Hormel Foods (HRL) has been in business for 125 years, and the company continues to transform its brands.
Recent portfolio changes have included a slew of acquisitions in recent years in the healthy and organic space. In the last few years, Hormel has acquired Applegate, Muscle Milk, Wholly Guacamole, and most recently, Justin’s Specialty Nut Butter Brand this week.
“They all align around one of our key growth platforms: an element of either multi-cultural, healthy or holistic, or on the go,” said President and COO Jim Snee, who joined Yahoo Finance to talk about the company’s growth.
While the competition for supermarket shelf space has intensified, Snee said that Hormel continues to do well.
“We have a presence throughout the store,” he said. “ So when you think about some of our legacy items -- Spam and Dinty Moore beef stew--those are solidly in the center of the store, which has seen its struggles. But in spite of that, we’ve been able to do a lot of PR work, a lot of brand building work around Spam, an iconic brand that’s been around for a long time that’s actually connecting with more millennials. And then there are still some areas within center of store that are showing growth and Justin’s our recent acquisition is an example of that. The specialty nut butter area is showing rapid growth. But then we also have items that appeal to the perimeter of the store.”
Snee emphasized the importance of updating products.
“Innovation’s in our DNA,” he said. “Our founder’s motto was originate don’t imitate”
As for the consumer, Snee said he sees strength despite some retail weakness.
“The consumer still continues to be very strong, it’s a matter of where they’re shopping,” he said. “There’s this interesting bifurcation. We talk about healthy and holistic - a lot of those items can be aspirational for consumers. I think we need to be honest with ourselves- there’s still a large segment of the population that’s more of a value consumer. And the beauty of our portfolio is that we have items that cover the whole spectrum.”
