StarKist Tuna is a brand of tuna produced by StarKist Co., an American company formerly based in Pittsburgh's North Shore that is now wholly owned by

Dongwon Industries Dongwon Industries, Ltd. ( ko, 동원산업주식회사) is a South Korean seafood company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Founded by Kim Jae-chul in 1969, it is the main representative of the Dongwon , a family conglomerate comprising 15 af ...

of South Korea. It was purchased by Dongwon from the American food manufacturer Del Monte Foods on June 24, 2008, for slightly more than $300 million. In 2021, the headquarters were moved to

Reston, Virginia Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia and a principal city of the Washington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Reston's population was 63,226. Founded in 1964, Reston was influenced by the Garden City movem ...

History

Bob Hope - Star-Kist is the best Tuna, 1949

StarKist was founded in 1917 in San Pedro, California (known historically as "Fish Harbor") as the French Sardine Company of California, by Martin J. Bogdanovich (an immigrant from Croatia) and several partners. Bogdanovich is known for his innovations related to refrigeration of the seafood product with crushed ice. They first marketed tuna under the Starkist name in 1942. Bogdanovich died in 1944 and his son Joseph (1912–2005) took over the business. The company changed its name to Starkist Foods in 1953; at the time, its facility on

Terminal Island Terminal Island, historically known as Isla Raza de Buena Gente, is a largely artificial island located in Los Angeles County, California, between the neighborhoods of Wilmington and San Pedro in the city of Los Angeles, and the city of Long Be ...

was the largest tuna processing facility in the world. Since 1961 its mascot has been Charlie the Tuna, an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

tuna. Commercials usually featured the phrase "Sorry, Charlie". StarKist was acquired by the H.J. Heinz Company in 1963. In 1984, the Terminal Island cannery operations were shut down. In 1988, Heinz spun off its pet food brands (including its flagship

9Lives 9Lives is the name of a brand of cat food, owned by J.M. Smucker (after it acquired Big Heart Pet Brands, a former division of Del Monte in 2015) and introduced to the market by tuna processor StarKist Foods in 1959. It is best known for its ...

cat food brand, which was introduced as a tuna-based cat food in 1959) into a separate division (Joseph Bogdanovich became a Heinz vice-chairman). Heinz sold both divisions to Del Monte in 2002. In August 2015, StarKist settled a

class-action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action ...

claiming that the company was guilty of deliberately "under-filling" five-ounce cans of tuna. Earlier that same month, StarKist was sued, accused of

colluding Collusion is a deceitful agreement or secret cooperation between two or more parties to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading or defrauding others of their legal right. Collusion is not always considered illegal. It can be used to att ...

with Bumble Bee Foods and Chicken of the Sea to fix prices. On October 18, 2018, StarKist agreed to plead guilty to a felony price fixing charge as part of a broad collusion investigation of the canned tuna industry by the United States Department of Justice. On September 11, 2019, StarKist was fined $100 million, the maximum statutory fine. In September 2019, the plaintiffs who had signed up for the class-action lawsuit that was "settled" in August 2015 were finally paid their share of the settlement. Plaintiffs who signed up for the $50 in tuna certificates received a coupon good for $5.03 provided they buy at least three Starkist products totaling more than that amount. Plaintiffs who signed up for the $25 cash received a PayPal payment of $2.38 representing their share of the settlement after the law firm's costs had been deducted. In June 2021, StarKist announced plans to move its corporate headquarters with 80 employees to

in 2022.StarKist to drop anchor in Reston, Va.
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References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Official site

Image of workers picketing the StarKist cannery on Terminal Island, California,1984.
Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections,

Charles E. Young Research Library The Charles E. Young Research Library is one of the largest libraries on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. It initially opened in 1964, and a second phase of construction was completed ...

, University of California, Los Angeles. Seafood companies of the United States Del Monte Foods brands Fish processing companies Food product brands 2008 mergers and acquisitions

History

See also

References

External links