La Choy (stylized La Choy 東) is a

brand name A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

of canned and prepackaged American Chinese food ingredients. The brand was purchased in 1990 from

Beatrice Foods 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 ...

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, restauran ...

during the LBO firm

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts 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 strate ...

' dismantling of the company and is still currently a property of ConAgra.

Early history

The company was founded in 1922 by Dr. Ilhan New, later founder of Yuhan Corporation in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, and Wallace J. "Wally" Smith from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. The first product, canned mung bean sprouts, was originally sold in Smith's

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

grocery store A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...

. New left the company for personal reasons in 1930, and Smith was killed by lightning in 1937. Regardless, the company flourished. By the late 1930s, management at the firm had developed a comprehensive line of food products, including bean sprouts,

soy sauce Soy sauce (also called simply soy in American English and soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and ''Aspergillus oryzae'' or '' As ...

subgum Subgum or sub gum (traditional: 什錦; simplified: 什锦; Cantonese: sap6 gam2; pinyin: shí jǐn; literally "ten brocades", metaphorically "numerous and varied") is a type of Chinese dish in which one or more meats or seafood are mixed with ...

kumquat Kumquats (; zh, 金桔), or cumquats in Australian English, are a group of small fruit-bearing trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae. Their taxonomy is disputed. They were previously classified as forming the now-historical genus ''For ...

water chestnut Water chestnut may refer to either of two plants (both sometimes used in Chinese cuisine): * The Chinese water chestnut ('' Eleocharis dulcis''), eaten for its crisp corm * The water caltrop The water caltrop is any of three extant species of th ...

s, brown sauce, bamboo shoots, and chow mein noodles. The company capitalized on the growing fascination Americans had with

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

, including an entirely different type of cuisine. In 1937, the company built its first manufacturing facility in Detroit, featuring of production space. To reduce overhead costs and maintain profitability during

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, management decided to relocate the company from its facility in Detroit about to

Archbold, Ohio Archbold is a village in Fulton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 4,346 at the 2010 census. Archbold is home to Northwest State Community College. It was designated a Tree City USA by the National Arbor Day Foundation in 1983. H ...

, in 1942. Selling its Detroit plant to the federal government for the production of

munitions Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

, the proceeds from the sale enabled the company to start a new era in its history. In 1943, the Beatrice Creamery Co. purchased La Choy Food Products. On June 23, 1957, three principals of the La Choy company, all from Archbold, appeared as contestants on the TV panel show ''

What's My Line ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...

''. As all three men had Irish surnames (Muldoon, McCarthy, and McDonough), they managed to stump the panel.

Marketing and advertising

A popular advertising

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...

from the 1970s included the slogan "LaChoy makes Chinese food swing American."

Muppets

Early in his career,

Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) and ...

created a series of television commercials from 1965 to 1967 featuring a Full-Bodied

Muppet The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are the focus of a media franchise that encompasses ...

character called Delbert the La Choy Dragon (performed by

Frank Oz Frank Oz (born Frank Richard Oznowicz; May 25, 1944) is an American actor, puppeteer, and filmmaker. He began his career as a puppeteer, performing the Muppet characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle in ''The Muppet Show ...

and voiced by

) which used the catchphrase "quick cooked in dragon fire" to describe the product. Delbert was accompanied in later commercials by a timid character named Mert (performed by

). Delbert was one of Oz's few full-bodied Muppet performances, since he did not like performing in their costumes.

Notes

External links

Official website

La Choy at ConAgra Foods

Muldoon, McCarthy, and McDonough on ''What's My Line''
(June 23, 1957) {{ConAgra Conagra Brands brands Products introduced in 1922 American Chinese cuisine Noodles American companies established in 1922 Food and drink companies established in 1922 1922 establishments in Michigan

Early history

Marketing and advertising

Muppets

See also

Notes

External links