Lincoln Snacks Company

Lincoln Snacks Company

Industry	Snack food
Founded	1968
Founder	Sandoz-Wander, Inc.
Headquarters	Lincoln, Nebraska, United States
Key people	Jeffrey Dunn President and CEO
Products	See products section
Revenue	US$45 Million (2006)
Number of employees	114

The Lincoln Snacks Company (or Lincoln Snacks) was a manufacturer of caramelized popcorn and popcorn/nut mixes. Lincoln Snacks’ products are produced in Lincoln, Nebraska and sold nationally under the Poppycock, Fiddle Faddle and Screaming Yellow Zonkers (discontinued) brand names. Lincoln Snacks became a subsidiary of ConAgra Foods, Inc. on September 7, 2007.

The Lincoln Snacks Company has roots in the Wander Company, a Swiss firm founded in Berne in 1865, which manufactured Ovaltine in Villa Park, Illinois. In 1960, Wander bought the rights to Poppycock, a snack consisting of caramelized popcorn and nuts, from Harold Vair, a Detroit candy shop owner. In 1968, Wander merged with Sandoz Nutrition Corporation, a division of Sandoz, to form Sandoz-Wander, Inc. (which is today the pharmaceutical company Novartis). Poppycock production was moved from Villa Park to Lincoln, Nebraska and the Lincoln Snacks Company was created as an operating division of Sandoz-Warner.

In February 1992, Sandoz-Wander announced intentions to sell their Lincoln Snacks division due to a decline in net sales. On August 31, 1992, Lincoln Snacks was acquired by Noel Group, Inc., a public buyout firm. Lincoln Snacks’ name was changed to Lincoln Foods Inc. and sales, marketing and administrative headquarters were relocated to Stamford, Connecticut; the manufacturing plant remained in Lincoln, Nebraska. On March 15, 1993, Lincoln Foods acquired Carousel Nut Products, Inc., an Owensboro, Kentucky producer of roasted, raw and mixed nuts. Carousel's operations were merged with the Lincoln plant in 1994. That same year, Lincoln Foods had an initial public offering of 2.15 million shares and began trading under "SNAX" on the NASDAQ stock exchange.