Columbus is owned by Hormel Foods (the United States, NYSE: HRL), which acquired the brand on 27 November 2017 for $850 million.[1][2] Columbus was founded in 1917 in San Francisco, California and was independent until 2017.
Evidence: Hormel Foods Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2025-12-05, SEC EDGAR, 5 December 2025. Verified from filings; last checked .
Columbus makes salami and Italian-style deli meats, founded in San Francisco in 1917 by an Italian immigrant family. Hormel acquired the business in 2017 for $850 million, adding a premium delicatessen brand to its meat portfolio. It is sold mainly through the deli counter and pre-sliced packs rather than through the shelf-stable meat aisle.
Sentences about Columbus from Hormel Foods's latest annual filing[1], copied word for word.
The assessment indicated impairment of a private label customer relationship acquired in the purchase of Columbus Manufacturing, Inc., which resulted in an impairment charge of $ 8.8 million in the Retail segment, and representing the full carrying value of the asset.
The impairment was driven by recent performance results and the Company's intent to shift strategic focus to Columbus branded products.
A plain count of the times the name appears in the text of each annual report, not counting the start of a sentence. A brand that an owner writes about more is usually one it treats as central. The brand is named more often than it was three years earlier.
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Hormel Foods ownership tree →
See the full Hormel Foods brand portfolio (8) →
Hormel Foods controls 8 brands on Brandtree, 8 of them in food.
The 100 brands in processed & packaged meat on Brandtree belong to 42 owners. The largest is Atria, with 8; Hormel Foods has 3.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| 3-Stjernet | Atria | 🇫🇮 Finland |
| Dalsjöfors | Danish Crown | 🇩🇰 Denmark |
| Fantino & Mondello | Maple Leaf Foods | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| Bar-S | Sigma Foods | 🇲🇽 Mexico |
| Aidells | Tyson Foods | 🇺🇸 United States |
| KMOTR | AGROFERT | 🇨🇿 Czech Republic |
| Freybe | Premium Brands | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| Abraham | Bell Food Group | 🇨🇭 Switzerland |
Hormel Foods is a publicly listed company headquartered in Austin, Minnesota, United States, founded in 1891. Brandtree records 8 brands under its control, and it is listed as NYSE: HRL.
Hormel Foods was founded in Austin, Minnesota in 1891 as a pork processor and is best known for Spam, which it invented in 1937. The Hormel Foundation holds a controlling block of shares, an arrangement set up to keep the company independent and headquartered in its home town.
Hormel Foods: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,549 brands that began in the United States. 478 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Columbus is not one of them.
Hormel acquired Columbus Manufacturing for about $850 million, buying a San Francisco maker of salami and Italian-style deli meats founded by an immigrant family in 1917. It gave Hormel a premium delicatessen business sold at the counter rather than from the shelf.
The parent company of Columbus is Hormel Foods, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Yes. Columbus originated in the United States in 1917 and its owner, Hormel Foods, is also headquartered in the United States.
Hormel Foods completed its acquisition of Columbus on 27 November 2017, after announcing the deal on 30 October 2017. The deal was valued at $850 million (enterprise value).
Columbus was an independent company from its founding in 1917 in San Francisco, California until Hormel Foods acquired it in 2017.
Yes. As of 9 October 2026, Columbus is still owned by Hormel Foods. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
Report a correction Opens a pre-filled GitHub issue. See our corrections policy.
Brandtree needs to remember this choice and does not set any other cookie unless you accept.
If you choose “Accept all”, we also use Google Analytics cookies to count visits and see which pages help, so we can improve the site.
If you choose “Accept required”, no analytics cookie is set. Google Analytics still receives a cookieless ping with the page address and your IP address. No advertising is used either way. Privacy policy