Birds Eye Foods, Inc. History

Company Perspectives:

Our Mission: To be widely recognized for leadership and accomplishment as a food processing and marketing company by using all of our partners' and associates' talents. Our Core Values: Do What is Right; Excellence in Performance; Commitment in Objectives; Teamwork.

Key Dates:

1868:

The Curtice brothers open a grocery store in Rochester, New York.

1924:

General Seafoods Corp. is founded by Clarence Birdseye.

1929:

The Postum Company buys General Seafoods, which becomes General Foods Corp.

1943:

British Birds Eye operations are sold to Unilever.

1960:

The Pro-Fac Cooperative is formed.

1961:

Curtice-Burns is formed.

1985:

Philip Morris buys General Foods Corp.

1993:

Dean Foods Vegetable Company (DFVC) buys Birds Eye from Philip Morris/Kraft.

1997:

Curtice-Burns is renamed Agrilink Foods.

1998:

Agrilink acquires DFVC and the Birds Eye brand; revenues exceed $1 billion.

1999:

Agrilink restructures to one company.

2002:

Vestar Holdings acquires majority control of Agrilink from Pro-Fac Cooperative.

2003:

Agrilink is renamed Birds Eye Foods.

Company History:

Further Reading:

• Adelson, Andrea, "Food Maker Turns Down Dean Foods," New York Times, September 24, 1994, p. C5(N).
• "Agrilink Prepped for Growth Following Recap," Loan Market Week, October 7, 2002, p. 5.
• Burns, Greg, "Dean Buys Birds Eye from Kraft," Chicago Sun-Times, Financial Sec., November 2, 1993, p. 37.
• Chao, Mary, "Aggressive Restructuring Pays Off at Agrilink," Rochester Business Journal, April 24, 1998, p. 1.
• Cochran, Thomas N., and Pauline Yuelys, "Curtice-Burns Foods Inc.: Its Secret Is in Finding the Sauerkraut Markets," Barron's, September 26, 1988, p. 63.
• Cook, James, "Tea for Two," Forbes, March 2, 1981, p. 78.
• Ennen, Steve, "Frozen Assets: Teamwork Builds First-Ever Frozen Soup," Food Processing, October 1, 2002, p. 34.
• "Engaging the Troops," Chief Executive, August 1, 2004, p. 62.
• Frazier, Lynne McKenna, "New York Cooperative to Buy Seyfert Foods of Fort Wayne, Ind.," News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Ind.), March 26, 1998.
• "Frozen Soups by Birds Eye First for Big Name Brand," Quick Frozen Foods International, October 1, 2002, p. 85.
• Gershman, Michael, "Birds Eye Foods: Frozen Assets," Getting It Right the Second Time: How American Ingenuity Transformed Forty-Nine Marketing Failures into Some of Our Most Successful Products, New York: Addison-Wesley, 1990.
• Hill, Jim, "New York Firm to Acquire Salem, Ore.-Based Food Cooperative," Oregonian (Portland), December 18, 1998.
• Holman, Kelly, "Vestar Completes $800M Agrilink Acquisition," Daily Deal, August 20, 2002.
• ------, "Vestar Connects with Agrilink," Daily Deal, June 22, 2002.
• "Inventors Hall of Fame Honors Frozen Food Innovator Clarence Birdseye," http://www.birdseyefoods.com/scripts/press/view.asp ?ID=334, February 10, 2005.
• Ivan, Chris, "New Soup Adds 20 Jobs to Fulton Plant," Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.), July 24, 2002, p. B1.
• Jaffe, Thomas, "Sleeper," Forbes, December 26, 1988, p. 154.
• Kosman, Josh, "Vestar Close to Bagging Birds Eye Foods," Daily Deal, March 9, 2002.
• Lively, Janet, "Curtice Burns Prospects Blossom," Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, N.Y.), July 15, 1997, pp. 8B, 10B.
• Martin, Sam, and Kellogg G. Birdseye, "Clarence Birdseye: The Man and His Achievements," Quick Frozen Foods, March 1980, pp. 39-60, 78.
• "More Fresh Produce to Carry Birds Eye Name," Food Institute Report, September 17, 2001, p. 3.
• Pollack, Judann, "Birds Eye Spot Works to Stir Up One-Step Meals: Agrilink Brand Battles Nestle, Pillsbury Entries," Advertising Age, February 8, 1999, p. 12.
• "Regional Edge," Refrigerated & Frozen Foods, July 1992.
• Shephard, Sue, "The Father of Frozen Foods," Pickled, Potted, and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000, pp. 303-10.
• "This Co-op Really Cooperates," Food Processing, March 1996, pp. 78-79.
• Tressler, Donald K., "How Clarence Birdseye Paved the Way for a Thriving Frozen Food Industry," Quick Frozen Foods, February 1977, pp. 53, 64, 78.
• Williams, E.W., "The Biography of an Industry, and the Magazine That Grew Up with It: The History of Frozen Foods 1938-1963," Quick Frozen Foods, August 1963, pp. 143-308.
• ------, "A Biography of Frozen Foods Covering 30 Years," Quick Frozen Foods, August 1968, pp. 51-105.

Source: International Directory of Company Histories, Vol.69. St. James Press, 2005.