Campbell Soup Company

It’s virtually impossible to think of Campbell Soup without thinking of its famous slogan: “Soup is good food.” Campbell is the world’s largest soup maker and boasts almost 70 percent of the U.S. soup market with its signature chicken noodle, tomato and cream of mushroom soups. But soup is not Campbell’s only business. The company also makes meal kits, pasta and pasta sauces, and snacks, and it owns Godiva chocolates.

The company began in 1860 as a small canning factory in New Jersey. The company canned tomatoes, vegetables and mincemeat, among other foods. By the end of the 1800s, Campbell had begun canning condensed soup in containers one-third the size of its competitors. That gave Campbell an important leg up.

Campbell soups started to find their way into American homes soon after, concurrent with the rapid expansion of the prepared food industry. The company was selling 16 million cans of soup a year by 1904.

The company was incorporated as the Campbell Soup Company in 1922. The next two decades saw Campbell expanding at breakneck speed. Campbell’s flagship Chicken Noodle and Cream of Mushroom were launched in 1934, its tomato juice was unveiled in 1938, and its Cream of Chicken hit the shelves beginning in 1947. In early 1940s, Campbell’s sales reached $100 million for the first time. Fast-forward to 2006, the company’s sales hit $743 million.

Harvey Golub is Campbell’s chairman. The company’s CEO, president, and director is Douglas R. Conant.