The Campbell Soup Company, originally known as the Joseph Campbell Preserve Company, was founded in 1869. It was started by Joseph Campbell, a New Jersey fruit merchant and Abraham Anderson, a tinsmith. The combination of Campbell's knowledge of raw ingredients and Anderson's technical skills was to be key to the start of what is today a highly successful global company.
 
Timing was an important factor in the company's success as the new company was emerging at the advent of mass canning. It was back in the 1830's that Napoleon offered a reward of 12,000 French Francs, a small fortune at the time, to anyone who could provide a safe long-term method of preserving food for his troops. A war strategy at the time was one of destroying crops so there was no food to sustain advancing troops. Napoleon wanted food stock that could be safely stored. A French man named Appert modified the already existing bottling techniques and duly won the prize. By the time Campbell and Anderson were forming their partnership, canning techniques had developed and canned food was taking off.
In these early days cans were carefully crafted by hand and as such were very expensive to make. So it was premium luxury products that were first canned and not the everyday items that we enjoy today. Campbell's first products were jams, jellies, condiments, minced meat and beefsteak tomatoes.
   
 

The major turning point came in 1897 when a Dr John T Dorrance, nephew to the general manager, was employed and the following year he invented condensed soup. By eliminating the water in canned soup, he lowered the costs of packaging, shipping and storage – making it possible to offer high quality products at value for money prices. The condensed format also added versatility – allowing the consumer to customise the soup by diluting to taste. A year later the world-famous red and white labelling was introduced - immortalised in the 1960s by the artist Andy Warhol.

As Condensed Soup took off all other products were discontinued and the company was re-named the Campbell Soup Company.

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More than a century later; the Campbell Soup Company has grown to become one of the world’s leading food companies. Today it owns a range of market-leading soup, sauce, confectionery and biscuit brands generating sales of more than $6 billion annually. These include: Campbell’s soups and Godiva chocolates worldwide; Pepperidge Farm cookies and crackers, V8 vegetable juices and Pace Mexican sauces in the US and Arnott’s biscuits in Australia. In Europe, Campbell brands include market leaders such as Erasco in Germany, Liebig in France, Royco in Belgium and France, Bla Band in Sweden and Erin in Ireland.

   
 

Campbell Soup Company founded its UK business in 1933, marketing its well-known range of condensed soups. In 1959 a new plant was opened in King’s Lynn, Norfolk to produce condensed soups for the UK. In the past ten years, the company has grown rapidly through acquiring some of Britain’s favourite food brands. These include Fray Bentos in 1993, Homepride in 1995 and Batchelors and Oxo purchased from Unilever in 2001, which resulted in the business doubling in size. Today, the UK business is the largest in Europe with a turnover in excess of £250 million. The company now employs over 1,400 people in its King’s Lynn, Worksop and Ashford factories, its head office in Cambridge and Research and Development centre of excellence at Worksop.

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