Posted on 07/03/2025 6:44:57 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Del Monte Foods, the 138-year-old company best known for its canned fruits and vegetables, has filed for bankruptcy and is looking for a buyer.
Late Tuesday, the company announced it was voluntarily entering Chapter 11 and is going through a sale process for all of its assets. Among the company’s product lines are a number of well-known kitchen staples, including College Inn broths and Contadina canned tomatoes, as well as its flagship Del Monte brand.
“After a thorough evaluation of all available options, we determined a court-supervised sale process is the most effective way to accelerate our turnaround and create a stronger and enduring Del Monte Foods,” said President and CEO Greg Longstreet in a statement.
Del Monte said it secured $912.5 million in new funding that will allow the company to remain afloat during the sale process and will keep the company operating as normal as it enters the peak canning season. The company listed liabilities estimated between $1 billion and $10 billion, according to court documents.
He said that the company has “faced challenges intensified by a dynamic macroeconomic environment,” notably consumers cutting back on their spending and a growing shift toward spending on private labels.
Del Monte “says that consumer demand has declined, causing it to incur increased costs related to surplus inventory that it has had to warehouse and attempt to move off shelves with increased promotional spending,” according to Sarah Foss, global head of legal and restructuring at Debtwire. “Consumer preferences have shifted away from preservative-laden canned food in favor of healthier alternatives.”
Del Monte got its start in 1886 and built its famous cannery in San Francisco in 1907. The company claims that it operated the largest fruit and vegetable cannery in the world by 1909.
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I still buy canned beans and soups...but there are plenty of of cheaper brands available that are just as good. Haven’t bought DelMonte in years.
Generic old brands popular in mid-century are being replaced by boutique organic labels with frankly better ingredients.
Did Mr. K ever tell you that his wife worked at Del Monte when she was in college? She worked the belt, and saw all of the things that got put into cans...bugs, pieces of snakes..... She couldn’t eat any Del Monte products, afterward. He said she knew the other brands were likely the same, but she could eat them.
Back when I consumed carbs I used to love their products...but not anymore, unless they replace their added sugar.
I have a feeling that I’m not alone.
Wondering what impact this will have on Wisconsin? We still have TONS of canning factories and Del Monte uses any number of them. They closed two plants that I know of, so far.
https://www.powderbulksolids.com/food-beverage/del-monte-to-close-2-canning-plants
“Consumer preferences have shifted away from preservative-laden canned food in favor of healthier alternatives.”
Could that be true? Or have we Preppers stashed all the Del Monte we’ll need into the foreseeable future? ;)
I honestly can’t remember the last time I bought a, ‘name brand’ of anything. Store brand is just as good, less expensive...and usually comes from the same sources.
Thanks again, Brandon! Your economic policies, as did those of Carter, will effect us all well into the future! *SPIT*
I hate this ... Del Monte is one of the very few who consistently can NON-GMO veggies, especially corn.
Hope someone can buy them and keep up their tradition of quality. :-(
LOL ... I just posted about their NON-gmo corn....of which I have gads of, stashed away in our “prep” room ... looks like I’ll have to be buying lots more 🤪 😂
Contadina tomato paste has always been my favorite.
The tomatoes have a sweet tangy taste.
Del Monte has been the one brand you could always trust.
We have used canned foods a lot less, in favor of frozen vegetables, though, for quite a while. We did stock up on canned foods during COVID, however.
I prefer frozen veggies over canned, any day. I DO like ‘pickled’ stuff, though. I can most of my own veggies from the garden, but if I buy canned goods, it’s always the generic/store brand and the low-sodium or ‘no sugar added’ varieties.
One thing I will NEVER buy is canned Asparagus. Tried it exactly ONCE - Yuck! And that’s saying something because I’ll eat anything that doesn’t eat me first, LOL!
Stackin’ ‘em deep and sellin’ ‘em cheap!
I’m sure there will be some stockpiling going on for the True Del Monte Believers! :)
Mr. K didn’t tell me, so you did! ICK!
Is this brand next?
I’m sure the story became exaggerated, but how many snake parts does a college girl need to see to put her off canned tomatoes?
In college accounting, we learned the “going concern” principle, which assumes a company will continue operating for the foreseeable future.
Since then, I have come to learn through that no company is a “going concern,” not even the giants. They all eventually file for bankruptcy, meaning that in the long run, their expenses have outstripped their revenues.
I’ve trended toward fresh veggies in the past decade and rarely buy canned produce anymore, so Del Monte has been off my radar for about that long. Of course, they still have their branded bananas.
Perhaps a bit, but I strongly suspect it's because of a whole lotta people relying more on fast foods and fewer vegetables.
Not that I recall-—and I suspect I would have recalled.
He did, I’m pretty sure, tell us that there were tolerances for impurities that were above zero. I believe my best prof at Cornell in economics made essentially the same point.
Perfection is something that is really silly to seek for with expectations of attainment in this world, unless perhaps you are GOD creating your own mother. Beyond that, people need to be willing to settle.
If your wife is perfect, both Trump and Musk would likely want her.
1 product of theirs that I really liked but haven’t been able to buy in 20yrs...Sweet pickle relish. No one else makes it like they did.
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