Progresso, a brand of

General Mills General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...

, is an American food company that produces canned soups, canned beans, broths, Chili con carne, chili, and other food products.

History

Progresso emerged from the merging of two prominent Italian importing companies in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. In 1925, Vincent Taormina, who had traveled east to start a tomato importing business, and Giuseppe Uddo merged their companies. Vincent's family owned the "Taormina Brothers Grocery" of New Orleans, Louisiana. Frank had emigrated from Italy and joined his cousin Vincent in the venture. They were so successful selling tomatoes that they sold more orders than they could fill and needed funds to set up the infrastructure for a larger canning operation. Giuseppe Uddo, who had already established a national canning operation, brought the Taorminas on board to form a new merged company. The resultant company was "The Uddo and Taormina Corporation" and they created the ''Progresso'' label, specializing in canned Italian food products, which became mostly

soup Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot – though it is sometimes served chilled – made by cooking or otherwise combining meat or vegetables with Stock (food), stock, milk, or water. According to ''The Oxford Compan ...

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

tomatoes The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originated from and was d ...

spaghetti Spaghetti () is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical pasta.spaghetti
Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Una ...

ravioli Ravioli (; : ''raviolo'', ) are a type of stuffed pasta comprising a filling enveloped in thin pasta dough. Usually served in broth or with a sauce, they originated as a traditional food in Italian cuisine. Ravioli are commonly square, though ...

and

beans A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are tradition ...

, sold since 1949. In 1979, Ogden Corporation bought Progresso for $35 million. In 1986 Ogden Foods was sold to Pet, Inc. for $320 million. In 1995, Pet, Inc. was acquired by the

Pillsbury Company Pillsbury is an American brand of baking and dough products, marketed by General Mills and Brynwood Partners. Pillsbury products include refrigerated and frozen dough products, including the Toaster Strudel, marketed by General Mills; and shel ...

, then a subsidiary of

Grand Metropolitan Grand Metropolitan plc was a leisure, manufacturing and property conglomerate headquartered in England. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it merged with Guinness plc to form ...

acquired Pillsbury in 2001.

Market strategy

For the last 20 years, Progresso soup has been seen as an upmarket alternative to market leader Campbell and as a

meal replacement A meal replacement is a drink, bar, soup, etc. intended as a substitute for a solid food, usually with controlled quantities of calories and nutrients. Some drinks come in powdered form or pre-mixed health shakes that can be cheaper than solid fo ...

. Originally, Progresso cans were both larger than Campbell's cans and came "ready-to-heat" rather than being condensed, and these characteristics helped them attain popularity before Campbell's released the competitive and similar "Chunky" line of products. Campbell's Soup Company has since produced several lines of ready-to-eat soups in reaction to Progresso's innovations.

References

External links

* General Mills brands Brand name soups American companies established in 1925 Food and drink companies established in 1925 1925 establishments in Louisiana {{food-company-stub