Campbell Soup Company
|
|
Campbell Soup Company Template:Nyse (also known as Campbell's) is undeniably the most well-known producer of canned soups and related products in the United States (and possibly the world). Campbell's products are sold in 120 countries around the world. They are headquarted in Camden, New Jersey.
| Contents |
Overview
Campbell's is best known as producers of condensed soup. In recent years it has grown to include numerous consumer food products in addition to its condensed food line, such as non-condensed specialty soups, dried soup mix, gravies, and more. Over the years, Campbell's has purchased other American food lines such as Franco-American, Pepperidge Farm, Vlasic, Swansons's, Mrs. Paul's, Prego, Godiva, and Marie's.
According to company figures, in 1994 the top three sellers were Chicken Noodle, Cream of Mushroom, and Tomato, and consumers purchased almost 2.5 billion cans of soup per year.
The ubiquitous red-and-white icon became fodder for Andy Warhol, the 1960s pop counter-culture artist, in his famous series of iconoclastic images from 1962 to 1968, many of which are on display at the Andy Warhol Museum.
To celebrate this, just recently (2004) the company released a series of 4 limited edition cans with different labels than the regular red and white one. The new ones were in silkscreen colors, the top half being one shade and bottom another. Orange and pink were one combination, and shades of blue another. This marked one of the only times thus far in the company's 100+ year history that the labels have deviated from their standard look.
The cans appeared on the east coast and slowly made their way as far west as Ohio via Giant Eagle shopping stores.
History
Campbell's was founded in 1869 by Joseph Campbell, a fruit merchant, and Abraham Anderson, an icebox manufacturer. The company was originally called the "Joseph A. Campbell Preserve Company" and produced canned tomatoes, vegetables, jellies, soups, condiments, and minced meats.
By 1896, Anderson left the partnership, leaving Campbell to reorganize and form a new company, Joseph Campbell & Co. In 1897 a nephew of one of the new Campbell partners, Dr. John T. Dorrance, began working for the company at a meager wage of $7.50 a week. John, a gifted chemist with degrees from M.I.T. and Gottingen, Germany, developed a commercially viable method for condensing soup by halving the quantity of its heaviest ingredient: water.
Soup was not a popular staple in the American diet at the turn of the century, as it was in Europe. However, Dorrance's condensed soups quickly became successful among the public for their convenience and their price - 10 cents a can. The product competed at the Paris Exhibition in 1900 and was awarded a gold medal, an image of which still appears on the label.
In 1898, Herberton Williams, a Campbell's executive, convinced the company to adopt a red and white color scheme because he was taken by the crisp colors of the Cornell University football team's uniforms. To this day, the layout of the can, with its red and white design and the gold medal seal from the 1900 Paris Exhibition, has changed very little.
Campbell Soup invested heavily in advertising since its inception, and many of its promotional campaigns have proven value in the Americana collectible advertising market. Perhaps best known are the "Campbell Kids." Ronald Reagan was a spokesman for V8 when it was first introduced. A "pretty groovy deal" in 1968 offered a paper Souper Dress available for $1.00 and two labels. And, of course, there are the countless Campbell's Menu Books and Help for the Hostess series of cookbooks. One of the longest lasting, but certainly odd to modern tastebuds, is the recipe for Tomato Soup Cake.
Brands
Campbell's owns numerous brands, categorized for different lines. Many of Campbell's brands are listed below.
Soups
- Campbell's Chunky™ Soups: Uncondensed soups with large portions of vegetables and other ingredients
- Campbell's Condensed Soups: Campbell's flagship line
- Campbell's Fun Favorites Soups
- Campbell's Healthy Request® Soups: Soups with lower quantities of ingredients such as sodium
- Campbell's Kitchen Classics™ Soups
- Campbell's Select™Soups
- Campbell's Soup at Hand® Soups: Drinkable soups in special microwave-safe cans
- Tomato Soup Lovers
- Simply Home Soups
Meal Kits
- Campbell's Supper Bakes® Meal Kits
Juices
- Campbell's Tomato Juice
Franco-American
- Campbell's® Gravies
- Campbell's SpaghettiO's® Pasta: O-shaped spaghetti line, a kid favorite
Pace
- Pace® Foods: A popular line of salsas
Pepperidge Farm
- A brand of homemade-style cookies and snack crackers. Pepperidge Farm also markets gourmet cookies.
Prego
- Prego® Pasta Sauces
Swanson
- Swanson® Broth
V8 Beverages
- V8® Juices
- V8 Vegetable Juice
- V8 Splash® Juice Drinks
Food Services
- Campbell Food Service: School cafeteria service
- Arnott's Biscuits Holdings Australias largest supplier of biscuits and second largest supplier of snack foods.
- Goldfish crackers
Other brands
- Erasco
- Pepperidge Farm
- Swanson Broth
- Godiva Chocolatier
- Raguletto
- Devos Lemmens
- Heisse Tasse
- Oxo
- Homepride
- Royco
Reference
- Collins, Douglas (1994). America's Favorite Food: The Story of Campbell Soup Company. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0810925923
External links
- Campbell Soup Company (http://www.campbellsoup.com/)
- Andy Warhol Museum (http://www.warhol.org)nl:Campbell's