GREEN GIANT FOODS was a company that had a distinctive ad campaign when I was young... Will never forget the TV spot: "HO HO HO..GREEN GIANT!!" My uncle was an industrial engineer down in LaSuer, Minnesota for the company in its heyday.
Green Giant sold out to Pillsbury in the late 1970s so the headquarters moved to Minneapolis from LaSuer.. Originally, it was the Minnesota Canning Company in LaSuer and has been around since 1903, eventually becoming a nationally known brand. Anyways, after Pillsbury bought out Green Giant, they merged with General Mills, which eventually sold the Green Giant label to a New Jersey company, B&G Foods, with a co-packer from New York, Seneca Foods. So Green Giant does not have any management ties to the state anymore though there is a canning facility nearby to LaSuer in Montgomery, Minnesota. I think LaSuer only has a Green Giant research facility left from the glory days of the company.. There is still a statue of Green Giant, somewhere down there in the farm country south of the Twin Cities.
I still think about it when I see Green Giant on the frozen veggie shelves in the grocery store but that, along with Greyhound bus, are 2 national names that left Minnesota. Companies will be bought out and leave areas all over the place, I get it. But I hope Minnesota always maintains the wholesomeness that gave me pride to call it home.. Both in the people that live there and the businesses that choose to stay in the area.
That said, I realize that there are many world headquarters in the Twin Cities. The Twin Cities metro is not exactly hurting in that respect.. Real Estate has gone through the roof, in prices. . I can drive out by Lake Minnetonka and see practically every house with a contractor upgrading their homes so I know there is money there.. It is just that the people of Minnesota that have always made the state great were also the ones that made the companies based there great. I am praying that never changes, even if the corporations that called Minnesota home, do change.
Green Giant sold out to Pillsbury in the late 1970s so the headquarters moved to Minneapolis from LaSuer.. Originally, it was the Minnesota Canning Company in LaSuer and has been around since 1903, eventually becoming a nationally known brand. Anyways, after Pillsbury bought out Green Giant, they merged with General Mills, which eventually sold the Green Giant label to a New Jersey company, B&G Foods, with a co-packer from New York, Seneca Foods. So Green Giant does not have any management ties to the state anymore though there is a canning facility nearby to LaSuer in Montgomery, Minnesota. I think LaSuer only has a Green Giant research facility left from the glory days of the company.. There is still a statue of Green Giant, somewhere down there in the farm country south of the Twin Cities.
I still think about it when I see Green Giant on the frozen veggie shelves in the grocery store but that, along with Greyhound bus, are 2 national names that left Minnesota. Companies will be bought out and leave areas all over the place, I get it. But I hope Minnesota always maintains the wholesomeness that gave me pride to call it home.. Both in the people that live there and the businesses that choose to stay in the area.
That said, I realize that there are many world headquarters in the Twin Cities. The Twin Cities metro is not exactly hurting in that respect.. Real Estate has gone through the roof, in prices. . I can drive out by Lake Minnetonka and see practically every house with a contractor upgrading their homes so I know there is money there.. It is just that the people of Minnesota that have always made the state great were also the ones that made the companies based there great. I am praying that never changes, even if the corporations that called Minnesota home, do change.
