Nichols, the area's first European settler.
SPAM Jam is a yearly festival of the popular meat product Spam. It is held in Austin, Minnesota, where Hormel food company produces the meat.
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.
Tyson Foods, Inc. is an American multinational corporation based in Springdale, Arkansas that operates in the food industry. The company is the world's second-largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork after JBS S.A. It annually exports the largest percentage of beef out of the United States. Together with its subsidiaries, it operates major food brands, including Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright Brand, Aidells, and State Fair. Tyson Foods ranked No. 79 in the 2020 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
Chi-Chi's can either refer to a defunct Mexican food restaurant chain founded in the United States in 1975, which continued in Europe only as a single restaurant after the North American owner declared bankruptcy and folded in 2004, or to its namesake brand of Mexican food grocery products produced and marketed when the original North American restaurant chain owner sold the rights to use its name on said products in 1987.
JBS USA Holdings, Inc. is a meat processing company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian multinational JBS S.A. The subsidiary was created when JBS entered the U.S. market in 2007 with its purchase of Swift & Company.
Jennie-O Turkey Store is a brand name of turkey products. It is a subsidiary of the Hormel Foods Corporation in Willmar, Minnesota.
Spam Cube, Inc was a high-tech startup company based in the midtown area of New York City. The company invented and manufactured the Spam Cube, a SaaS network security hardware device for consumers that blocked spam e-mail, computer viruses and phishing. The company invented a SaaS delivery platform technology that enables any home networking embedded device such as a Broadband cable modem, DSL modem, Wireless router or Femtocell to offer network Security As A Service technology that blocks spam e-mail, computer viruses and phishing. The Spam Cube SaaS platform gave the consumer the choice to select spam e-mail, computer viruses, and phishing blocking technology that was powered by either McAfee or Symantec managed enterprise Security As A Service technology.
Búfalo is a brand of hot sauce and other condiments produced by Herdez Group of Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico. Búfalo sauce has been produced since 1933. The company produces Búfalo and Tampico sauces, salsas, and other condiments. In the United States, English-labeled bottles are distributed by MegaMex Foods, a joint venture between Herdez and Hormel Foods.
Smithfield Foods, Inc., is a pork producer and food-processing company based in Smithfield, Virginia. It operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese-owned 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, slaughtering 32,000 pigs a day.
Cargill Meat Solutions is a subsidiary of the Minneapolis-based multinational agribusiness giant Cargill Inc, that comprises Cargill's North American beef, turkey, food service and food distribution businesses. Cargill Meat Solutions' corporate office is located in Wichita, Kansas, United States. Jody Horner is the division's president.
Spamarama (SPAMARAMA) is a long-time annual festival and competitive cookoff held in Austin, Texas, during 1978–2007 and in 2019 and 2022 to celebrate Spam, the branded canned pork product. The festival includes a Spam cook-off, Spam themed competitive activities, and live music.
The Spam Museum is an admission-free museum in Austin, Minnesota, dedicated to Spam, a brand of canned precooked meat products made by Hormel Foods Corporation. The museum tells the history of the Hormel company, the origin of Spam, and its place in world culture.
Burke Corporation is a manufacturer of pizza toppings and other fully cooked meat products for use in the restaurant, foodservice, and prepared foods industries. The company also specializes in custom product formulation for supply to private foodservice labels, serving more than 1,600 commercial customers. Burke is headquartered in Nevada, Iowa.
La Victoria is an American brand of Mexican food products, in particular jar and bottled salsas. They were founded in Los Angeles in 1917, and introduced the first jar salsa product in the US, Salsa Brava, a true Mexican-style salsa, still sold today. In 1941, Henry Tanklage created the La Victoria Sales Company, introducing green and red taco sauce, and enchilada sauces. They are currently a division of Hormel, one of their MegaMex Foods brands.
Pumpkin Spice Spam is a limited edition variety of Spam produced by Hormel Foods. It was released online on 23 September 2019, the first day of autumn. Spam is one of many brands to release pumpkin spice products for the autumn season, and is not the first meat product to be pumpkin spice flavored.
The meat industry has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Outbreaks of the virus took place in factories operated by the meat packing industry and the poultry processing industry. These outbreaks affected dozens of plants, leading to closures of some factories and disruption of others, and posed a significant threat to the meat supply in the United States. The damage the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the meatpacking industry was unexpected and resulted in a sharp reduction of meat processing and capacity reduction of meatpacking companies.
The 1985–1986 Hormel strike was a labor strike that involved approximately 1,500 workers of the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota in the United States. The strike, beginning August 17, 1985 and lasting until September 13 of the following year, is considered one of the longest strikes in Minnesota history and ended in failure for the striking workers.
1 2 3 4 Dougherty, Richard (1966). In Quest of Quality: Hormel's First 75 Years. Austin, Minnesota: Geo A. Hormel & Company. ASINB0006BOWUW. OCLC988269.
↑ Hormel Good Cheer ad. Good Housekeeping: International Magazine Company. 1916. p.4. Archived from the original on July 20, 2023. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
1 2 3 Frances Levinson (March 11, 1946). Hormel: The Spam Man. Time LIFE Inc. p.63. Archived from the original on July 20, 2023. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
1 2 Moore, Hank (April 5, 2016). Pop Icons and Business Legends: History of Commerce and Heritage of Culture. New York: Morgan James Publishing. p.124. ISBN978-1630478438. OCLC928111859.
↑ Special to the Minneapolis Tribune (April 19, 1955). "New President Chosen for Hormel Firm". Star Tribune. Star Tribune. Archived from the original on September 23, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018.(Subscription required.)
↑ "Hormel Wins Approval of Humane Practices". Honolulu Advertiser. April 17, 1959. p.9.
↑ "Annual Report on Form 10-k". SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
↑ S&P Global Market Intelligence. "Executive Profile: Richard Lyle Knowlton"(Employee Information Portal provided by Bloomberg.com). Healthcare Providers and Services Company Overview of Eisenhower Medical Center, Inc. Bloomberg. Archived from the original on April 29, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
Knowlton, Richard L.; Beyma, Ron (2010). Points of Difference: Transforming Hormel (1sted.). Garden City, NY: Morgan James. ISBN9781614481126. OCLC826657964.
Cooper, Jake (1988). Lessons of the P-9 Strike. San Francisco, CA: Socialist Action. OCLC40950771.
White, John H. (1986). The Great Yellow Fleet: A History of American Railroad Refrigerator Cars. San Marino, Calif.: Golden West Books. ISBN9780870950919. OCLC907747754.
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US$9.497 billion (2019) [2] 
