Campbell Soup Company Traditional brand no longer wants soup in its name

After 155 years, Campbell is adapting to customer needs and plans to remove "Soup" from the company name. The traditional company is investing more in snacks to meet rising demand.

The 155-year-old Campbell Soup Company is planning to drop "Soup" from its company name and reinvent itself as The Campbell's Company, CNN reports.

With more and more customers turning to snacks rather than ready-made soups, the company has been buying up other food brands.

In addition to its soup line, Campbell now owns snack brands such as Goldfish, Snyder's of Hanover, Cape Cod, Pepperidge Farm and others.

Campbell also recently acquired Sovos Brands, the maker of Italian food brands such as Rao's Sauces.

"This small but important change retains Campbell's well-known name, reputation and image built over 155 years, but better reflects the company's full product line," Campbell CEO Mark Clouse said in a statement Tuesday. However, the name change still needs to be approved by shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in November.

Customers prefer snacks to soup

Although soups remain an important part of Campbell's business, they now only account for a smaller proportion of sales. Last year, Campbell's snack sales increased by 13%, while soup sales grew by 3%.

According to experts, the decision to enter the snack industry is not so contradictory. Food companies like Campbell are adapting to gain a larger share of the snack market, which is worth more than $200 billion, according to market research firm Circana.

Nearly half of Americans say they eat at least three snacks a day, according to Circana. In August, Mars, the maker of M&M's, agreed to acquire Kellanova, the owner of Cheez-Its and Pringles, in a nearly $29 billion deal. "Snacking is a large, attractive and long-lasting category that is increasingly important to consumers," Kellanova said at the time.

Success through collaboration

The Campbell Soup Company is a US company founded in 1869 in Camden, New Jersey, by Joseph A. Campbell, a fruit packer, and Abraham Anderson, a refrigeration technology expert. The company originally specialized in the production of canned goods, particularly vegetables and tomatoes. In 1897, the chemist John T. Dorrance invented the famous condensed soup.

Andy Warhol, the pop artist from New York, created his iconic series "Campbell's Soup Cans" in 1962. The series consists of 32 paintings, each depicting one of the Campbell's soup varieties of the time. Warhol chose the motif of soup cans because it was an everyday, mass-produced consumer product and thus perfectly suited his interest in the connection between art and consumer culture.

The combination of Warhol's art and Campbell's soups not only had a positive influence on the soup brand, but also significantly shaped Warhol's career, as the series is one of his best-known works.