The J.M. Smucker Company

The J.M. Smucker Company is one of those food names that tells you a lot about American pantry life before you even look at the label. By our assessment, its real strength is breadth: peanut butter, jams, jellies, coffee, pet food, and a portfolio that reaches across grocery aisles rather than into one niche. That reach is also the trade-off, because a large packaged-food company can feel less focused than a specialist brand, and it lives with the ordinary pressures of commodity inputs, shelf competition, and changing consumer habits. In practice, Smucker stands for familiar shelf-stable goods, the kind of products people buy without much ceremony and then keep buying because they are easy to slot into routine. It sits among the big legacy food companies, not the trendy ones, and its brand mix is what gives it weight. By our assessment, The J.M. Smucker Company is strongest when people want a steady grocery company rather than a single glamour item.