Hormel Foods Achieves Packaging Reduction Goal, Continues its Food Journey Progress in 14th Annual Corporate Responsibility Report

- The company prepares to launch its new corporate responsibility goals this fall

News provided by

Sep 23, 2020, 08:00 ET

AUSTIN, Minn., Sept. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL) today announced the launch of its 14^th annual corporate responsibility (CR) report. The report is available online at https://csr.hormelfoods.com/ and includes information about the company's CR progress in fiscal 2019.

"As part of Our Food Journey™, we focus on producing food responsibly for customers and consumers around the world by investing in our people and partners; improving communities and the world; and creating products that improve the lives of others," said Jim Snee, Chairman of the board, President and Chief Executive officer of Hormel Foods. "In 2019, we continued to make outstanding progress in the achievement of our corporate responsibility goals. The recognition we receive as a top corporate citizen is due to the incredible efforts of our inspired team, who continually looks for new ways to apply innovation to our sustainability efforts."

Hormel Foods was once again named one of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens by Corporate Responsibility magazine. In addition, the company was recognized as one of America's Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek, one of the World's Best Employers by Forbes and a Best for Vets Employer by Military Times.

Highlights of the company's progress in 2019 include:

After surpassing its goals to reduce solid waste sent to landfills, water use and nonrenewable energy use by 10 percent by 2020 in previous years, the company continued to implement projects to achieve further reductions. The company also surpassed its goal to reduce product packaging by 25 million pounds by 2020.
To ensure its high standards for animal care are being met throughout its supply chain, more than 1,800 audits were conducted. In 2019, Hormel Foods made a commitment to report the antibiotic usage for some of the farms in its supply chain. This report will be published in January of 2021, and the company will share its report and recommendations through this pilot project with others in the industry.
Hormel Foods launched over 500 new retail and foodservice items, with many targeted toward our sodium reduction and clean-label initiative efforts.
Hormel Foods continues to place great emphasis on its inclusion and diversity efforts and has nine employee resource groups in place. The company also continues to put the safety of its employees first by focusing on training, audits and improving its safety performance year over year.
Hormel Foods donated $7 million in cash and products. This includes $5.9 million in donations to fight hunger, its donation of 2.5 million cans of SPAMMY^® (a shelf-stable poultry product to help prevent childhood malnutrition in Guatemala), and more than $780,000 in education donations.

"I would like to thank all of our team members as well as our partners and suppliers, as it takes everyone working together to achieve these outstanding results," Snee said. "And while we celebrate these achievements, we realize there is more to accomplish on this journey. In fact, we look forward to advancing our efforts even more and announcing our new corporate responsibility goal set in the near future."

The 2019 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report follows the Global Reporting Initiative's standards and is developed in accordance to the core option. The report is designed to allow stakeholders to easily view top-line highlights. A downloadable PDF will be available in the near future as well.

To view the entire report, please visit https://csr.hormelfoods.com/.

ABOUT HORMEL FOODS — Inspired People. Inspired Food.™

Hormel Foods Corporation, based in Austin, Minn., is a global branded food company with over $9 billion in annual revenue across more than 80 countries worldwide. Its brands include SKIPPY^®, SPAM^®, Hormel^® Natural Choice^®, Applegate^®, Justin's^®, Wholly^®, Hormel^® Black Label^®, Columbus^® and more than 30 other beloved brands. The company is a member of the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, was named on the "Global 2000 World's Best Employers" list by Forbes magazine for three straight years, is one of Fortune magazine's most admired companies, has appeared on Corporate Responsibility Magazine's "The 100 Best Corporate Citizens" list for the 12^th year in a row, and has received numerous other awards and accolades for its corporate responsibility and community service efforts. The company lives by its purpose statement — Inspired People. Inspired Food.™ — to bring some of the world's most trusted and iconic brands to tables across the globe. For more information, visit www.hormelfoods.com and http://csr.hormelfoods.com/.