Campbell Looks Way Beyond the Tomato

摘要

Campbell Soup's iconic red-and-white cans dominate nearly half the domestic market. That's a problem. For the last several years, U.S. soup sales have been sliding. As a percentage of all frozen, canned, and perishable food sales, the staple has shrunk byrnone-ninth since 2007, from 3.6 percent to 3.2 percent. While Campbell sells V8 vegetable juice, Prego pasta sauce, and a bevy of Pepperidge Farm snacks, soup remains its most important product line. Last year its U.S. Simple Meals unit, which relies heavily on soup products, accounted for 48 percent of its $7.7 billion in sales and 64 percent of its $1.3 billion in operating income. Those sales figures have fallen every year since 2007, and Campbell's North American soup business has lost market share since 2008.