Hormel Foods, the company primarily known for Spam and other cured, smoked and deli meats, said Thursday that it’s buying Skippy, the country’s No. 2 peanut butter brand, in its biggest-ever acquisition.
Skippy, which was introduced in 1932, is intended to increase Hormel’s presence in nonperishable foods.
It also gives the Austin, Minn.-based company a stronger footing in international markets. Skippy is sold in about 30 countries and is the leading peanut butter brand in China, where Hormel has been trying to build up its Spam business for the past several years.
Hormel gets the vast majority of its sales in the U.S., with only about 4 percent of revenue coming from abroad.
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