Hormel Foods Corp (HRL)

Hormel is a great company coming from a personal expierence!

M@X thinks if Hormel Foods Corp were a 2008 blockbuster, it would be Kung Fu Panda.

Trees thinks if Hormel Foods Corp were a cell phone, it would be Zack Morris's brick phone.

brad thinks if Hormel Foods Corp were in the drug aisle, it would be Prozac.

Sales of Spam have increased dramatically since September. This pressed pork product once reserved for Trailer Parks is now gracing tables from East Coast to West Coast. They also have a line of Natural (i.e: no preservatives or artificial additives) lunch meats, which are also pretty tasty.

By: Erica Feldkamp, WeSeed Writer As grub gets pricier, more people are carting budget-friendlier options. Food prices are rising at the fastest pace in almost 2 decades. Grocery costs jumped 5.8 percent between the months of January and May of this year, with fruits and veggies increasing as much as 16 percent. A few aisles down, even lowly priced commodities like bread, eggs, and SPAM have seen change, but they remain comparably lower priced, making them - at the very least - economically enticing. Shoppers are spending 10 - 14 percent of their disposable income on food. And according to the Department of Agriculture, food prices will continue to rise by another 4 percent over the next year. In times when every penny counts, more people are picking up this canned meat creation. SPAM's maker, Hormel (HRL), reports that SPAM sales, which spiked 10.6 percent between February and April, have increased company profits by 14 percent. SPAM is making a comeback. Launching new advertising to make the most of this SPAM frenzy, Hormel is introducing SPAM Singles and putting out more print and television ads. Policy monkeys say that the processed food companies like Hormel and Heinz (HNZ) are being victimized by higher commodity costs, but both companies have enjoyed growth over the last quarter. Heinz has upped its profits 7.2 percent from last year and is opening new plants this year. Consumers seem to be the only ones paying the price. SPAM can save you some change in check out line, but can it add the bacon to your portfolio? If Hormel continues to hog all the profits, this might be one little piggy that goes to the (stock) market. Click on Company Chat to see what others are saying about this savory new trend.

By: Erica Feldkamp, WeSeed Writer Despite rising grain prices, some of the companies dependent on corn and wheat are fattening their margins with growing sales. If you're not eating the Spam sandwiches, then someone else is. Flashing their first quarter sales report, Hormel's revenue rose 7.8 percent, exceeding analysts' expectations. During the course of 2008, Hormel(HRL) doesn't look like it's getting any leaner. Next latest and greatest thing could be SPAM & pineapple pizza. Hormel recently bought Burke Corp, a pizza topping company. Unbelievable? I thought so too until the company reported a 10 percent boost in sales of SPAM products. Refrigeration profit margins rose 50 percent, and Hormel is launching a new line of microwaveable goods this year. Picture Sub-Zeros, tanker size chill boxes, crammed with packs of sandwich meat. That's a ton of meat. Smuckers(SJM) sales are getting sweeter as well. Nothing goes better together than peanut butter and jelly. Smuckers couldn't agree more; the company bought Jif peanut butter, notably boosting sales. In addition to Jif and several organic peanut butters, Smuckers also makes Goober, a peanut butter and jelly in one jar. Retail earnings increased by 2.1 percent. The jelly giant's latest acquisitions include Carnation and Eagle brand condensed milk. Sweet. Richard Smucker - these people actually exist! - had noted that the company stayed solid in the face of rising soybean oil and wheat costs. Interesting. Inquiring minds want to know, Richard, why you need soybean oil and wheat to make jelly. We have yet to see how the escalating corn costs will affect Heinz(HNZ), which uses high-fructose corn syrup to produce their ketchup. Since corn syrup makes up 10 percent of its product cost, Heinz might have some catsupping to do. Their third quarter report will be announced February 26. Did you know that ketchup originated as an Asian sauce? Instead of bagel Fridays, what if your company provided SPAM sandwiches. Would you eat them? Do you have any idea of why Smucker's needs wheat?