The Campbell's Company (formerly the Campbell Soup Company) is an American company, most closely associated with its flagship canned soup products. The classic red-and-white can design used by many Campbell's branded products has become an American icon, and its use in pop art was typified by American artist Andy Warhol's series of Campbell's Soup Cans prints.
Campbell's has grown to become one of the largest processed food companies in the United States through mergers and acquisitions, with a wide variety of products under its flagship Campbell's brand as well as other brands including Pepperidge Farm, Snyder's of Hanover, V8, and Swanson. With its namesake brand Campbell's produces soups and other canned foods, baked goods, beverages, and snacks. It is headquartered in Camden, New Jersey.
History
Foundation and early history
The company was started in 1869 by Joseph A. Campbell, a fruit merchant from Bridgeton, New Jersey, and Abraham Anderson, an icebox manufacturer from South Jersey.[3] They produced canned tomatoes, vegetables, jellies, soups, condiments, and minced meats.
In 1876, Anderson left the partnership and the company became the "Joseph A. Campbell Preserve Company".[4] Anderson's son, Campbell Speelman, split paths with his father and continued to work at Campbell's as a creative director, originally designing the Campbell's soup cans.[5]
In 1894, Campbell retired and Arthur Dorrance became the company president.[6] Campbell reorganized into "Joseph Campbell & Co." in 1896. In 1897, John T. Dorrance, a nephew of company president Dorrance, began working for the company at a wage of $7.50 a week ($253 in 2022 dollars).[4][7] Dorrance, a chemist with degrees from MIT and Göttingen University, Germany, developed a commercially viable method for condensing soup by halving the quantity of its heaviest ingredient: water.[3] He went on to become president of the company from 1914 to 1930, eventually buying out the Campbell family.[8]
In 1898, Herberton Williams, a Campbell's executive, convinced the company to adopt a carnelian red and bright white color scheme, because he was taken by the crisp carnelian red color of the Cornell University football team's uniforms.[9] To this day, the layout of the can, with its red and white design and the metallic bronze medal seal from the 1900 Paris Exhibition,[10] has changed very little, with the exception of the French phrase on the top of the bronze seal that said "Exposition-Universelle-Internationale" which was changed to the English name of the exhibition as "Paris International Exposition".
Growth under new leadership
Campbell Soup became one of the largest food companies in the world under the leadership of William Beverly Murphy. He was elected executive vice president of Campbell Soup in 1949 and was president and CEO from 1953 to 1972. While at Campbell's Soup Company, he took the corporation public and increased its brand portfolio to include Pepperidge Farm's breads, cookies, and crackers, Franco-American's gravies and pastas, V8 vegetable juices, Swanson broths, and Godiva's chocolates. During the 1970s and 1980s, Campbell's entered the restaurant business by acquiring Pietro's Pizza, Annabelle's, Clark, and Herfy's and launching Hanover Trail and H.T. McDoogal's.[11] David Johnson was president and CEO from 1990 until 1997.
Campbell Soup has invested heavily in advertising since its inception, and many artifacts of its promotional campaigns have proven valuable in the Americana collectible advertising market. Perhaps best known are the "Campbell's Kids" designed by illustrator Grace Drayton.[3]
Shutdown of factories
The shutdown of Campbell's original plant in Camden, New Jersey, plant No. 1, was announced in 1989, with production to end on the night of March 1, 1991; the plant was officially closed the next day, and was demolished on November 1, 1991. Plants in Pocomoke City, Maryland; Crisfield, Maryland; and Smyrna, Tennessee also shut down around that time.[13]
Plant No. 2, originally a tomato-processing plant, shut down in 1980. In the 1950s it had manufactured about 35% of all Campbell's products. Products included pork and beans; tomato juice, V8 vegetable juice, Franco-American spaghetti, macaroni and cheese; and soups (notably: bean with bacon, cream of mushroom, cream of celery, and cream of asparagus.[14]
Due to these closures 2,800 jobs were lost, around 1,000 of those from the Camden plant. Workers received one week's payment for each year of employment as well as six months of paid medical benefits, and half the cost for an additional six months. Salaried workers received one week's pay for each year of employment.[15]
Recent history
In November 2007, Campbell's Soup sold Godiva to Yildiz Holding.
In March 2008, Campbell's Soup was rebranded as Batchelors Condensed Soup in the UK and Erin in Ireland when the license to use the brand name in those countries expired. Premier Foods, headquartered in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, bought the Campbell Soup Company in the UK and Ireland for £450 million ($830 million) in 2006 but was licensed to use the Campbell name only until 2008. Under this agreement, the US-based Campbell Soup Company continued to produce Campbell's Condensed Soup but could not sell the product in the UK for a further five years.[18]
Campbell's continues to be a major part of Camden, regularly participating in charity events[19][20] in the community. In 2009, Campbell's completed the construction of a new and expanded headquarters[21]
Pop art
In 1962, artist Andy Warhol incorporated the familiar look of the Campbell's soup can with a series of pop art silkscreens, a theme he would return to off and on through the 1960s and 1970s. The first batch in 1962 were a series of 32 canvases. At first, the cans were accurate representations of actual Campbell's cans, but as his series progressed, they became more surrealistic, with Warhol experimenting with negative-reversed color schemes and other varied techniques (many of these which would be used on other Warhol paintings of the period, such as his celebrity silkscreens of the 1960s). The silkscreens themselves have become iconic pieces of pop art, with one in particular, Small Torn Campbell Soup Can (Pepper Pot) (1962), commanding a price of $11.8 million at auction in 2006.[48]
Slogans
- Mmm Mmm Good (1935–present—their predominantly used slogan)[49]
- Give Me The Campbell Life (1969–75)
- Soup Is Good Food (1975–c. 1982)
- Never underestimate the power of soup! (1990s)
- Possibilities (2005–2009)
- So Many Many Reasons It's So Mmm Mmm Good (2009–2010)
- It's Amazing What Soup Can Do! (2010–present)[50]
- Made for real, Real life (2015–present)
Health issues
Many canned soups, including Campbell's condensed and chunky varieties, contain relatively high quantities of sodium and thus are not desirable for those on low-sodium diets. However, Campbell's Chunky, Healthy Request and other soups, as well as their V-8 and tomato juices, are claimed by Campbell's to contain reduced sodium levels.[51]
In the fall of 2007, Campbell's was awarded a Certificate of Excellence from Blood Pressure Canada for their efforts in lowering sodium levels.[52]
By the fall of 2009, Campbell's claimed it had lowered the sodium content in 50% of its soups range.[53] In March 2010, this claim was challenged; ABC News reported that the low-sodium variety of Campbell soup in fact contained the same amount of sodium as the regular variety, and that Campbell's Healthy Request soup contained more fat than the regular variety.[54] In July 2011, citing sinking sales, the company increased the salt content of its products again.[55]
GMO
Throughout 2012, Campbell's contributed $500,000 to a $46 million[57] political campaign known as "the Coalition Against the Costly Food Labeling Proposition, sponsored by farmers and food producers".[58] This organization was set up to oppose a citizens' initiative, known as Proposition 37, demanding mandatory labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients sold in California.
In January 2016, the company decided to support mandatory labeling and announced they would label their products that contained GMO additives.[59]
Brands
Campbell's owns numerous brands that it markets worldwide. Among these are the following:[60]
Campbell's
The company's flagship brand and the Campbell's name is used to market soups, sauces, and canned meals. Product lines under the brand include: • Concentrated soups that are usually diluted with water or milk before eating
• *Campbell's Condensed Soups
• *Campbell's Healthy Request
• Ready-to-eat soups that do not need additional water
• *Campbell's Chunky Soups
• *Campbell's Chunky Maxx
• *Campbell's Home Style
• *Campbell's Soup on the Go
• *Campbell's Slow Kettle Style
• *Campbell's Well Yes
• Other products
Plants
United States
- Camden, New Jersey: world headquarters, non-manufacturing
- Maxton, North Carolina: opened 1978[61]
- Napoleon, Ohio
- Ashland, Ohio: Archway Cookies bakery, acquired through the Snyder's-Lance purchase
- Willard, Ohio
- Paris, Texas
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Everett, Washington
- West Sacramento, California
- Tualatin, Oregon
- East Rancho Dominguez, California
Recalls
2010
On June 22, 2010, Campbell's "SpaghettiOs and Meatballs" product was recalled after a Texas firm found possible traces of under processed meat in the product.[64]
2017
On April 22, 2017, 4,185 pounds of Campbell's Homestyle Healthy Request Chicken with Whole Grain Pasta due to failure to declare an allergen (milk) on the label[65].
See also
- Cream of mushroom soup
- Green bean casserole
- List of food companies
External links
- – consumer
- Official corporate website
References
- The Campbell's Company FY 2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, September 18, 2025, retrieved September 19, 2025^
- The Campbell’s Company Board of Directors Elects Mick Beekhuizen Chief Executive Officer to Succeed Mark Clouse thecampbellscompany.com, December 3, 2024, retrieved December 15, 2024^