No more soup for the Campbell’s company.
The 155-year-old Campbell Soup Company plans to drop “soup” from its corporate name, rebranding as The Campbell’s Company.
More consumers are reaching for snacks and ditching ready-to-serve soups, and the company has bought up other food lines to grab them.
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The US company has been most closely associated with its canned soup products for generations but now owns snack brands like V8 Juice, Prego pasta sauces, Goldfish, Snyder’s of Hanover, Cape Cod and others.
Campbell also recently bought Sovos Brands, maker of popular Italian food brands like Rao’s sauces.
The company’s Australian and New Zealand arm is set to follow its US counterpart is making the branding shift.
“This subtle yet important change retains the company’s iconic name recognition, reputation and equity built over 155 years while better reflecting the full breadth of the company’s portfolio,” Campbell CEO Mark Clouse said in a statement today.
The name change is subject to shareholder approval at the company’s annual meeting in November.
Although soup is an important part of Campbell’s business, it’s now a smaller portion of its sales.
Last year, Campbell’s snack sales grew 13 per cent, while its soups grew just three per cent.
Legacy food companies like Campbell are pivoting to gain a larger share of the snack market, valued at more than $US200 billion ($300 billion) in the US by market research firm Circana.
Nearly half of Americans say they eat at least three snacks a day, according to Circana.
In August, Mars, the maker of M&M’s, agreed to buy Kellanova, which owns Pringles and Cheez-Its, in a deal worth almost $29 billion.
“Snacking is a large, attractive, and durable category that continues to grow in importance with consumers,” Kellanova said at the time.
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