Del Monte (company)

Foundation

In the 1870s and 1880s, California became a major producer of fruits and vegetables.

The Hotel Del Monte was a famous resort hotel on the Monterey Peninsula which first built what is now Pebble Beach Golf Links.

In the 1880s, a small Oakland, California, food distributor was hired to make products for the hotel. It later used the Del Monte brand name to market a premium blend of coffee that had been prepared for the hotel.

By 1892, the firm expanded its business and selected Del Monte as the brand name for its new line of canned peaches. In 1899, the California Fruit Canners Association (CFCA) formed when 18 West Coast canning companies merged. The Del Monte brand was one of several brands marketed by the new company. It introduced the Del Monte Shield in 1909.

In 1916, California Packing Corporation (CalPak), was founded as a merger of five canning, drying, broker, farmer, and packing businesses: California Fruit Canners Association, Griffin & Skelley (a food brokerage house), Central California Canneries, J.K. Armsby Company and the Alaska Packers Association, selling its products under the Del Monte and Sunkist brands. The new company grew to operate more than 60 canneries in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Alaska. In 1917, it acquired pineapple farms and a cannery in Hawaii and, in the 1920s, added canneries in Florida and the Midwest, as well as in the Philippines. After WWII, it constructed or purchased more facilities overseas. These multinational operations made the name California Packing Corporation obsolete, and in June 1967, the corporation adopted the name of its leading brand to become Del Monte Corporation.

In 1972, Del Monte became the first major US food processor to voluntarily adopt nutritional labeling on all its food products. Del Monte became part of R.J. Reynolds Industries, Inc. (later RJR Nabisco, Inc.), in 1979.

Fresh Del Monte Produce

After having been acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in 1988, RJR Nabisco sold several Del Monte divisions. The fresh fruit business named Fresh Del Monte Produce (FDP) was sold to Polly Peck. Later, Mexican businessman Carlos Cabal Peniche acquired FDMP after Polly Peck collapsed. After Peniche fled Mexico and his company was seized by that country's government.^{[citation needed]}

Fresh Del Monte was acquired by Mohammed Abu-Ghazaleh in 1996 and went public a year later. Later, it acquired Del Monte Europe in 2004 and the American vegetable packaging company Mann Packing in 2018. Fresh Del Monte Produce sold Mann Packing to Church Brothers in 2025.

In January 2026, it was announced that FDP had agreed to acquire the bulk of assets of California-based Del Monte Foods for approximately $285 million through a court-supervised sale under Section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The assets to be acquired include Del Monte Foods’ vegetable, tomato and refrigerated fruit businesses and associated brands and facilities, with the deal subject to final court approval and customary regulatory clearances.

Del Monte Corporation

In July 2026, the company changed its corporate name to Del Monte Corporation and its ticker symbol on the NYSE to DMC.