Hormel Foods Corp. (HRL)

Hormel Foods processes and sells branded food, mostly meat and nuts. It was founded by George A. Hormel in 1891 in Austin, Minnesota, originated as a processor of meat and food products, and continues in that line of business today. It sells in all 50 US states and describes itself as a global branded food company. There are three reportable segments: Retail, Foodservice and International.

The three segments

Retail processes, markets and sells food sold mainly through retail channels in the United States, meaning grocery stores, mass merchandisers, club stores, natural food chains, drug, dollar and discount chains and e-commerce sellers; it also carries the results of the MegaMex Foods joint venture. Foodservice sells to distributors and operators across food away from home: restaurants, hospitality, healthcare, schools, colleges and universities, and convenience stores, all in the United States. International sells through retail and foodservice channels abroad and holds the international joint ventures, equity method investments and royalty arrangements, along with operations in China and Brazil.

The brands

Among the trademarks the filing names are SPAM, Planters, Jennie-O, Skippy, Applegate, Wholly, Black Label, Fontanini, Bacon 1, Columbus, Justin's, Herdez, Chi-Chi's, Dinty Moore, Cure 81, Mary Kitchen, Corn Nuts, Mr. Peanut, Natural Choice, House of Tsang, Lloyd's, La Victoria and Doña Maria, with more than thirty others. Thirteen US-granted and six foreign-granted patents were held at 26 October 2025. Patents run about twenty years from filing; trademarks renew indefinitely as long as they are used.

Where it operates

The major international markets are Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore and South Korea. Export deliveries go mainly through third-party carriers, while the China and Brazil operations also run their own delivery systems. Other companies are licensed to manufacture products internationally on a royalty basis. The company holds a 40 percent interest in The Purefoods-Hormel Company in the Philippines and approximately 30 percent of PT Garudafood Putra Putri Jaya in Indonesia, and a minority interest in MegaMex Foods, a US-based Mexican food company whose portfolio the company's own sales team also covers.

The raw materials

The principal raw materials are pork, turkey, beef, chicken and nuts. Pork comes three ways: hogs bought for the Austin, Minnesota plant, long-term supply agreements, and spot purchases. Most of the turkeys are raised by the company itself, which exposes it to grain and fuel prices, and futures, swaps and options are used to hedge part of the anticipated buying. As the portfolio has shifted towards value-added products the company has become more reliant on outside suppliers, and certain materials, cashews among them, are sourced internationally, which the filing flags as a risk to pricing and availability. Manufacturing runs through the company's own processing facilities and through co-manufacturers.

Customers, rivals and people

Walmart was 15.6 percent of consolidated gross sales less returns and allowances in fiscal 2025, buying for the Retail and International segments, and the top five customers together were approximately 38 percent. The filing describes the production and sale of meat and food products as highly competitive, with rivals including makers of pork and turkey products and national and regional producers of other proteins: beef, chicken, fish, nuts and plant-based. It states that all three segments compete on price, product quality and attributes, brand identification, breadth of product line and customer service, and that the company's own approach rests on meeting customer and consumer preferences, delivering product innovation, and keeping long relationships with industry partners. There were approximately 20,000 active employees at 26 October 2025, over 90 percent of them in the United States, with approximately 20 percent covered by collective bargaining agreements; contracts at two facilities covering about 700 employees expire in the next fiscal year.

From Hormel Foods' annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 26 October 2025. The filing