The story
The company was founded in 1853, when Louis Bonduelle-Dalle (23 October 1802 - 13 November 1880) and Louis Lesaffre-Roussel (1802–1869) established a grain and juniper berry distillery in Marquette-lez-Lille. On June 17, 1862, they expanded to a farm in Renescure, which they turned into a grain alcohol distillery.
1901 the company and its seven production sites were divided into three family-owned companies: Bonduelle, Lesaffre, and Lemaître.
1926 the business began canning peas. Demand in the 1930s enabled the company to expand, but the firm's operations were suspended in 1940 through the end of World War II.
In the mid-1960s, the company began to improve its exports, and in 1968, began freezing vegetables. Several European subsidiaries were launched: in Germany in 1969, in Italy in 1972 and in England in 1973. By 1973, exports accounted for half of the company's turnover.
1980, Bonduelle acquired the Belgian canned food company, Marie Thumas, and purchased Cassegrain in 1989.
The company continued to grow internationally, adding subsidiaries in Brazil in 1994 and Argentina in 1996.
1997, the company entered the "fresh processed" business with the acquisition of Salade Minute.
In 2004, the Bonduelle Group created the Louis Bonduelle Foundation, which aims to promote the public use of vegetables by putting the benefits of vegetables to the public good.
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2007, Bonduelle completed its acquisition of Canadian firm Aliments Carrière (Arctic Gardens brand), a leader in vegetables and frozen foods, which enabled gave it access to 39,500 hectares of farmland.
2010, Bonduelle bought France Champignon, a leading European mushroom company.
2011, Bonduelle inaugurated the San Paolo d’Argon plant in Italy, the largest packaged green salad production site. Bonduelle took over the Kelet Food assets in Hungary and the Cecab Group assets in Russia. In the United States, Bonduelle bought 3 frozen food plants and a packaging site from the Allens Group.
2017, Bonduelle acquired Ready Pac Foods, an American based manufacturer of food products featuring fresh produce.
In April 2018, the company announced Guillaume Debrosse as the new CEO. In May 2023, the group announced Xavier Unkovic as its new CEO.
In 2024, Bonduelle sold its bagged salad business to the brand Les Crudettes. That same year, the company decided to divest four of its eight European production sites.
From Wikipedia’s article on Bonduelle, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5