Conagra

ConAgra Foods, Incorporated, is an international foods company with global operations. Its headquarters are at 1 ConAgra Drive in Omaha, Nebraska. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: CAG). Its vision statement is “One company growing by nourishing lives and finding a better way today … one bite at a time.” Its goal is to provide consumers with food that they can trust to be safe, tasty, and nutritious at a fair price.

The company began September 29, 1919, when Alva Kinney combined four grain mills in south-central Nebraska into a single company, the Nebraska Consolidated Mills Company (NCM), headquartered in Grand Island, Nebraska. With bumper crops of wheat arriving at the storage elevators, Kinney soon added a fifth mill in Omaha to mill the abundant cereal grains. In 1922, the corporate headquarters moved to Omaha, where Kinney profitably ran the company until 1936, when he retired.

Kinney's successor, R. S. Dickinson, continued the company's successful milling operations but, similar to other companies, began to expand. In 1942, a flour mill and animal feed mill was opened in Alabama. The new flour mill was also a research center that developed new kinds of prepared foods such as the company's Duncan Hines cake mixes, which were put on the market in the 1950s.

As a result of competition from General Mills, Pillsbury, and other companies that were dominating the market, it was decided that a different corporate strategy was needed. So NCM sold its Duncan Hines cake mix brand to Procter & Gamble, and the new president of the company, J. Allan Mactier, used the proceeds of the sale to expand milling operations. A new mill was opened in Puerto Rico and operated by a subsidiary, Caribe Company. After successfully supplying flour, the subsidiary began a new company, Molinos de Puerto Rico, to supply animal feeds, which aided Puerto Rico's nascent beef industry. The company also aided the growth of the dairy industry on the island.

By the 1960s, the global demand for flour had leveled off, and more prosperous consumers were seeking new types of foods. NCM, along with other milling companies, began to diversify. In NCM's case, growth was sought in the animal feed business in the U.S. South, where the company supplied chicken feed to the growing number of chicken producers in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and elsewhere.

With consumers seeking higher-quality meats that required more feed, operations in the Midwest were expanded. The company also expanded into the European market as a partner of a Spanish company.

In 1971, corporate officials decided to change the name from Nebraska Consolidated Mills Company, which reflected its original base in Nebraska, to a new name that reflected its growing operations in many places. The new name chosen was ConAgra, which means “in partnership with the land.” In 1973, its stock was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. However, the new name was not followed by financial success because many of its expansion acquisitions were not highly profitable.

Charles Harper, former CEO of Pillsbury, was hired to restore profitability. He successfully prevented bankruptcy and enabled the company to regain its success. However, in 1980, the purchase of Banquet Foods brought a return to the processed food market via an increase in its chicken sales. Other moves were to expand into agricultural chemicals. This was a move designed to aid ConAgra's commodity business, which was afflicted with cyclical booms and busts.

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