Free Republic

The old "Spamboni" ice resurfacer has sold for the $2,000 asking price -- and it's going to a family with deep Minnesota hockey roots. Dave Langevin, whose dad grew up in St. Paul and won four Stanley Cups as a defenseman with the New York Islanders in the early 1980s, is now the owner of the Hormel-sponsored Zamboni that once wheeled around the St. Paul Civic Center while promoting the Austin, Minn.-based company's canned meat. The 1972 HDB Zamboni (Serial No. 1566) was the Civic Center's original machine.

Hormel Foods apparently has a hankering for a peanut butter and bacon sandwich. The company primarily known for cured, smoked and deli meats said Thursday that it’s buying Skippy, the country’s No. 2 peanut butter brand, for about $700 million. Skippy, which was introduced in 1932 and is a staple in American pantries, is intended to increase Hormel’s presence in the center of the supermarket where shelf-stable foods are sold. It also gives the Austin, Minn.-based company a clearer path for growth overseas; Skippy is sold in about 30 countries and is the leading peanut butter brand in China, where...

Hormel Foods Corp. said Thursday that it earned $111.2 million, or 41 cents per share, for the quarter. That's up 13 percent from $98.5 million, or 36 cents per share, during the same period a year earlier. The performance met the expectations of analysts surveyed by FactSet. Revenue for the period ended July 29 increased 5 percent to $2.01 billion from $1.91 billion, led by sales of Spam. This was slightly higher than the $2 billion that Wall Street forecast.

The Dome Dog, the $5 quarter-pound, all-beef, grilled-not-steamed favorite of Minnesota Twins fans for 10 years, won't be called up to the bigs at the new Target Field. Hormel, whose hot dogs have been a beloved dining option at the Metrodome, will no longer supply them for the team, Twins and Hormel officials said Wednesday. Of the 1.1 million sausages sold at Twins games last year, nearly 400,000 were Dome Dogs, more than any other single sausage product. "Hormel and the Twins decided to part ways after a great ... corporate relationship" that began in 2001, team spokesman Kevin Smith...

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) started Thursday in Washington, DC, and runs through this weekend. CPAC is billed as America's largest conservative conference. It attracts nearly 10,000 activists and features a who's who of speakers, including congressmen, major media people, governors, and presidential candidates. But in recent years - probably for fundraising reasons - CPAC has stressed taxes and fiscal issues while ignoring the "social issues" as much as possible. And in turn, CPAC has attracted more RINO-Republican types of attendees, particularly among students. But this year CPAC has included a homosexual group that espouses most of the...

During a CPAC segment to recognize student conservative activists from across the country, one particular conservative, Ryan Sorba of the California Young Americans for Freedom, denounced CPAC for allowing the gay conservative group GOProud to co-sponsor the event and host a booth. After finishing his short speech against homosexuality as being contrary to the concept of natural rights -- amidst booing from the crowd -- he walked off the stage. "Just to change the subject for just a second, I'd like to condemn CPAC for bringing GOPride (sic) to this event," said Sorba. The young activist crowd erupted into booing,...

Dozens of lesbian activists at Smith College climbed in through windows and stormed the podium in a riot scene shortly after Ryan Sorba began a speech on his upcoming book, The Born Gay Hoax. The melee forced an end to the speech before a packed hall in the library on the Northampton campus. Uniformed police officers and a plainclothes security guard were in the room but mostly just stood and watched. Rather than take action against the rioters, the officers and a university official walked to the podium and ordered Sorba to leave the room “for his own safety.”

Ryan Sorba, from the Young Americans for Freedom organization’s California chapter, was booed off the stage tonight at CPAC, for deriding CPAC’s choice to have GOProud attend CPAC, even going so far as to say he “condemns CPAC”. Not the sort of thing one would say when invited to speak at the biggest gathering of Conservatives who look to CPAC for guidance and networking.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Hormel Foods Corp. reported Thursday net income rose 4% for the quarter but sales growth was flat despite increased demand for Spam, Dinty Moore stews, and Chi-Chi's Mexican food items. Hormel reported second-quarter net income of $80.4 million, or 59 cents a share, up from $77.6 million, or 56 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Sales were $1.6 billion, about even with last year.

In times of trouble the United States has historically turned to a tin of pink processed meat to see it through – and so it is again that sales of Spam are soaring as the recession bites. They have shot up by more than 10 per cent in the past three months and the Hormel Foods Corporation has had to introduce a double shift at its factory in Austin, Minnesota, seven days a week to keep up with demand. Spam costs only about $2.40 (£1.65) for a 12-ounce tin and keeps for ever, which earned it the slogan: meat with...

The economy is in tatters and, for millions of people, the future is uncertain. But for some employees at the Hormel Foods Corporation plant here, times have never been better. They are working at a furious pace and piling up all the overtime they want. Jerry’s Other Place sells a Spamburger for $6.29. The workers make Spam, perhaps the emblematic hard-times food in the American pantry. Through war and recession, Americans have turned to the glistening canned product from Hormel as a way to save money while still putting something that resembles meat on the table. Now, in a sign...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Hormel Foods Corp. said strong sales of Spam and a recovery in its turkey business boosted first-quarter earnings by 17%. The meat producer said it made $88.2 million, or 64 cents per share, up from $75.3 million, or 54 cents in the prior-year period. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had predicted 58 cents per share. Sales rose 8% to $1.62 billion, from $1.5 billion last year. Wall Street expected revenue of $1.59 billion. Shares rose nearly 3%, or $1.12, to $40 in premarket trading. Lower pork costs helped results from its refrigerated foods segment. Sales of Spam...

AUSTIN, Minn.—Meat producer Hormel Foods Corp. says strong sales of Spam helped its first-quarter earnings rise 17 percent. The Austin, Minn.-based company says profit rose to $88.2 million, or 64 cents per share, from $75.3 million, or 54 cents per share in the prior-year period. Wall Street predicted a smaller profit of 58 cents per share. Sales rose 8 percent to $1.62 billion from $1.5 billion last year. Wall Street expected revenue of $1.59 billion. Lower pork costs helped results from its refrigerated foods segment. Sales of Spam and its Hormel Compleats microwave line helped its grocery products division. Hormel...

AUSTIN, Minn. — If you have to come down with a strange disease, this town of 23,000 on the wide-open prairie in southeastern Minnesota is a pretty good place to be. The Mayo Clinic, famous for diagnosing exotic ailments, owns the local medical center and shares some staff with it. Mayo itself is just 40 miles east in Rochester. And when it comes to investigating mysterious outbreaks, Minnesota has one of the strongest health departments and best-equipped laboratories in the country. And the disease that confronted doctors at the Austin Medical Center here last fall was strange indeed. Three patients...

This should be a list of who is planning to close their business on Monday, May 1 in response of the Great American Boycott. We should compile it and boycott them ourselves if possible! Remember to go shopping or work overtime on May 1!

AUSTIN, Minn.--Just off Interstate 90, across the street from Johnny's Restaurant, a local greasy spoon, you'll find the world's first--and likely last--museum dedicated solely to Spam. No, not the annoying e-mail messages in your inbox. I'm talking about the "miracle meat" in a can your grandma used to make you eat. That's right. In this quiet, Southern Minnesota town, on the corner of Main Street and Spam Boulevard, stands "16,500 Feet of Spam Nirvana" handsomely housed in a multistory brick building bearing the patented blue and yellow "Spam" logo. One look at the tourists lining up to take photos with...

Hormel to Raise Prices on Spam, Dinty Moore and Other Products Apr 19, 2004 The Associated Press AUSTIN, Minn. (AP) - Hormel Foods Corp. plans to raise prices on Spam and hundreds of other packaged food items by 4.5 percent to 6.5 percent because of rising commodity prices and other costs, a spokeswoman said Monday night. The prices of products such as Spam canned meats, Dinty Moore beef stew, Hormel chili, Chi-Chi's salsas and all other Hormel nonrefrigerated packaged products will increase in June, spokeswoman Julie Craven said. Those products account for about 18 percent of the Austin, Minn.-based company's...

I'm quite ready to answer the "What did you do over the holiday?" questions that follow every long weekend. I can tell my coworkers that over the Fourth of July, to celebrate freedom, I fed some spam to the fire gods. And then my friends and I ate the spam. Or make that SPAM, the capital letters used here to distinguish the canned meat product from unsolicited commercial e-mail (aka UCE). It's an important distinction because it's ending up in the courts. Hormel, which manufactures SPAM, doesn't like the way some companies are using its brand to describe their, well,...

<p>GREEN RIVER, Wyo. -- The weather can still turn chilly in southwest Wyoming in late April, but that's not why a snowplow was needed on Interstate 80.</p> <p>The westbound lanes about 20 miles west of town were closed for about an hour Thursday after a semi truck with a trailer full of Hormel chili rear-ended another semi.</p>