I was surprised when I learned that Diamond Foods now owns Kettle Brand Chips. The stock is trading at the $50 range.
In addition Diamond Foods, which trades under the stock NYSE symbol as DMND, owns Emerald Nuts, Pop-Secret, Breakfast On the Go, Diamond Nuts, and Kettle Brand chips.
Diamond Foods is a packaged food company with offices in San Francisco and Stockton, California. It began as an agricultural marketing cooperative and converted in July 2005 to a public company, specializing in marketing nuts, particularly walnuts.
Its globally distributed brands include Kettle Brand chips, Emerald snack nuts, Pop Secret popcorn, and Diamond of California snack and culinary nuts. The company was founded in 1912 as Diamond Walnut Growers, Inc., a member-owned California agricultural cooperative association. In July 2005, Diamond Walnut Growers converted to a Delaware corporation and completed its initial public offering of Diamond Foods stock. The Company has 1467 full-time employees in offices and facilities in California, Oregon, Wisconsin, Indiana, Alabama and the United Kingdom.
Diamond Walnut was the location for the longest union strike in U.S. history as of 2010. The strike began in 1991 and ended in 2005.
