Del Monte Foods, the 139-year-old company best known for its canned fruits and vegetables, is filing for bankruptcy protection as U.S. consumers increasingly bypass its products for healthier or cheaper options.
Del Monte has secured $912.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing that will allow it to operate normally as the sale progresses.
“After a thorough evaluation of all available options, we determined a court-supervised sale process is the most effective way to accelerate our turnaround and create a stronger and enduring Del Monte Foods,” CEO Greg Longstreet said in a statement.
Del Monte Foods, based in Walnut Creek, California, also owns the Contadina tomato brand, College Inn and Kitchen Basics broth brands and the Joyba bubble tea brand.
The company has seen sales growth of Joyba and broth in fiscal 2024, but not enough to offset weaker sales of Del Monte’s signature canned products.
What happened here is Del Monte was sold in a leveraged buyout to the son of Ferdinand Marcos’s money launderer. When the dictatorship collapsed the guy who was in charge of the shell companies and Swiss bank accounts and keeping track of the shrink wrapped pallets of $100s buried in the jungle just kept it all, and became a private equity fund. (typical private equity origin story)
He bought Del Monte with debt and then transferred all the debt to Del Monte once he owned it, then his creditors who are in on it resold the debt to retail investors and pension funds as AAA recession-proof revenue from a 100 year old canned food company, and now he has Del Monte declare bankruptcy to fuck them.
How do you transfer a personal debt to a business and not get in trouble?
The market has spoken, stop propping up dying companies with billions of our dollars just to save their executives and shareholders.
Is this what they call a handout? (Genuinely asking, not being snarky…yet)
I would say no.
They secured financing to allow them to continue to do business, but I’d say it’s not a handout/bailout because the government isn’t involved and they got nothing for free here.
The article doesn’t say that, but this one does: https://www.abladvisor.com/news/41019/del-monte-foods-initiates-chapter-11-proceedings-secures-912-5mm-dip-financing
Fuck Del Monte, good riddance and a long time coming.
Maybe a little coup and a small civil war in a warm country could help them out too!
Edit: I’m mistaking Del Monte for Dole, but still.
I saw a del monte mango sorbet, noticed it was also badged with nestle, decided never to buy any del monte products again either.
