Will $70 million save the soup? Campbell’s CEO says the company needs to spend to turn around sales.
Campbell’s produces more than 300 soups. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images By Micah Maidenberg Updated July 7, 2019 12:42 pm ET Canned soup made Campbell Soup Co. CPB -0.24% an icon of 20th-century consumer culture. This century, the soup business has become a millstone for the Camden, N.J.-based company.
The former CEO of Pinnacle Foods, a company now owned by Conagra Brands Inc., told investors last month he thinks the company will need to invest $70 million in Campbell’s soup business over the next three years. He said that was a departure from recent fixes Campbell has tried to make without major spending.
“Certainly, I’m not the first person to show up in Camden, New Jersey, and say, ’Hey, wouldn’t it be great if we could turn around the soup business,’” Mr. Clouse said.The formula for Campbell’s condensed soup that John T. Dorrance invented in 1897 helped bring about a revolution in the industrial production of reliably safe, long-lasting packaged foods.
Last year, consumers purchased $3.86 billion worth of canned or other long-lasting soups, down 10% from a decade earlier, according to market-research firm Euromonitor. Campbell’s unit that includes its U.S. soup last notched a full-year gain in sales in 2015, after excluding currency fluctuations and acquisitions.
Campbell has tried in different ways to spark soup sales over the years, with varying degrees of success. Campbell tried glass packaging, microwavable bowls and hand-held containers. It hired actor Tim Allen to voice commercials and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott to make endorsements. In 1996 Campbell introduced a premium line that offered soup packaged in 24-ounce glass jars and renamed it Simply Home two years later. The company added Soup at Hand sippable containers in 2002. Six years later, it licensed chef Wolfgang Puck’s branded soups, stocks and broths and added Select Harvest soups, low-calorie products with weight-management guidelines on the label.
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