StarKist Tuna is a brand of

tuna A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max len ...

produced by StarKist Co., an American company formerly based in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

's North Shore that is now wholly owned by Dongwon Industries of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. It was purchased by Dongwon from the American food manufacturer

Del Monte Foods Del Monte Foods, Inc (trading as Del Monte Foods) is an American food production and distribution company headquartered in Walnut Creek, California. Del Monte Foods is one of the country's largest producers, distributors and marketer of br ...

on June 24, 2008, for slightly more than $300 million. In 2021, the headquarters were moved to Reston, Virginia.

History

Bob Hope - Star-Kist is the best Tuna, 1949

StarKist was founded in 1917 in

San Pedro, California San Pedro ( ; Spanish: "St. Peter") is a neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909. The Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located wi ...

(known historically as "Fish Harbor") as the French Sardine Company of California, by Martin J. Bogdanovich (an immigrant from

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

) and several partners. Bogdanovich is known for his innovations related to refrigeration of the seafood product with crushed ice. They first marketed tuna under the Starkist name in 1942. Bogdanovich died in 1944 and his son Joseph (1912–2005) took over the business. The company changed its name to Starkist Foods in 1953; at the time, its facility on

Terminal Island Terminal Island, historically known as Isla Raza de Buena Gente, is a largely artificial island located in Los Angeles County, California, between the neighborhoods of Wilmington and San Pedro in the city of Los Angeles, and the city of Long B ...

was the largest tuna processing facility in the world. Since 1961 its

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

has been

Charlie the Tuna Charlie the Tuna is the cartoon mascot and spokes-tuna for the StarKist brand. He was created in 1961 by Tom Rogers of the Leo Burnett Agency. StarKist Tuna is owned by Dongwon Industries, a South Korea-based conglomerate. Charlie is one of th ...

, an anthropomorphic cartoon

. Commercials usually featured the phrase "Sorry, Charlie". StarKist was acquired by the H.J. Heinz Company in 1963. In 1984, the Terminal Island cannery operations were shut down. In 1988, Heinz spun off its pet food brands (including its flagship

9Lives 9Lives is the name of a brand of cat food, owned by J.M. Smucker (after it acquired Big Heart Pet Brands, a former division of Del Monte in 2015) and introduced to the market by tuna processor StarKist Foods in 1959. It is best known for its ...

cat food brand, which was introduced as a tuna-based cat food in 1959) into a separate division (Joseph Bogdanovich became a Heinz vice-chairman). Heinz sold both divisions to Del Monte in 2002. In August 2015, StarKist settled a

class-action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

claiming that the company was guilty of deliberately "under-filling" five-ounce cans of tuna. Earlier that same month, StarKist was sued, accused of

colluding Collusion is a deceitful agreement or secret cooperation between two or more parties to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading or defrauding others of their legal right. Collusion is not always considered illegal. It can be used to att ...

with

Bumble Bee Foods Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, is a company that produces canned tuna, salmon, other seafoods, and chicken under the brand names "Bumble Bee," "Wild Selections," "Beach Cliff," "Brunswick," and "Snow's." The brand is marketed as " Clover Leaf" in Can ...

and

Chicken of the Sea Chicken of the Sea is a packager and provider of seafood, owned by the Thai Union Group in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. The brand is attached to tuna, salmon, clams, crab, shrimp, mackerel, oysters, kippers and sardines in cans, pouches and cups, as a ...

to fix prices. On October 18, 2018, StarKist agreed to plead guilty to a felony price fixing charge as part of a broad collusion investigation of the canned tuna industry by the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

. On September 11, 2019, StarKist was fined $100 million, the maximum statutory fine. In September 2019, the plaintiffs who had signed up for the class-action lawsuit that was "settled" in August 2015 were finally paid their share of the settlement. Plaintiffs who signed up for the $50 in tuna certificates received a coupon good for $5.03 provided they buy at least three Starkist products totaling more than that amount. Plaintiffs who signed up for the $25 cash received a PayPal payment of $2.38 representing their share of the settlement after the law firm's costs had been deducted. In June 2021, StarKist announced plans to move its corporate headquarters with 80 employees to Reston, Virginia in 2022.StarKist to drop anchor in Reston, Va.
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References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Official site

Image of workers picketing the StarKist cannery on Terminal Island, California,1984.

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library,

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

. Seafood companies of the United States Del Monte Foods brands Fish processing companies Food product brands 2008 mergers and acquisitions

History

See also

References

External links