GoodMark Foods

GoodMark Foods was an American food manufacturing company, based in Raleigh, North Carolina.[1][2] It produced "meat snacks, packaged meats, and extruded grain snacks,"[2] especially Slim Jim jerky meat snacks.[3] It is owned by ConAgra.[2]

Company history

Slim Jim snacks originated in Philadelphia.[4] Its manufacturer Cherry-Levis Food Company was sold to General Mills in 1967 for about $20 million[4] and renamed Slim Jim, Inc.[5] In 1970, General Mills purchased Jesse Jones Sausage Co. in Garner, North Carolina, and formed GoodMark Foods, Inc. to make Slim Jims there.[5]

Ron Doggett, a General Mills finance executive involved in the purchase of Cherry-Levis, moved to North Carolina to participate in managing the operations. "In June 1982, he directed a unique leveraged buyout with three other executives of GoodMark from General Mills, who had put the subsidiary up for sale."[3] They made the company public in 1985.[6] The company's stock was traded on NASDAQ as GDMK.[1]

It was acquired by ConAgra, Inc. in 1998[2] for $225 million.[6] GoodMark's annual sales were about $170 million at that time.[1] A year later, in 1999, Doggett retired as chairman, president and CEO.[3][5]

Products and brands

• Slim Jim meat snacks
• Penrose sausages
• Pemmican meat snacks
• Andy Capp's grain snacks
• Jesse Jones sausages[5]
• Bugles [5]

External links

• ConAgra