Sales of the world-famous canned pork product, Spam, have smashed another record, with the US and South Korea proving to be its most popular markets.
Hormel, the firm behind the iconic brand, announced record sales of $3.5 billion in the three months to the end of October, which is a 43% increase compared to the same time last year. Following the news, Hormel’s shares increased by nearly 5% in Thursday’s trading in New York.
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“The Spam brand delivered its seventh consecutive year of record growth,” Hormel’s CEO, Jim Snee, said on a conference call with investors, pitching that the firm plans to expand its line of Spam products in the next two years.
Hormel, like many other companies, has suffered from supply chain issues during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, its overall sales still rose 19% to $11.4 billion in 2021. To ward off potential future shortfalls, Hormel announced it had inked a new five-year contract for pork supplies, which is the main ingredient in Spam.
Snee didn’t seem at all surprised by his canned meat’s success this year.
“The question is, who is not eating Spam? It’s amazing what we have been able to do over the last seven years,” he said on Yahoo Finance Live, praising the product for being “an incredibly affordable source of protein.” He also noted that the firm has seen “a change in the consumer dynamic,” with people from all age groups and backgrounds equally interested in Spam – something he dubbed “broad-based consumption for the brand.”
Apart from the US, Spam has a huge international market, operating in more than 80 countries worldwide. It is especially popular in the Asia-Pacific region. In South Korea, where it was initially introduced by the US army during the Korean War, Spam is so much a part of national culture now, sets of Spam cans are often given as presents for the Lunar New Year and Korean thanksgiving holiday, Chuseok.
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