Beatrice Foods Company was a major American food processing company founded in 1894. In 1987, its international food operations were sold to
Reginald Lewis
Reginald F. Lewis (December 7, 1942 – January 19, 1993), was an American businessman. He was one of the richest black American men in the 1980s, and the first black American to build a billion-dollar company, TLC Beatrice International Holdings ...
, a corporate attorney, creating TLC Beatrice International, after which the majority of its domestic (U.S.) brands and assets were acquired by
KKR
KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strateg ...
,
with the bulk of its holdings sold off. By 1990, the remaining operations were ultimately acquired by
ConAgra Foods
Conagra Brands, Inc. (formerly ConAgra Foods) 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, ...
.
History
Early years
1894-1912
The Beatrice Creamery Company
was founded in 1894 by George Everett Haskell and
William W. Bosworth
William Welles Bosworth (May 8, 1869 – June 3, 1966) was an American architect whose most famous designs include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge campus, the original AT&T Building in New York City, and the Theodore N. Vail ...
, by leasing the factory of a bankrupt firm of the same name located in
Beatrice, Nebraska
Beatrice () is a city in and the county seat of Gage County, Nebraska, United States. Its population was 12,459 at the 2010 census. Beatrice is located approximately 25 miles south of Lincoln on the Big Blue River and is surrounded by agricultu ...
. At the time, they purchased butter, milk, and eggs from local farmers and graded them for resale. They promptly began separating the butter themselves at their plant, making their own butter on site and packaging and distributing it under their own label. They devised special protective packages and distributed them to grocery stores and restaurants in their own wagons and through jobbers. To overcome the shortage of cream, the partners established skimming stations to which farmers delivered their milk to have the cream, used to make butter, separated from the milk. This led to the introduction of their unique credit program of providing farmers with cream separators so they could separate the milk on the farm and retain the skim milk for animal food. This enabled farmers to pay for the separators from the proceeds of their sales of cream. The program worked so well, the company sold more than 50,000 separators in Nebraska from 1895 to 1905. On March 1, 1905, the company was incorporated as the Beatrice Creamery Company of Iowa, with capital of $3,000,000. By the early 20th century, they were shipping dairy products across the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, and by 1910 they operated nine creameries and three ice cream plants across the
Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
.
1913-1955
In 1913 the company moved to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, the center of the American food processing industry. By the 1930s, it was a major dairy company, producing some of
milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. Immune factors and immune ...
and of
ice cream
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...
annually. In 1939, Beatrice Creamery Company purchased
Blue Valley Creamery Company
Blue Valley Creamery Company was a company that operated many creameries and milk plants across the United States.
History
Before 1900, limitations in transportation and storage limited the geographic scope of creameries. To that time, creamerie ...
, the other Chicago-based dairy centralizer. This acquisition added at least 11 creameries from New York to South Dakota. Beatrice's 'Meadow Gold' brand was a household name in much of America by the beginning of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. In 1946, it changed its name to Beatrice Foods Co.
Their sales doubled between 1945 and 1955, as the
post-war baby boom created greater demand for milk products.
Major expansion years
Canada
From the late 1950s until the early 1970s, the company expanded into
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and purchased a number of other food firms, leveraging its distribution network to profit from a more diverse array of food and consumer products. It became the owner of brands such as
Avis Car Rental
Avis Car Rental is an American car rental company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. Avis, Budget Rent a Car, Budget Truck Rental and Zipcar are all units of Avis Budget Group.
Avis Budget Group operates the Avis brand in South Africa ...
,
Playtex
Playtex is an American brand name for undergarments, baby products, gloves, feminine hygiene products, and sunscreen. The brand began in 1947 when International Latex Corporation (ILC) created a division named Playtex to produce and sell latex p ...
,
Shedd's,
Tropicana Tropicana may refer to:
Companies
*Tropicana Entertainment, a former casino company that owned several Tropicana-branded casinos
*Tropicana Products, a Chicago-based food company known for orange juice
Hotels and nightclubs
*Tropicana Casino & Re ...
,
John Sexton & Co
John Sexton & Company, also known as Sexton Quality Foods, was a broad line national wholesale grocer that serviced the restaurant, hotel and institutional trade from regional warehouses and truck fleets located in major metropolitan areas of the ...
,
Good & Plenty
Good & Plenty is a brand of licorice candy. The candy is a narrow cylinder of sweet black licorice, coated in a hard candy shell to form a capsule shape. The pieces are colored bright pink and white and presented in a purple box or bag.
History
G ...
, and many others. Annual sales in 1984 were roughly
$12 billion.
Beatrice's
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
subsidiary,
Beatrice Foods Canada
Beatrice Foods Canada Ltd. is a dairy unit of Lactalis Canada based in Toronto. The Canadian unit of Beatrice Foods was founded in 1969 and separated from its American parent firm, Beatrice Foods in 1978. The Beatrice trademark in Canada is owned ...
, was founded in 1969 and became legally separate from its parent firm in 1978.
1955-1975
In 1968,
Sexton Foods
John Sexton & Company, also known as Sexton Quality Foods, was a broad line national wholesale grocer that serviced the restaurant, hotel and institutional trade from regional warehouses and truck fleets located in major metropolitan areas of the ...
was approached by Beatrice with an offer to purchase the John Sexton & Co. Beatrice was attracted to Sexton Quality Foods' distribution network, quality, variety of private-label products, specialized food offerings, sales force and profitability. Mack Sexton's initial response was no, but Beatrice Foods was very interested. Eventually both parties reached an agreement. Beatrice Foods increased the purchase price, pledged capital to expand Sexton Quality Foods' distribution network, pledged capital to introduce a new Sexton frozen product line, and pledged that the Sexton leadership would continue to lead and operate the company as a separate entity. On December 20, 1968, Beatrice acquired the business and assets of John Sexton & Co., exchanging about 375,000 shares of Beatrice's preferred convertible preference stock valued at $37,500,000. John Sexton & Co. became an independent division of Beatrice Foods, still led by Mack Sexton (son of Franklin), William Egan (son of Helen), and William Sexton (son of Sherman). Mack became a vice president of Beatrice and a Beatrice board member. John Sexton & Co put Beatrice Foods into the wholesale grocery business and Beatrice put John Sexton & Co. into the frozen foods business. Beatrice's and the Sexton's leadership were interested in maximizing the investment in John Sexton & Co. by growing the company.
1976-1980
Wallace Rasmussen was
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
of Beatrice Foods from 1976 until 1980, retiring after 47 years with the company.
During his tenure, Beatrice added several high-value acquisitions to its portfolio, most notably
Tropicana Products, Inc.
[
]
Final decade
1981-1984
During both the 1984 Winter
Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures ...
and Summer Olympics
The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...
, the corporation flooded the TV airwaves with advertisements letting the public know that many brands with which they were familiar were actually part of Beatrice Foods. These ads used the tagline (with a jingle) "We're Beatrice. You've known us all along." After the Olympics, advertisements for its products continued to end with the catchphrase "We're Beatrice" and an instrumental version of the "You've known us all along" portion of the jingle, as the red and white "Beatrice" logo would simultaneously appear in the bottom right hand corner. The campaign was found to alienate consumers, as it called attention to the fact that many of their favorite brands were part of a far-reaching multinational corporation. One commercial also mispronounced the name of the founding city. The campaign was pulled off the air by autumn.
At the 87th annual Beatrice shareholders’ meeting on June 5, 1984,[ stockholders of record were asked to change the name of the company. "Recognizing this clear departure from the past, we are proposing a new name for the company. At our annual meeting in June, stockholders will be asked to change the name to Beatrice Companies, Inc. from Beatrice Foods Co. This change is appropriate given the company's evolution and present composition. It reflects Beatrice's wide range of separate and distinct businesses, many with operations totally unrelated to food processing, yet retains the company's goodwill and reputation for quality products and services." Annual Report, February 29, 1984.
In June 1984, Beatrice acquired ]Esmark Esmark is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Birgitte Esmark (1841–1897), Norwegian malacologist
*Jens Esmark (1763–1839), Danish-Norwegian mineralogist, study of glaciers
*Lars Mathias Hille Esmark (1908–1998), Norwegian ci ...
. The Esmark acquisition was part of the company's strategy to focus Beatrice's assets in food and consumer products businesses. In addition to the Swift & Co. and Hunt-Wesson food brands, companies owned by Esmark included Avis Rent a Car
Avis Car Rental is an American car rental company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. Avis, Budget Rent a Car, Budget Truck Rental and Zipcar are all units of Avis Budget Group.
Avis Budget Group operates the Avis brand in South Africa ...
,[ ]Playtex
Playtex is an American brand name for undergarments, baby products, gloves, feminine hygiene products, and sunscreen. The brand began in 1947 when International Latex Corporation (ILC) created a division named Playtex to produce and sell latex p ...
, Jensen Electronics
{{Infobox company
, name = Jensen Electronics
, logo = Jensen Dsgnd To Move 4C 3D.jpg
, logo_size = 250px
, type = subsidiary
, foundation = 1915
, founder = Peter L. Jensen
, location ...
, and STP
STP may refer to:
Places
* São Tomé and Príncipe (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, IOC country code, and FIFA country code STP)
* London St Pancras (Domestic) railway station (National Rail code STP)
* St. Paul Downtown Airport (IATA airport code S ...
. Because of Esmark's national brands, direct sales force, distribution network and research and development capabilities, its acquisition was expected to accelerate the attainment of Beatrice's marketing goals. The company also sought a higher public profile, adding their name to the end of their brands' television commercials, and sponsoring the Newman-Haas
Newman/Haas Racing was an auto racing team that competed in the CART and the IndyCar Series from 1983 to 2011. The team operations were based in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Newman/Haas Racing was formed as a partnership between actor, automotive enth ...
IndyCar
INDYCAR, LLC, is an American-based auto racing sanctioning body for Indy car racing and other disciplines of open wheel car racing. The organization sanctions five racing series: the premier IndyCar Series with its centerpiece the Indianapolis ...
and Haas Lola
Team Haas (USA) Ltd., sometimes called Beatrice Haas after its major sponsor, was an American Formula One team founded by Carl Haas in 1984 after an agreement with Beatrice Foods, a US consumer products conglomerate, which competed in the World ...
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
racing teams. Many analysts believe the Esmark acquisition, which was pushed by then Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President James L. Dutt, put too much of a debt load on Beatrice, which hurt Beatrice's credit rating and therefore deflated the value of Beatrice stock
In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...
.
1985-1986
1985, Beatrice sold their Beatrice Chemical division to Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain.
It was formed by the merger of four leading British chemical companies in 1926.
Its headquarters were at M ...
. Stahl Finish, Paule Chemical, Polyvinyl Chemical Industries, Converters Ink Company, and Thoro System Products were the business units that formed Beatrice Chemical. Other divisions sold to pay off the debt from the Esmark purchase included Brillion Iron Works
Brillion Iron Works, or BIW, was a foundry and a manufacturer of farm implements located in Brillion, Wisconsin. BIW produced approximately 145,000 net tons of gray and ductile iron castings annually, ranking it among the top ten independent foun ...
, World Dryer
World Dryer Corporation is a Berkeley, Illinois based manufacturer of hand dryers and related products. Established in 1950 with the Model A, it was a subsidiary of Beatrice Foods, has been a subsidiary of Carrier Corporation, and in 2017 joined ...
, STP
STP may refer to:
Places
* São Tomé and Príncipe (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, IOC country code, and FIFA country code STP)
* London St Pancras (Domestic) railway station (National Rail code STP)
* St. Paul Downtown Airport (IATA airport code S ...
, and Buckingham Wine (distributors of Cutty Sark
''Cutty Sark'' is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Leven, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of ...
whisky).
In 1986, Beatrice became the target of leveraged buyout
A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loan ...
specialists KKR
KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strateg ...
and they ultimately purchased the firm[ for $8.7 billion. At the time this was the largest leveraged buyout in history — and over the next four years it was sold off, division by division.
Beatrice's ]Coca-Cola bottling operations
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance bar, temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pembe ...
(acquired by Beatrice in 1981) were acquired by The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, ...
for $1 billion
in 1986. They were shortly spun off as Coca-Cola Enterprises
Coca-Cola Enterprises was a marketer, producer, and distributor of Coca-Cola products. It was formerly the anchor bottler for Western Europe and most of North America.
Coca-Cola Enterprises' products included Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, ...
Beatrice Bottled Water Division
Beatrice may refer to:
* Beatrice (given name)
Places In the United States
* Beatrice, Alabama, a town
* Beatrice, Humboldt County, California, a locality
* Beatrice, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Beatrice, Indiana, an unincorporated c ...
(acquired with the Coca-Cola operations) with brands such as Arrowhead Drinking Water
Arrowhead Water, also known as Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water, is a brand of drinking water that is sold in the western United States, particularly in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, the Northwest, and in California. It is bottled from 13 spri ...
, Ozarka Drinking Water
Ozarka is a brand of spring water which is bottled and sold in the South Central United States, including Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico, Mississippi, and portions of Tennessee, Kansas and Missouri. The Ozarka Spring Water C ...
, and Great Bear Drinking Water
Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements
* Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size
* Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent
People
* List of people known as "the Great"
*Artel Great (born ...
were also sold to Perrier
Perrier ( , also , ) is a French brand of natural bottled mineral water obtained at its source in Vergèze, located in the Gard ''département''. Perrier is known for its carbonation and its distinctive green bottle.
Perrier was part of the ...
in 1987.
In December 1986, a group of Company executives, together with Drexel Burnham Lambert
Drexel Burnham Lambert was an American multinational investment bank that was forced into bankruptcy in 1990 due to its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by senior executive Michael Milken. At its height, it was a ...
bought International Playtex, Inc.
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* International (Kevin Michael album), ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* International (New Order album), ' ...
in a leveraged buyout and named the newly private organization Playtex Holdings
Playtex is an American brand name for undergarments, baby products, gloves, feminine hygiene products, and sunscreen. The brand began in 1947 when International Latex Corporation (ILC) created a division named Playtex to produce and sell latex p ...
. Playtex
Playtex is an American brand name for undergarments, baby products, gloves, feminine hygiene products, and sunscreen. The brand began in 1947 when International Latex Corporation (ILC) created a division named Playtex to produce and sell latex p ...
included such former Esmark brands as Max Factor
Max Factor is a line of cosmetics from Coty, Inc. It was founded in 1909 as Max Factor & Company by Max Factor, Sr., Maksymilian Faktorowicz.
Max Factor specialized in movie make-up. Until its 1973 sale for US$500 million (approximately $ billio ...
, Playtex Living Gloves
Playtex is an American brand name for undergarments, baby products, gloves, feminine hygiene products, and sunscreen. The brand began in 1947 when International Latex Corporation (ILC) created a division named Playtex to produce and sell latex p ...
, Playtex Products
Playtex is an American brand name for undergarments, baby products, gloves, feminine hygiene products, and sunscreen. The brand began in 1947 when International Latex Corporation (ILC) created a division named Playtex to produce and sell latex p ...
, Almay
Almay is an American cosmetics brand owned by Revlon which markets products toward people with sensitive skin.
History
The Almay Brand was originally established in 1931 and was named after the founders, Alfred and Fanny May Woititz. The crea ...
, Jhirmack, and Halston/Orlane.
The Beatrice Dairy Products subsidiary, which included the brands of Meadow Gold, Hotel Bar Butter
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
, Keller's Butter, Mountain High Yogurt, and Viva Milk Products
Viva may refer to:
Companies and organisations
* Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator
* Viva Air, a Spanish airline taken over by flag carrier Iberia
* Viva Air Dominicana
* VIVA Bahrain, a telecommunication company
* Vi ...
, to Borden, Inc.
Borden, Inc., was an American producer of food and beverage products, consumer products, and industrial products. At one time, the company was the largest U.S. producer of dairy and pasta products. Its food division, Borden Foods, was based in ...
in December 1986 for $315,000,000.
Other divisions sold in 1986 included Americold
Americold Realty Trust, Inc. is an American temperature-controlled warehousing and transportation company based in Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County ...
and Danskin.
1987-1990
Brands like Samsonite
Samsonite International S.A. () is an American premium luggage manufacturer and retailer, with products ranging from large suitcases to small toiletries bags and briefcases. The company was founded in Denver, Colorado, United States.
Its regis ...
, Culligan
Culligan is a global water treatment company with network of dealers and direct operations spawn across 90 countries with 1,000 dealers, over 600 in North America alone, and over 7,500 employees.
History
Culligan was founded in 1936 by Emmett C ...
, Stiffel Lamps
''Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Stiffel Co.'', 376 U.S. 225 (1964), was a United States Supreme Court case which limited state law on unfair competition when it prevents the copying of an item that is not covered by a patent.
Justice Hugo Black wrote ...
, del mar window coverings, Louver Drape window coverings, Aristokraft kitchen cabinets, Day-Timer
Day-Timer is an American manufacturer of personal organizers and other paper-based time management and organizational tools. It was founded in 1951 and by the 1980s had a popular and successful business. In the 21st century, however, the compan ...
planner, Waterloo Industries
Waterloo most commonly refers to:
* Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat
* Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place.
Waterloo may also refer to:
Other places
Antarctica
*King George Island (S ...
tool boxes, Aunt Nellies
An aunt is a woman who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent. Aunts who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. Known alternate terms include auntie or aunty. Children in other cultures and families may refer ...
and Martha White
Martha White is an American brand of flour, cornmeal, cornbread mixes, cake mixes, muffin mixes, and similar products.
The Martha White brand was established as the premium brand of Nashville, Tennessee-based Royal Flour Mills in 1899. At that ti ...
were merged into a new entity called E-II Holdings, which was later purchased by American Brands
Fortune Brands was a holding company founded in 1969 as American Brands, renamed in 1997 and split apart in 2011. The corporate headquarters was in Deerfield, Illinois, in the United States. The company had diversified product lines. It announced ...
for 1.14 billion. E-II was created in June, 1987, as an umbrella company for several non-food and specialty food businesses of Beatrice. Meshulam Riklis
Meshulam Riklis ( he, משולם ריקליס; 2 December 1923 – 25 January 2019) was an Israeli financier and businessman.
Early years
Born in Istanbul to a Russian-Jewish family, Riklis grew up in Tel Aviv, and attended the Herzliya Hebrew ...
bought E-II from American Brands in 1988; American Brands bought back Aristokraft, Day-Timer, Waterloo, Twentieth Century and Vogel Peterson.
Tropicana Products
Tropicana Brands (''pronounced as'' traa·puh·ka·nuh) is a former 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, but in August 2021, ...
was sold to Seagram
The Seagram Company Ltd. (which traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Originally a distiller of Canadian whisky based in Waterloo, Ontario, it was once (in the 1990s) the lar ...
for $1.2 billion in 1988.
All of the international operations were folded into a new entity called Beatrice International Holdings in 1987, which was later purchased that year through junk bond financing for $985 million by Reginald Lewis
Reginald F. Lewis (December 7, 1942 – January 19, 1993), was an American businessman. He was one of the richest black American men in the 1980s, and the first black American to build a billion-dollar company, TLC Beatrice International Holdings ...
, a corporate attorney, creating TLC Beatrice International. TLC Beatrice International became the largest business in America owned by an African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
and the first company to reach a billion dollars in sales, with a black man at its head. TLC Beatrice sold the Canadian operations; Beatrice Foods Canada, Ltd., in 1990 to Onyx and then Beatrice Foods later ended up in the hands of Parmalat in 1997.
In 1987, KKR had formed a new entity, with similar intent as E-II Holdings, called Beatrice Company, which was specifically created to include Beatrice Cheese
Beatrice may refer to:
* Beatrice (given name)
Places In the United States
* Beatrice, Alabama, a town
* Beatrice, Humboldt County, California, a locality
* Beatrice, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Beatrice, Indiana, an unincorporated co ...
, Beatrice-Hunt/Wesson, and Swift-Eckrich
Beatrice Foods Company was a major American food processing company founded in 1894. In 1987, its international food operations were sold to Reginald Lewis, a corporate attorney, creating TLC Beatrice International, after which the majority of ...
. In 1990, KKR sold Beatrice Company to Conagra Brands
Conagra Brands, Inc. (formerly ConAgra Foods) is an American Fast-moving consumer goods, consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Conagra makes and sells products under various brand names that are available in ...
. Most of Beatrice's brand names still exist, but under various other owners, as trademarks and product lines were sold separately to the highest bidder.
Controversies
Through the 1980s, Beatrice was a co-defendant alongside W.R. Grace and Company
W. R. Grace and Co. is an American chemical business based in Columbia, Maryland. It produces specialty chemicals and specialty materials in two divisions: Grace Catalysts Technologies, which makes catalysts and related products and technologies ...
in a lawsuit alleging that the Riley Tannery, a division of Beatrice Foods, had dumped toxic waste which contaminated an underground aquifer that supplied drinking water to East Woburn, Massachusetts
Woburn ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,876 at the 2020 census. Woburn is located north of Boston. Woburn uses Massachusetts' mayor-council form of governme ...
. The case became the subject of the popular book and film ''A Civil Action
''A Civil Action'' is a 1995 non-fiction book by Jonathan Harr about a water contamination case in Woburn, Massachusetts, in the 1980s. The book became a best-seller. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction.
The case is ...
''. Federal judge Walter Jay Skinner
Walter Jay Skinner (September 12, 1927 – May 8, 2005) was a United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Education and career
Born in Washington, D.C., Skinne ...
ruled that Beatrice was not responsible for the contamination, although according to the book and film, based on new evidence brought forward by the EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
later found, Judge Skinner reversed his verdict and found both companies responsible.
In the 1980s, the firm operated in South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
during apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
. As a private company, the campaign of divestment
In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for financial, ethical, or political objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm. A divestment is the opposite of an investment. Divestiture is a ...
could not lower its stock price and thus had no impact on its business activities.
Current era
The original Beatrice Companies (Beatrice Foods Co. before 1984, and Beatrice Creamery Company[ before 1946][) went dormant in the late 1980s, but was revived in 2007. The Beatrice of today goes by its 1984 name of Beatrice Companies, which was approved by the 1984 stockholder meeting.
]
Former Beatrice brands
* Absopure distilled and spring water
* Accurate Threaded Fasteners
* Acryon leisure and household products
* Advanced Nutrition Formula, Agri-Products
* A.H.Schwab children's play products
* A.J. ten, Doesschate, Holland
* Airstream
Airstream is an American brand of travel trailer ("caravan" in British English) easily recognized by the distinctive shape of its rounded and polished aluminum coachwork. This body shape dates back to the 1930s and is based on the Bowlus Road C ...
* Allison leisure apparel
* All-Pro leisure apparel
* Altoids
Altoids are a brand of mints, sold primarily in distinctive metal tins. The brand was created by the London-based Smith & Company in the 1780s, and became part of the Callard & Bowser company in the 19th century. Their advertising slogan is "The ...
* American Hostess ice cream
* American Pickles
* Antoine's food products
* Aqua Queen garden equipment
* Argosy recreational vehicles
* Arist O' Kraft cabinets
* Armitage Realty Co.
* Arrowhead Water
Arrowhead Water, also known as Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water, is a brand of drinking water that is sold in the western United States, particularly in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, the Northwest, and in California. It is bottled from 13 spri ...
* Assumption Abbey wine products
* Aunt Nellie's food products
* Avan recreational vehicles
* Avis
Avis is Latin for bird and may refer to:
Aviation
*Auster Avis, a 1940s four-seat light aircraft developed from the Auster Autocrat (abandoned project)
*Avro Avis, a two-seat biplane
*Scottish Aeroplane Syndicate Avis, an early aircraft built by ...
* Banner painting equipment
* Barbara Dee cookies
* Barcrest beverage mixes
* Beatreme dairy products and flavorings
* Beatrice dairy products
* Becky Kay's cookies
* Beefbreak meat specialties
* Beeforcan meat specialties
* Beneke bathroom accessories
* Best Jet painting equipment
* Bickford food products
* Bighorn specialty meats
* Big Pete specialty meats
* Bireley's
Bireley's is a brand of non-carbonated, fruit-flavored soft drinks originally produced by the Frank W. Bireley Company (later Bireley's Inc.), established in California in 1923 by Frank W. Bireley. The brand grew rapidly, becoming known througho ...
orange drink (Asahi Soft Drinks
is a soft drink company founded in 1982 and headquartered in the Azuma-bashi district of Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It is a subsidiary of Asahi Breweries. The company sponsors the Asahi Soft Drinks Challengers, an American football team in the Japane ...
)
* Bloomfield Industries
* Blue Ribbon condiments
* Blue Valley Creamery Company
Blue Valley Creamery Company was a company that operated many creameries and milk plants across the United States.
History
Before 1900, limitations in transportation and storage limited the geographic scope of creameries. To that time, creamerie ...
* Body Shaper plumbing supplies
* Bogene closet accessories
* Boizet specialty food products
* Bonanza mini-motorhomes
* Binkers cat treats
* Bosman barbecue equipment
* Bowers candies
* Bredan butter
* Brenner candy
* Brillion Iron Works
Brillion Iron Works, or BIW, was a foundry and a manufacturer of farm implements located in Brillion, Wisconsin. BIW produced approximately 145,000 net tons of gray and ductile iron castings annually, ranking it among the top ten independent foun ...
* Brookside wine products
* Brown Miller condiments
* Brown 'N Serve
* Bubble Stream plumbing equipment
* Burny Bros. Bakery
* Butterball
Butterball is a brand of turkey and other poultry products produced by Butterball LLC. The company manufactures food products in the United States and internationally — specializing in turkey, cured deli meats, raw roasts and specialty pr ...
* Butterchef Bakery
* Buttercrust baked goods
* Buxton leather accessories
* Byrons barbecue
* California Products beverage mixes
* Campus Casuals sport clothing
* Captain Kids food products
* Cartwheels travel bags
* CCA Furniture accessories
* Chapelcord school and religious apparel
* Charmglow barbecue grills and outdoor products
* Checkers beverages
* Chicago red wine products
* Chicago specialty plumbing tools and supplies
* Churngold condiments
* Cincinnati Fruit condiments and fountain syrups
* Citro Crest beverage mixes
* Clark candy
* Classic travel bags
* Classy Crisps
* Colonial Cookie, Canada
* Colorado By-Products, Agri-Products
* Converts Ink CONCO
* Cremo Limited, Jamaica
* Cook n' Cajun barbecue equipment
* Costello's food products
* Country Hearth baked goods
* County Line cheeses
* Cow Boy Jo's meat specialities
* Culligan
Culligan is a global water treatment company with network of dealers and direct operations spawn across 90 countries with 1,000 dealers, over 600 in North America alone, and over 7,500 employees.
History
Culligan was founded in 1936 by Emmett C ...
* C.W. pickles
* Dannon yogurt
Danone S.A. () is a French multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of the company's products ar ...
* Day-Timers
* Eckrich Eckrich is a prepared meat brand owned by Smithfield Foods, a subsidiary of China's WH Group. Eckrich sells smoked sausages, cold cuts, hot dogs, corn dogs, Vienna sausages, breakfast sausages and bacon under the Eckrich brand name.
History
Eckri ...
* E.R. Moore Co.
* Etablissements Baud, Paris, France
* Farboil Paint Co.
* Fibreite Composites
* Franprix
* Gebhardt Mexican foods
* Geerpres
* Good & Plenty
Good & Plenty is a brand of licorice candy. The candy is a narrow cylinder of sweet black licorice, coated in a hard candy shell to form a capsule shape. The pieces are colored bright pink and white and presented in a purple box or bag.
History
G ...
* Harman Kardon
Harman Kardon (stylized as ) is a division of US-based Harman International Industries, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, and manufactures home and car audio equipment.
Harman Kardon was originally founded in 1953 by business partners, Sid ...
* Hart Skis
Hart Ski Corporation is a United States based manufacturer of downhill skis, originally of St. Paul, Minnesota and currently headquartered in Ogden, Utah.
Hart history
In 1943, Hartvig “Hart” Holmberg opened a carpentry shop in St. Paul, ...
* Helados Calatayud, Spain
* Henry Berry & Co, Australia
* Hunt's
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 San ...
* Imperial Oil & Grease
* JH Rhodes
* Jolly Rancher
Jolly Rancher is an American brand of sweet hard candy, gummies, jelly beans, lollipops, sour bites, and a line of soda put out by Elizabeth Beverage Company in 2004. It is currently manufactured by The Hershey Company.
History
Bill and Doroth ...
* Kalise Menorquina
Kalise is a Spanish ice cream and dessert manufacturing company, established in 1960 and based on Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands. The company was part of the "Grupo Kalise–La Menorquina S.A.", after merging with another ice c ...
* Kobey's
* Krispy Kreme
Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain.
Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans ch ...
* La Choy
La Choy (stylized La Choy 東) is a brand name of canned and prepackaged American Chinese food ingredients. The brand was purchased in 1990 from Beatrice Foods by ConAgra Foods during the LBO firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts' dismantling of the compa ...
* Lakeview Pure Milk, Ltd.
* Little Brownie cookies
* LouverDrape
* Ma Brown jams, jellies, pickles
* Mario olives
* Market Forge Industries Inc.
* Martha White
Martha White is an American brand of flour, cornmeal, cornbread mixes, cake mixes, muffin mixes, and similar products.
The Martha White brand was established as the premium brand of Nashville, Tennessee-based Royal Flour Mills in 1899. At that ti ...
* Melnor
* Meadow Gold
* Mid-America Container
* Milk Duds
Milk Duds are a brand of chocolate-coated caramel candies produced by The Hershey Company. The candy is a caramel ball covered with a confectionery chocolate coating made from cocoa and vegetable oil. Milk Duds are sold in a yellowish-orange box. ...
* Monson Printing & Monroe Paper Company
* Morgan Yacht Company
* Mrs. Leland's Candy
* Now and Later
Now and Later is an American brand of fruit-flavored taffy-like candy manufactured by Ferrara Candy Company. The candy is formed into squares packaged in colorful paper. Twelve flavors are currently available in both Traditional and Chewy var ...
* Orville Redenbacher's
Orville Redenbacher's is an American brand of popcorn made originally by Chester Inc. which was owned by Charles F. Bowman and Orville Redenbacher (who starred in nearly all the commercials until his death in 1995). The product was launched to t ...
* The Ozarka Spring Water Company
* Patra Holdings Pty., Ltd., Australia
* Pauly of Wisconsin
* Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...
* Pfister & Vogel Pfister & Vogel (P&V) was an American tannery business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Frederick Vogel emigrated from Wurtemberg, Germany to Milwaukee. In 1848, he founded a tannery on Milwaukee's Menominee River. Having also emigrated from Wurtemberg ...
* Pik-Nik
* Playtex
Playtex is an American brand name for undergarments, baby products, gloves, feminine hygiene products, and sunscreen. The brand began in 1947 when International Latex Corporation (ILC) created a division named Playtex to produce and sell latex p ...
* Polyvinyl Chemical Group
* Premier Ice Cream Co., Denmark
* Red Tulip, Australia
* Regal Packer By-Products, Agri-Products
* Rosarita
* Rudolph Foods
* Rusty Jones
* Samsonite
Samsonite International S.A. () is an American premium luggage manufacturer and retailer, with products ranging from large suitcases to small toiletries bags and briefcases. The company was founded in Denver, Colorado, United States.
Its regis ...
* Sanson Gelati, S.p.A., Verona, Italy
* Sap's Donuts
* Sexton Foods
John Sexton & Company, also known as Sexton Quality Foods, was a broad line national wholesale grocer that serviced the restaurant, hotel and institutional trade from regional warehouses and truck fleets located in major metropolitan areas of the ...
* Shedd's
* Snowco
* Soup Starter
* Stahl Finish
* Stiffel Lamps
* Swift Ice Cream
* Swift's Premium
* Swiss Miss
* Switzer licorice
* Taylor Freezer Corporation
* Termicold
* THORO, Weatherproofing products
* Treasure Cave
* Tropicana Tropicana may refer to:
Companies
*Tropicana Entertainment, a former casino company that owned several Tropicana-branded casinos
*Tropicana Products, a Chicago-based food company known for orange juice
Hotels and nightclubs
*Tropicana Casino & Re ...
* Utah By-Products, Agri-Products
* V-H Quality Foods, Canada
* Vigortone, Agri-Products
* Vogel-Peterson
* Wells Manufacturing
* Western By-Products, Agri-Products
* Waterloo Industries, Inc.
* Wesson
* World Dryer hand dryers
Beatrice Foods Canada
Beatrice Foods Canada is a Toronto, Ontario
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
-based dairy unit of Parmalat
Parmalat S.p.A. is a dairy and food corporation which is a subsidiary of French multinational company Lactalis. It was founded by Calisto Tanzi in 1961.
Having become the leading global company in the production of long-life milk using ultra-h ...
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. The Canadian unit of Beatrice Foods was founded in 1969, and was separated from Beatrice Foods in 1978.
Consequently, Beatrice's Canadian unit was not affected by the buyout of its founders and remained in business as one of Canada's largest food processing concerns.
In 1997 Beatrice Foods Canada was acquired by Parmalat. At first, Parmalat dropped the Beatrice name from the company's products, but reinstated it in late 2005, while the Italian parent company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
was being investigated.
See also
* Lee Archer, head of North Street Capital Corporation and Archer Asset Management
* A Civil Action
''A Civil Action'' is a 1995 non-fiction book by Jonathan Harr about a water contamination case in Woburn, Massachusetts, in the 1980s. The book became a best-seller. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction.
The case is ...
* List of defunct consumer brands
This is a list of defunct consumer brands which are no longer made and usually no longer mass-marketed to consumers. Brands in this list may still be made, but are only made in modest quantities and/or limited runs as a nostalgic or retro style it ...
References
External links
Parmalat Canada
Beatrice Canada
Beatrice Companies, Inc.
Beatrice Archives
{{Authority control
Food and drink companies established in 1894
Food and drink companies disestablished in 1990
Defunct manufacturing companies based in California
Defunct consumer brands
Dairy products companies of the United States
Dairy products companies of Canada
Defunct food and drink companies of Canada
Food and drink companies based in California
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies
Lactalis
Private equity portfolio companies
Condiment companies of the United States
Conagra Brands
1894 establishments in Nebraska
1990 disestablishments in California
1990 mergers and acquisitions