Brand behind SpaghettiOs is being retired

Franco-American, the brand name that has adorned cans of kids' mealtime favorite SpaghettiOs and other foods for more than a century, is being consigned to history.

Campbell Soup Co. is retiring the Franco-American brand name in favor of the better-known Campbell's brand.

The change is meant to boost sales of SpaghettiOs, RavioliOs and regular spaghetti, along with beef, chicken and turkey gravy varieties sold in cans and jars, Juli Mandel Sloves, a spokeswoman for Camden, N.J.-based Campbell Soup Co., said Thursday.

She said a market analysis recently found that the Campbell's brand was better recognized and regarded by the public than Franco-American.

"The Campbell's name scored much higher in terms of quality and nutritional profile, so it made sense to leverage the equity that's in the Campbell brand and associate it with some of our other products," Mandel Sloves said.

Campbell Soup had $121 million in revenues from SpaghettiOs and its other canned pastas as of July 31, or about 22 percent of the $543 million annual canned pasta market, according to industry data cited by Mandel Sloves. That was down slightly from sales of $132 million in the prior year, and well behind Chef Boyardee, which dominates the market with about $295 million in yearly canned pasta sales.

The transition, basically replacing the Franco-American banner with the red-and-white Campbell's logo and other labeling changes, began in July. Some cans and jars bearing the old logo still remain on supermarket shelves.

"There's been no change to the products, just to the brand," Mandel Sloves said.

The Franco-American brand got its start in Jersey City, N.J., in 1887. That's when French migr Alphonse Biardot opened a commercial kitchen to introduce Americans to gourmet foods from his native country, according to Campbell Soup. It bought that company in 1915.