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Chef Boyardee Sells |
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Conagra, owner of Chef Boyardee, has reportedly agreed to sell the historic brand to private equity firm Brynwood Partners. The deal, which is not yet finalized, is valued at $600M. Italian immigrant Ettore “Hector” Boiardi launched the pasta sauce with his brothers in 1928 after running a popular restaurant in Cleveland. The brand played a key role in introducing Italian food to the US, challenging the preeminence of French cuisine. Chef Boyardee was once the US’ No. 1 importer of Parmesan cheese. At the company’s height, its Pennsylvania factory produced 250,000 sauce cans per day. Read more about the celebrity chef here. Chicago-based Conagra, which bought Chef Boyardee in 2000, is shedding the brand to focus on its frozen food and snack portfolio, including protein-heavy Slim Jim meat sticks. Amid slowing sales, the company recently launched “GLP-1 friendly” labels to market products to customers using weight-loss drugs (how they work). |
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I tried a Chef Boyardee pasta ONCE…end of story.
