Pinnacle Foods, Inc., is a packaged foods company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey that specializes in

shelf-stable Shelf-stable food (sometimes ambient food) is food of a type that can be safely stored at room temperature in a sealed container. This includes foods that would normally be stored refrigerated, but which have been processed so that they can be s ...

and

frozen food Freezing food Food preservation, preserves it from the time it is prepared to the time it is eaten. Since early times, farmers, fishermen, and trappers have preserved grains and produce in unheated buildings during the winter season. Freezing foo ...

s. The company became a subsidiary of

Conagra Brands 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, ...

on October 26, 2018.

History

The company was founded in 1998 as "Vlasic Foods International", acquiring the

Swanson Swanson is a brand of TV dinners, broths, and canned poultry made for the North American and Hong Kong markets. The former Swanson Company was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, where it developed improvements of the frozen dinner. The TV dinner busi ...

TV dinner A frozen meal, also called a TV dinner (Canada and US), prepackaged meal, ready-made meal, ready meal (UK), frozen dinner, or microwave meal, is a meal portioned for an individual. A frozen meal in the United States and Canada usually consists ...

s, Open Pit, and

Vlasic Pickles Vlasic is an American brand of pickles that is currently owned by Conagra Brands. Since its introduction in 1942, it has become one of the most popular pickle brands in the United States. History Franjo "Frank" Vlašić, a Bosnian Croat, emigr ...

brands from the

Campbell Soup Company The Campbell's Company (doing business as Campbell's and formerly known as the Campbell Soup Company) is an American company, most closely associated with its flagship canned soup products. The classic red-and-white can design used by many Campbe ...

. Between 2001 and 2007 the spinoff of former Campbell Soup Company branded food lines was owned by the Metropoulos Group which named it Pinnacle Foods. In 2007, Pinnacle Foods was acquired by the

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman ...

, a New York City-based private equity firm. In 2013, Pinnacle Foods' Parsippany office was named '' Inc. Magazine's'' "World's Coolest Office." That year, Pinnacle Foods had its

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

, raising approximately $580 million for its owners, the private equity

. Shares began trading under the ticker symbol PF on April 4 at the upper range of its offering, $20 per share, thereby valuing Pinnacle Foods with a market capitalization of $2.3 billion. In May 2014,

Hillshire Brands The Hillshire Brands Company was an American food company based in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to its acquisition by Tyson Foods, the company employed over 9,000 people and generated nearly $4 billion in annual sales. History Founding and early ye ...

announced it was buying Pinnacle Foods for $4.23 billion in a

cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In book-keeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-i ...

and

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

deal. Hillshire Brands' portfolio includes

Jimmy Dean Jimmy Ray Dean (August 10, 1928 – June 13, 2010) was an American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman. He was the creator of the Jimmy Dean (brand), Jimmy Dean sausage brand as well as the spokesman for its TV comm ...

Ball Park A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into two field sections called the infield and the outfield. The infield is an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined in part ba ...

, and

Sara Lee Sara may refer to: People * Sara (given name), a feminine given name People with the given name * Sara Aboobacker (1936–2023), Indian writer and translator * Sara Ahmed (born 1969), British-Australian writer * Sara Allgood (1880–1950), Ir ...

. But on June 30, 2014, it was announced that Pinnacle Foods had scrapped its sale to Hillshire Brands, which would allow Hillshire Brands to be acquired by

Tyson Foods 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 broiler industry, chicken, beef, and pork after JBS ...

. Pinnacle was to receive a $163 million payment as part of the breakup from Hillshire, and also receive an expected $25 million in one-time costs connected to the scotched sale. In March 2016, it was announced that CEO Robert Gamgort would be leaving Pinnacle Foods to be the new CEO of

Keurig Green Mountain Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. ( ), formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (1979–2014) and Keurig Green Mountain (2014–2018), is a publicly traded American beverage and coffeemaker conglomerate with headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, and F ...

. Mark A. Clouse, formerly of Mondelēz, succeeded Gamgort as CEO of the company. In June 2018,

Conagra 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, ...

announced it would acquire Pinnacle Foods for $8.1 billion. The sale was completed on October 26, 2018 and the company was delisted in the NYSE.

Other acquisitions

In March 2004, Pinnacle Foods acquired Aurora Foods of

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

. Two years later, it acquired the food business of

Dial Corporation Henkel Corporation, doing business as Henkel North American Consumer Goods and formerly The Dial Corporation, is an American company based in Stamford, Connecticut. It is a manufacturer of personal care and household cleaning products and is a su ...

including the Armour Star canned meats business. In 2009, the Swanson brand was discontinued in the United States, but remained in use in Canada. That same year, Pinnacle Foods also acquired

Birds Eye Birds Eye is an international brand of frozen foods founded in the United States and now owned by Conagra Brands in the United States, by Nomad Foods in Europe, and Simplot in Australia. The former Birds Eye Company Ltd., originally named "B ...

Foods, Inc. adding a mix of frozen and specialty brands to its portfolio. In November 2014, Pinnacle Foods announced that it would acquire Garden Protein International, Inc., maker of

Gardein Gardein (a ''portmanteau'' of garden and protein) is a line of Meat analogue, meat-free foods produced by Conagra Brands. In 2003, the company was founded by Yves Potvin, who remained as the CEO of Gardein until 2016. In November 2014, Pinnacle Fo ...

, from founder Yves Potvin, for $154 million. In November 2015, Pinnacle Foods announced that it would be acquiring

Boulder Brands Boulder Brands is an American food company based in Boulder, Colorado. It used to be known as Smart Balance. The company traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol BDBD. The company's brands include Smart Balance, Udi's, Glutino, Earth Balance, EVOL a ...

for around $710 million, as part of the company's strategy to expand its health and wellness services.

Brands

Grocery

* Armour Star (acquired from

The Dial Corporation Henkel Corporation, doing business as Henkel North American Consumer Goods and formerly The Dial Corporation, is an American company based in Stamford, Connecticut. It is a manufacturer of personal care and household cleaning products and is a su ...

in 2006) *Appian Way Pizza Crust Mix (acquired from The Dial Corporation in 2006) *Banner Sausage (acquired from The Dial Corporation in 2006) *Bernstein's dressings *Brooks beans and chili *Cream Corn Starch (acquired from The Dial Corporation in 2006) *

Duncan Hines Duncan Hines (March 26, 1880 – March 15, 1959) was an American author and food critic known for his restaurant ratings for travelers. He is best known today for the brand of food products that bears his name. Early life, family and education ...

including Duncan Hines Comstock, Duncan Hines Wilderness (acquired from

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...

in 1997) * Log Cabin Syrup (acquired from

Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

) *Milwaukee's Pickles * Mrs. Butterworth's (acquired from

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

) *Nalley *Open Pit barbecue sauce *Smart Balance * Vlasic *

Wish-Bone Wish-Bone is an American brand of salad dressing, marinades, dips and pasta salad. The original salad dressing was based on a recipe served at the Wishbone restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, founded by ex-soldier Phillip Sollomi in 1945 along ...

(acquired from

in 2013)

Frozen

including Birds Eye C&W and Birds Eye Voila! *

Celeste Celeste may refer to: Geography * Mount Celeste, unofficial name of a mountain on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada * Celeste, Texas, a rural city in North Texas ** Celeste High School, public high school located in the city of Celes ...

Hungry-Man Swanson is a brand of TV dinners, broths, and canned poultry made for the North American and Hong Kong markets. The former Swanson Company was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, where it developed improvements of the frozen dinner. The TV dinner busi ...

frozen

s (acquired from

) * Lender's (acquired from

in 1999) *Mrs. Paul's *Van de Kamp's

Boulder Brands Boulder Brands is an American food company based in Boulder, Colorado. It used to be known as Smart Balance. The company traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol BDBD. The company's brands include Smart Balance, Udi's, Glutino, Earth Balance, EVOL a ...

*Earth Balance *EVOL *

*Glutino *Udi's

Specialty

*El Restaurante *Erin's *Hawaiian Kettle Style Potato Chips and Snack Rings *Husman's *Snyder of Berlin (no longer related to Snyder's of Hanover) * Tim's Cascade Snacks

Former

Frozen

Aunt Jemima Aunt Jemima was an American breakfast brand for pancake mix, table syrup, and other breakfast food products. The original version of the pancake mix was developed in 1888–1889 by the Pearl Milling Company and was advertised as the first " ...

frozen breakfast foods, produced continuously under license from

Quaker Oats The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. As Quaker Mill Company, the company was founded in 1877 in Ravenna, Ohio. In 1881, Henry Crowell bought the company and launched a national ad ...

beginning in 1996 under Aurora Foods until discontinuation of the entire lineup in 2017 soon after a voluntary

product recall "Product Recall" is the twenty-first episode of the third season of the American comedy television series '' The Office'' and the show's forty-ninth episode overall. The series depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton b ...

over potential

listeria ''Listeria'' is a genus of bacteria that acts as an intracellular parasite in mammals. As of 2024, 28 species have been identified. The genus is named in honour of the British pioneer of sterile surgery Joseph Lister. ''Listeria'' species ...

contamination.

References

External links

* {{Authority control, state=expanded Conagra Brands American companies established in 1998 Baking mixes Companies based in Camden County, New Jersey Cherry Hill, New Jersey 2007 mergers and acquisitions 2013 initial public offerings 2018 mergers and acquisitions Food and drink companies established in 1998 Food product brands Condiment companies of the United States Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange