GoodMark Foods

Goodmark Foods, Inc. is an American food manufacturing company, based in Raleigh, North Carolina.[1][2] It produces "meat snacks, packaged meats, and extruded grain snacks,"[2] especially Slim Jim jerky meat snacks.[3] It is owned by ConAgra.[2]

Company history

Slim Jim snacks originated in Philadelphia.[4] Its manufacturer Cherry-Levis Food Company was sold to General Mills in 1967 for about $20 million[4] and renamed Slim Jim, Inc.[5] In 1970, General Mills purchased Jesse Jones Sausage Co. in Garner, North Carolina, and formed GoodMark Foods, Inc. to make Slim Jims there.[5] Ron Doggett, a General Mills finance executive involved in the purchase of Cherry-Levis, had moved to North Carolina to participate in managing the operations. "In June 1982, he directed a unique leveraged buyout with three other executives of GoodMark from General Mills, who had put the subsidiary up for sale."[3] They took the company public in 1985.[6] The company's stock was traded on NASDAQ as GDMK.[1]

It was acquired by ConAgra, Inc. in 1998[2] for $225 million.[6] GoodMark's annual sales were about $170 million at that time.[1] Doggett retired as chairman, president and CEO in 1999, a year later.[3][5]

Products and brands

Notes
  1. "GoodMark Foods and ConAgra Have Definitive Agreement for GoodMark to Merge With ConAgra". PRNewswire.com (Press release). ConAgra, Inc. June 18, 1998. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  2. "Company Overview of GoodMark Foods, Inc". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  3. "Laureate: Ron E. Doggett (December 2, 1934 - ): Inducted 2004". HistoryNC.org. North Carolina Business Hall of Fame (Junior Achievement of the Carolinas, Inc.). Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  4. "Adolph Levis, creator of Slim Jim snacks, dead at 89". The Tuscaloosa News. Associated Press. March 21, 2001. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  5. "GoodMark Foods, Inc. History". FundingUniverse.com. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  6. "ConAgra Inc. buys GoodMark Foods Inc. for $225 million". Triangle Business Journal. American City Business Journals. February 15, 1999. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.