CAG Overview

Established in 1919, ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG) was started by its founders, Alva Kinney and Frank Little, when the two entrepreneurs first bought four grain mills in Grand Island, Nebraska known collectively as Nebraska Consolidated Mills. Shortly after operations began, the company moved to Omaha where for the next decade or so, the company conducted its business in the black.

In 1940, the company decided to expand its business practice and began to produce flour from their mills. Two years later, the company ventured into the livestock feed business. With a steady flow of income and profits, the company decided to spread out, opening its first out-of-state facility in Alabama, a flour mill and animal feed production plant.

By the early 1950s, researchers within the company and industry discovered new uses for processed flour, leading to the company financially backing the introduction of Duncan Hines as a way for the company to market more flour products by selling cake mixes. Due to the monumental success of Duncan Hines cake mixes, Nebraska Consolidated Mills, ConAgra, lead the company to its current market position as the third largest flour miller in the U.S.

Despite much success in Duncan Hines, Consolidated did not pursue other avenues with their food venture, thus selling the business to Procter & Gamble in 1956. With households buying and consuming more prepared and instant foods throughout the late 50s and into the 1960s, Consolidated took a different route, focusing on more raw foods while expanding their livestock feed business.

It wasn’t until 1971 that Nebraska Consolidated Mills changed their name to ConAgra. With the company on verge of utter collapse in the 70s, the company needed to revitalize their business model in order to combat the volatile commodity prices that were holding the company hostage. Over the next two decades, the company began to position themselves against the pressures of the commodity markets.

During that time, ConAgra went on a massive purchasing spree, acquiring more than one hundred prepared food brands, starting with Banquet Foods. From there the company began expanding their presence in the frozen food industry as well as the packaged meat industry.

Today, the company offers a variety of consumer food, including branded, private label, and customized food products, such as meals, entrees, condiments, sides, snacks, and desserts to the customers operating in retail and foodservice channels.

Its principal brands include Banquet, Blue Bonnet, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt’s, Libby’s, Manwich, Marie Calendar’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, PAM, Parkay, Rosarita, Slim Jim, Reddi-Wip, Swiss Miss, VanCamp, and Wesson.

The company also provides foods and ingredients, which include specialty potato products, milled grain ingredients, dehydrated vegetables and seasonings, blends, and flavors under the ConAgra Mills, Lamb Weston, Gilroy Foods, and Spicetec brands for the food processors in foodservice, food manufacturing, and industrial sectors.

The company, in addition to supplying their packaged food products throughout North America, also has operations internationally, with their main distributions occurring in Europe and Asia.

Within the Consumer Goods sector, ConAgra competes primarily with HJ Heinz Co. (HNZ), Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT), Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN), Smithfield Foods Inc. (SFD), Unilever, Frito-Lay North America, Cargill Inc. and Mars Inc.

By BetterTrades