Home > Celebrating our Founder
"Quality was our only defense against the competition we had to meet from the big packers. To stay in business, we had to do everything a little better than they were doing it; the entire organization was keyed up to this one idea. I constantly hammered home the need for improving our working methods to the end that we could produce superior food while reducing costs — for in a highly competitive field it was impossible to accomplish the one without the other."
George A. Hormel,
on the challenges of starting the company today known as Hormel Foods and his steadfast commitment to quality and innovation.
This year we celebrate what would have been George A. Hormel's 150th birthday. Each month our news magazine ran stories from George's life and career, from working at his uncle's meatpacking house in Chicago, to starting his business in Austin, Minn., through his retirement and handing the company over to his son Jay. Twitter users, following @HormelFoods, have participated in a weekly contest that featured quotes from George's unpublished autobiography.
This celebration serves as a reminder that the standards and goals that George set for his fledgling company still apply to Hormel Foods today.