Borden (company) - Demise

Demise

Borden suffered significant losses for the period 1991-1993. A 1991 restructuring failed to integrate the company's brands and marketing efforts. When whole milk prices dropped in 1992, Borden Food did not lower its prices—causing a significant drop in market share from which it was not able to recover. Borden divested itself of nearly a third of its businesses in 1993 but could not find a buyer for its snack food concerns. In deep financial difficulty, Borden was bought out by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in 1995.

KKR increased the pace of divestiture, but was unable to right the company. The company's Borden/Meadow Gold Dairies subsidiary was sold in September 1997 to Southern Foods, controlled by the Mid-America Dairymen (later the Dairy Farmers of America). Borden licensed the use of Elsie the Cow, but retained ownership of the trademark. The dairies are now owned by Dean Foods and Grupo Lala.

In 1997, KKR focused the company solely on its pasta and pasta sauces lines. But the new strategy failed as well. In June 2001, Borden Food sold several pasta lines to the American Italian Pasta Company and its pasta sauce and soup businesses to the H. J. Heinz Company. In July 2001, Borden Foods sold its remaining pasta lines to the New World Pasta.

Borden, Inc., sold its final food product line, It's Pasta Anytime, to Kraft Foods in 2001 and shuttered its Foods division.

With the Chemicals business the sole remaining operating company, in 2001, KKR merged Borden, Inc., into Borden Chemical, Inc., with the resulting company named Borden Chemical to emphasize the fact that Chemicals were the company's sole remaining product line.

In 2004, KKR sold Borden Chemical to Apollo Management, a private equity firm. Borden Chemical was merged with Resolution Performance Products, Resolution Specialty Materials, and the German firm Bakelite AG to form Hexion Specialty Chemicals. With the merger (which settled in 2005), the last vestige of Borden, Inc., ceased to exist except as spin-offs and brand names. Hexion retained control over the Elsie the Cow trademarks and Borden name until mid-2010 and has now assigned most Borden/Elsie trademarks to IBE BUSINESS ENTERPRISE AG of SWITZERLAND.

Borden once operated a chain of ice cream stores called Borden's Ice Cream, but only a single location in Lafayette, Louisiana, remains, under local ownership.