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ConAgra Foods, Inc. is one of North America's largest packaged foods companies. ConAgra's products are available in supermarkets, as well as restaurants and food service establishments.

History

ConAgra was founded in 1919 by Alva Kinney, who brought together four grain mills as Nebraska Consolidated Mills. In 1940, it began producing flour at its own mill, and in 1942 ventured into the livestock feed business. Consolidated Mills funded the establishment of Duncan Hines in 1951 as a way to market more flour by selling cake mixes. This venture was very successful, but did not lead Consolidated to consider other food ventures. Instead, they sold their assets in Duncan Hines to Procter & Gamble in 1956. As American households purchased more and more prepared and instant foods in the 1950s and 1960s, Consolidated chose not to expand into the businesses that used their flour, instead turning in the opposite direction and focusing more on raw foods like poultry and expanding its livestock feed business.

In 1971, Consolidated Mills changed its name to ConAgra, short for "Consolidate Agriculture". The 1970s brought the company to the brink of ruin as it lost money expanding into the fertilizer, catfish, and pet product industries and as commodity speculation wiped out ConAgra's margins on raw foods. In 1974, Charles M. Harper ("Mike" Harper), an experienced food industry executive, took over the firm and brought it back from the brink of bankruptcy. Nonetheless, ConAgra's business model left it at the mercy of volatile commodity prices. In response, the company set off on a two decade long buying spree, purchasing over 100 prepared food brands starting with its 1980 purchase of Banquet Foods. It moved heavily into the frozen food business and the packaged meat industry, and then picked up a selection of other brands from firms like RJR Nabisco and Beatrice Foods among others, as the leveraged buyouts of the 1980s gutted and sold off many major American consumer product firms. In 1993 alone it purchased dollar|$500 million" target="_blank" >* in smaller firms, and in 1998 it purchased another dollar|$480 million" target="_blank" >* in brands from Nabisco.

Governance

Current members of the board of directors of ConAgra are: David Batchelder, Mogens Bay, Howard Buffett, Stephen Butler, John Chain, Steven Goldstone, Alice Hayes, W.G. Jurgensen, Mark Rauenhorst, Carl Reichardt, Gary Rodkin, Ronald Roskens, and Kenneth Stinson.

Subsidiaries

Brands

Here is a list of ConAgra's consumer brands as of 2005, according to their website:

External link

1919 establishments | ConAgra Foods | Fortune 1000 | Companies based in Nebraska

ConAgra Foods, Inc.

 

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