Bumble Bee Seafoods history

The company, which had been using public warehouses since 1906, and had 13 facilities to store its products, began using new machines for production, which allowed increased production, from 1,200 cans per minute to 1,400 cans per minute.

1910: CRPA switches from salmon to tuna fishing.

1920: CRPA expands its Astoria cannery.

In 1938, the CRPA added on to its main cannery in order to handle the volume of tuna being canned.

By 1940, tuna had surpassed salmon to become the CRPA's primary product.

After partnering with Wards Cove Packing Company in 1959, CRPA became the world's largest salmon packer.

1960: CRPA becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Castle & Cooke and is renamed Bumble Bee Seafoods Inc.

In 1961, Castle & Cooke acquired CRPA by merger and changed the name of the company to Bumble Bee Seafoods after its most famous brand.

Interestingly, the Astoria cannery had been deemed a National Historic Landmark in 1966 and was recognized as the longest continuously-operated cannery in the country.

In 1975, it made a major purchase of a fleet of tuna seiners, and two years later it acquired another cannery, this one in Puerto Rico.

1977: Bumble Bee acquires a fishing base in Ecuador and tuna cannery in Puerto Rico.

In 1982, 40 million cans of Bumble Bee tuna were recalled due to holes in some cans.

By 1987, the company had moved up from number three to become the second most popular brand of tuna.

At a board meeting in Puerto Rico in 1988, the four principals reached a decision to sell, and Pillsbury agreed to buy the company as long as Rose agreed to stay on as head of the company for five years.

In 1990, a national controversy arose over the method most fishermen used for catching tuna.

In 1996, Questor Management Company and the parent company of Star-Kist Foods, H.J. Heinz, announced a deal to acquire Bumble Bee from Unicord for $200 million.

Bumble Bee went bankrupt in 1997, and was sold to International Home Foods, the former food unit of American Home Products.

A time of expansion as the company acquires a number of seafood companies, including Clover Leaf®, Canada’s leading marketer of canned seafood, in 1999.

2003: Company is renamed Bumble Bee Seafoods L.L.C. and is spun off from ConAgra.

The company was renamed Bumble Bee Foods, LLC in 2005.

In 2010, the USDA announced a recall of Bumble Bee chicken salad products due to pieces of plastic found in packaging.

On October 11, 2012, Jose Melena entered an industrial oven at the Santa Fe Springs, California Bumble Bee plant, loading cans of tuna for sterilization.

In April 2015, felony charges related to the accident were brought against the company, the director of plant operations, and the director of safety.

Bumble Bee's former CEO, Christopher Lischewski, was indicted in May 2018 for price fixing.

On November 21, 2019, Bumble Bee Parent, Inc. and four affiliated companies filed for bankruptcy in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware The company has filed a motion to approve the sale of the company's assets.