Del Monte Andina history

By 1892, the Del Monte brand was introduced when the firm expanded its business and selected Del Monte as the brand name for its new line of canned peaches.

In 1898, the California Fruit Canners Association (CFCA) formed when 18 West Coast canning companies merged.

Talks of consolidation among canners eventually produced the California Fruit Canners Association (CFCA) in 1899.

The initial plant canned peas but later branched out into sauerkraut and pickles. It was in 1903 that Peter Hohenadel Jr., F.H. Beilharz and P.A. Marsh organized the P. Hohenadel Canning Company.

By 1906, George Stocking became interested in the rapidly-growing canning industry and bought the old clock factory on Lincoln Avenue at the west edge of town.

The George Stocking Canning Factory was up and running four lines by 1907.

It introduced the Del Monte Shield in 1909.

Hohenadel Canning entered into farm operations in 1913, greatly expanding their operation.

By 1917, a new headquarters had been established and a committee system of management adopted.

By 1921, Hohenadel and Stocking were so intertwined that it was decided to merge the companies.

A major development came in 1925, when Calpak acquired Rochelle Canneries of Rochelle, Illinois.

In 1926, California Packing Company was looking to expand on its Midwest vegetable production and entered into negotiations with Rochelle Canning and Rochelle Canning Produce.

In 1948 the company acquired East Coast producer Edgar H. Hurff Co.

By 1951, Calpak had an estimated worth of $158 million and annual revenues of $223 million.

Until the end of his presidency in 1963, Lucks drove the company forward not so much by acquisition as by a devotion to, marketing research, field sales, new promotions, new product introductions (including fruit drinks), and a consolidation of its operating units.

In 1967, in an attempt to heighten the company's profile and attract new management talent, he gave Calpak the name it had come to prize above all others, Del Monte.

In 1972, Del Monte became the first major US food processor to voluntarily adopt nutritional labeling on all its food products, an innovation that made headlines throughout the country and applauded by government officials as a breakthrough in consumer education.

In August 1978, J. Paul Sticht and Joseph Abely, Jr. of R. J. Reynolds Industries arranged a meeting with the new Del Monte president, Dick Landis.

All of this came to an abrupt end in 1988, when Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. effected the biggest leveraged buyout in United States history, purchasing RJR for more than $24 billion.

RJR Nabisco sold the remaining food processing divisions, known as Del Monte Foods, to private investors in 1989.

In 1992, it still ranked number one in brand preference in several categories and controlled 16 percent of the $3.5 billion canned vegetable market.

Del Monte had agreed to a $1 billion takeover by Grupo Cabal, a group of investors led by Carlos Cabal, in 1994.

Texas Pacific Group, a private investment partnership, had begun a food business shopping spree in 1995, and became known for buying up companies that most analysts regarded as trouble.

In the meantime, it announced in 1996 that it would reduce its work force by 20 percent.

Rumors placed their offer for Del Monte at $800 million but neither company would confirm the price when they announced their agreement in early 1997.

Del Monte acquired the worldwide rights to the SunFresh brand, a brand of premium citrus and tropical fruits, in 2000.

On September 28, 2004, the site of Del Monte’s former Plant No.

The company sold its Soup and Infant Feeding business in April 2006 to TreeHouse Foods, Inc.

In June 2008, Del Monte announced the sale of its seafood division, StarKist, to South Korea-based Dongwon Enterprise Company.

In March 2011, the company was acquired by a group of private equity investors led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in a deal worth $5.3 billion.”