Swanson is an American brand of broth. TV Dinners, and canned poultry sold in the United States, Canada, and Hong Kong. Swanson’s TV dinner brand, Hungry Man, is currently owned by Conagra Brands. Its broth brand is owned by the Campbell Soup Company.
History
Swanson was founded in 1879 by Carl Swanson, a Swedish Immigrant from Omaha, Nebraska. Initially, it was a wholesale company that bought eggs from farms and sold them to grocery stores. The company later switched to selling frozen turkey.
During World War II, the frozen food industry began to change. Since men were required for the battlefield, women had to take over the workforce. This meant that mothers couldn’t be spend much time cooking for their children. As a result, women began to rely on frozen food to feed their kids. This made Swanson more successful.
In 1949, Carl Swanson died. His company was inherited by his sons, Gilbert and Clarke Swanson. The following year, One Swanson employee, Gerry Thomas, proposed a frozen turkey dinner meal to Gilbert and Clarke. This new meal was named the “TV Dinner”, which was named for the fact that most Americans owned television sets by the early 1950s.
Starting in the 1970s, two-income families began to eat at restaurants more than at home. As a result, Swanson began to introduce TV Dinners that used restaurant-like food.
By 1983, Swanson was now competing with Stouffers, a frozen food company that made similar foods to Swanson’s TV Dinners. In order to compete, Swanson introduced “Le Menu”, a similar product to Tv Dinners that include adult entrees in a divided plastic tray with a plastic lid.
In 1998, Swanson’s TV Dinner business was acquired by Vlasic Foods, who sold the broth business to the Campbell Soup Company. After Vlasic Foods changed their to Pinnacle Foods in 2003, the Swanson TV Dinner brand was rebranded to Hungry Man TV Dinners. However, the Swanson name survives in the form of pot pie. The Aunt Jemima frozen breakfast brand, which Swanson acquired in the 1970s, remained under Pinnacle’s control until its discontinuation in 2021.
In 2018, Pinnacle Foods was acquired by Conagra Brands, which has owned the Hungry Man TV Dinner brand ever since.