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 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, ...

and merged into ConAgra's Grocery Products division. IHF's best known brands were

Chef Boyardee 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. History After leaving his position as head ...

pasta products, Bumble Bee Seafood, PAM cooking spray, and

Gulden's Gulden's is the third largest American manufacturer of mustard, after French's and Grey Poupon. One of the oldest continuously operating mustard brands in the United States, it is now owned by agricultural giant ConAgra Foods. Gulden's is known ...

mustard.

History

The company was founded in November 1996 when

American Home Products Wyeth, LLC was an American pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1860 as ''John Wyeth and Brother''. It was later known, in the early 1930s, as American Home Products, before being renamed to Wyeth i ...

spun off its food business, American Home Foods, which was acquired by private equity firm

Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst HM Capital Partners was a private equity firm in the United States that specialized in leveraged buyouts. The firm was previously known as Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. It was founded in 1989 by Tom Hicks and John Muse as Hicks, Muse & Co. and was ch ...

and C. Dean Metropoulos & Co. and renamed International Home Foods. The latter paid to acquire 80% of IHF.

Dean Metropoulos Charles Dean Metropoulos ( el, Ντιν Μητρόπουλος; born May 1946 in Tripoli) is a Greek-American billionaire investor and businessman. He was the owner of Pabst Brewing Company, which was founded by Jacob Best in 1844. On the ''Forb ...

became chairman and CEO following the acquisition. In July 1997, IHF acquired Bumble Bee Seafoods out of bankruptcy protection for plus assumption of debt. IHF went public in November 1997 and subsequently made a number of acquisitions in quick succession. In March 1998 it acquired private-label foods producer Grist Mill Co. for , then bought Canadian canned meat and stew producer Puritan from

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...

subsidiary

Lipton Lipton is a British brand of tea, owned by Ekaterra. Lipton was also a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, later sold to Argyll Foods, after which the company sold only tea. The company is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, who fo ...

for followed by canned soup and pasta producer Venice Maid, and in August bought

Libby's 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, Switzerlan ...

canned meat business from

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

for . Following poor stock performance in 1998, its price dropping by over two-thirds in six months, IHF began looking for a buyer. The company's valuation issues were largely caused by investor disinterest in a company with such widely diversified brands. In December 1998, ConAgra offered IHF $20 per share but IHF rejected the offer as too low. This was followed by multiple negotiations with other companies over an 18 month period, none of which materialized. The company bought Canadian canned seafood brands Clover Leaf and Paramount in 1999 from

George Weston Ltd. George Weston Limited, often referred to as Weston or Weston's, is a Canadian food processing and distribution company. Founded by George Weston in 1882, the company today consists of Weston Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary, and Loblaw Companie ...

and later that year raised in 1999 with its sale of the Polaner fruit spreads brand to

B&G Foods B&G Foods is an American branded foods holding company based in Parsippany, New Jersey. The company was formed in 1996 to acquire Bloch & Guggenheimer, a Manhattan-based producer of pickles, relish and condiments which had been founded in 1889. ...

. Despite its lackluster stock performance, by 2000 the company had grown to annual sales of about . IHF was finally acquired in June 2000 by ConAgra Foods in a deal, $2 per share higher than ConAgra's initial 1998 offer. Much of the former IHF operation was integrated into ConAgra's

Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on ...

-based ConAgra Grocery Products division.

Brands

During its four years in operation, International Home Foods owned a variety of brands including: * Bumble Bee Seafood * Campfire marshmallows *

pasta * Clover Leaf Seafoods *

Crunch 'n Munch Crunch 'n Munch is an American brand of snack food produced by Conagra Brands consisting of caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts. It comes in its original form of Buttery Toffee, as well as Maple, Caramel, Chocolate & Caramel, Molasses, Almond Supre ...

popcorn * Dennison's chili * Grist Mill cereals *

mustard *

Jiffy Pop Jiffy Pop is a popcorn brand of ConAgra Foods. The product consists of popcorn kernels, oil, and flavoring agents contained within a foil-covered, disposable aluminum pan. Once the paper outer covering is removed, the pan is held by an attached ha ...

popcorn *

canned meats * Louis Kemp * Luck's canned foods *

Maypo Maypo is an American brand of hot cereals. The original product was maple flavored oatmeal but there are now a variety of flavors sold under the Maypo brand name. It was originally manufactured by Maltex Co. and is now owned by Homestat Farm, L ...

cereal * Orleans * PAM cooking spray * Paramount seafood * Polaner fruit spreads * Puritan stews * Ranch Style Beans *

Ro-Tel Ro-Tel (stylized as Ro★Tel) is the brand name of a line of canned tomatoes and green chili. There are different varieties of Ro-Tel in varying degrees of hotness and spiciness. The brand was acquired by ConAgra Foods in 2000 from Internatio ...

canned tomatoes and chilis * Venice Maid canned pasta and soup

References

External links

* {{ConAgra Conagra Brands Food and drink companies established in 1996 Companies based in Morris County, New Jersey 2000 mergers and acquisitions