Kettle Foods, Inc. is an international manufacturer of potato chips, tortilla chips, popcorn and nut butters based in Salem, Oregon, United States, with a European and Middle East headquarters in Norwich, United Kingdom. As of 2006 they were the largest naturalpotato chipbrand in the U.S. The company, founded in 1978 by Cameron Healy, was previously sold to Lion Capital in 2006 and was owned by Diamond Foods from 2010 to 2016. In February 2016, Snyder's-Lance finalized their purchase of Diamond Foods. Snyder's-Lance was purchased by Camden, New Jersey-based Campbell Soup Company in March 2018.
History
The company was founded by Cameron Healy in 1978 as the N.S. Khalsa Company; it produced its first potato chips in 1982. In 1988, following a motorcycle trip taken by the company's founder and his son, Kettle Foods established a UK branch in a converted shoe factory in Norwich, England; the branch moved five years later to its current UK home, a newly built factory on the outskirts of Norwich, England in Norfolk, England. In 2003, the company installed the largest solar array in the Pacific Northwest with the goal of using more green energy at their Salem plant. The company was sold in 2006 to a British private equity group, Lion Capital LLP, for $280-320 million. In September 2007, the company opened its second US production facility in Beloit, Wisconsin, after receiving $500,000 in state economic development money. Kettle built the first manufacturing plant to be awarded gold certification in the LEED program from the United States Green Building Council. In October 2007, campaigns were launched on Facebook calling for a boycott of Kettle Foods products following allegations that the company was attempting to dissuade workers at its Norwich factory from joining trade unionUnite. The company denied the claim but acknowledged that it had taken advice from Omega Training, a UK subsidiary of the U.S. company The Burke Group, specialists in union avoidance. In August 2008, California Attorney GeneralJerry Brown announced a settlement with Kettle Foods, the makers of Cape Cod Potato Chips, and Frito-Lay for violating the state's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act. The state had alleged in 2005 that the potato chips from the companies failed to document that they contained high levels of acrylamide, a carcinogen. Kettle Foods paid $350,000 in civil penalties and costs and agreed to cut their potato chips' levels of acrylamide to 275 parts per billion by 2011, an 87% reduction. Lion Capital put Kettle Foods up for sale in December 2009, with an asking price of around US$700 million and in February 2010 sold it for $615 million to California-based Diamond Foods, which owns brands such as Pop Secret popcorn. The sale was finalized the following month.
The Kettle Foods UK office also supports a network of independent distributors through which Kettle Foods' products are made available to countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and Sweden. Kettle Foods is unaffiliated with the Kettle Chip brand sold in Australia which is owned by Snack Brands Australia.
Potato chips
Kettle Foods products, marketed as all-natural, is best-known for its potato chips. Their potato chips are fried using expeller-pressed high-monounsaturated safflower and/or sunflower and/or canola oil. The company has occasionally held contests to introduce new flavors. The 2006 contest winners were "Tuscan Three Cheese" and "Buffalo Bleu", a spicy, savory chip; past contest winners include "Cheddar Beer", "Jalapeno Jack" and "Spicy Thai".
