Del Monte Foods, a Walnut Creek-based company best known for its sprawling line of canned fruits and vegetables, has filed for bankruptcy protection as U.S. consumers increasingly bypass the firm’s products for healthier or cheaper options.
Once headquartered in San Francisco, the company moved its offices and kitchens to Walnut Creek in recent years, gradually selling off infrastructure and operations that made it a West Coast canned goods powerhouse for 139 years.
“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.
Additionally, company officials cited the adverse impacts on production costs a recently imposed tariff on imported steel was expected to have on canned goods.
Company officials said they have secured $912.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing that will allow it to operate normally as the sale progresses. Del Monte also owns the Contadina tomato brand, College Inn and Kitchen Basics broth brands as well as the Joyba bubble tea brand.
More “creative destruction”. Aluminum and steel tariffs hit American manufacturing. Where will this manufacturing go? Idaho? Kokomo? Guangdong? Ningbo? I feel a Brian Wilson song coming on.
We’ll get there fast
And then we’ll take it slow
That’s where we wanna go
Way down in NingNingbo
A real shame