Word: conagra
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...company's products are household names: Armour packaged meats, Banquet frozen foods and Country Pride chickens. But not many consumers have heard of ConAgra, the Omaha-based company behind those labels. Unlike such food combines as General Mills and Pillsbury, which invest millions to promote their identity, ConAgra has preferred to remain the quiet, self-effacing giant of the industry...
That tranquil obscurity is about to end. Earlier this month, ConAgra agreed to pay $1.3 billion to take over Beatrice, which owns an assortment of such familiar items as Hunt's tomato products, Wesson oils, Swift meats and Orville Redenbacher's popcorn. With combined sales that may reach $21 billion this year, ConAgra has become the No. 2 food company in the U.S., second only to the Kraft General Foods subsidiary of Philip Morris...
...Tennessee company clucked loudly at Tyson's advances and turned to another chicken producer interested in acquiring some of Holly Farms' juicy parts. Omaha-based ConAgra, the No. 2 grower, agreed on a so-called lockup arrangement in which the Nebraska firm can buy some of Holly Farms' operations if the marauding Tyson succeeds in taking over. ConAgra, which already controls 20% of the U.S. beef industry, 33% of the lamb market and nearly 10% of broiler production, would like to bring Holly Farms' Weaver frozen-chicken label into the same shed with its Armour, Banquet and Country Pride brands...
...Holly Farms' stockholders, Tyson offered a spicier bid of $1.15 billion last week, contingent on the cancellation of the ConAgra agreement. In response, the Holly Farms board of directors said that unless ConAgra comes up with a better offer before a special stockholders meeting in late February, it will recommend the Tyson offer to its shareholders. Then the poultry prince will really have something to crow about...
Charles Harper, for one. Harper is chairman of Omaha's ConAgra food- processing company and may move the firm downtown, near the city's gentrified warehouse district. But he does not want to play along with the preservationists. He says he will not put his headquarters next to "some big, ugly red buildings" just because they are historic. Harper is demanding that the warehouses be demolished. "Some people love old red brick buildings," Harper says. "Some...