246. Hunt for the Best: HUNT’S PORK & BEANS, 1958-1970 Ads

HUNT'S PORK & BEANS PRINT AD, 1970

HUNT’S, a name associated in the Philippines with Pork and Beans, began as the Hunt Bros. Fruit Packing Co., in Sebastopol, California, founded by brothers Joseph and William Hunt. It originally was a canning company that canned fruit and vegetables from California farms, but by 1941, it was into canned soups, fruits, vegetables and juices.

HUNT'S PORK & BEANS, CATSUP AND FRUIT COCKTAIL Omnibus Ad, 1958

In 1943, Norton Simon's Val Vita Food Products of Fullerton, California merged with the packing company, and the new business was incorporated as Hunt Food and Industries, Inc.  It also streamlined its operation by focusing on canned tomato products.

In fact, the first HUNT’S products that were distributed in the Philippines in the mid 1950s were HUNT’S Tomato Sauce, HUNT’S Tomato Catsup and HUNT’S Pork & Beans. HUNT’S Fruit Cocktail  was the only fruit-based canned product it sold here in the Philippines 1957. The print advertising carried the famous slogan “Hunt-- for the best”, which would be used for many years.

 

HUNT'S PORK & BEANS, PRINT AD, 1960

In 1956, a group of businessmen formed a company known as the Pure Foods Corporation, which manufactured processed meats and food products under the Pure Foods brand name. Ayala Corporation acquired substantial shares in the company in 1965. It also acquired the right to manufacture HUNT’S Pork & Beans, made from high quality Great Northern Beans and real pork bits covered in rich, thick, sweet tomato sauce. It was distributed by Atkins, Kroll & Co. Inc., along with HUNT’S Tomato Sauce and Catsup, but HUNT’S Pork & Beans would remain its best seller and flagship brand.

 

HUNT'S PORK & BANS, 1960

HUNT’S Pork & Beans became a sort of a favorite “emergency food”,  as it was affordable and could be eaten straight from the can. It had very little competition in its time, so it became the country’s largest-selling canned pork and beans for many years.

But the decades that followed saw major changes with the mother company, HUNT’S Food and Industries Inc. In 1960, it merged with Wesson Oil & Snowdrift Co. to become Hunt-Wesson Foods.  A series of mergers happened in through the 80s, until Hunt-Wesson, the company which included the Hunt's brands, was sold in 1990 to ConAgra Foods, a leading packaged food company of North America.

 

HUNT'S PORK & BEANS, 1960

Meanwhile, Pure Foods dropped HUNT’S as it began making its own brand of pork & beans in the early 1980s. Around 1984, Universal Robina Corp, came to an agreement with ConAgra Foods to manufacture and market HUNT’S Pork and Beans  in the Philippines under this 50-50 joint venture.

 

HUNT'S PORK & BEANS, PRINT AD 1969

More recently, in May 2017, Century Pacific Food, Inc., the country’s canned food-producing leader,  acquired the Philippine license  for HUNT’S Pork and Beans, from the URC group. The deal includes the right to manufacture, sell and distribute Hunt’s branded products in the Philippines from Hunt’s-URC. HUNT’S Pork & Beans continue to lord over the ready-to-eat canned beans product category, with a commanding 86% share of the market.

SOURCES:

 Hunt's-Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt%27s