The V.I. Pea

Men have rhapsodized about truffles and caviar, but few have been inspired to sing the praises of the lowly pea. One exception is Author Max (Barefoot Boy) Shulman, who has not only written a song about pea picking but speaks poetically of the peas' earthly journey toward "their succulent destinies." The reason for Shulman's enthusiasm is that while in college he worked as a pea picker for the Green Giant Co. of Le Sueur, Minn., where the pea is king. Green Giant is the U.S.'s largest canner of peas and corn, with 22 processing plants in eight states and two in Canada. In the last decade, it has raised its sales from $46 million to more than $75 million, increased earnings to $2,300,000, expanded to 38 products. It is also moving into frozen foods and embarking on a program aimed at putting its products on European dinner tables.

Founded in 1903 by Le Sueur merchants who wanted to stimulate the town's tired economy, the company started with a single product--corn--and did not add peas to its line until 1907. Cautiously, it added asparagus in 1939, waited another 19 years before putting beans on the market. Only recently has Green Giant hopped boldly into new products. "There is just so much market for canned peas and corn in this world," says President Lurton Eugene Felton, 63, "and we were so concentrated, we were vulnerable." So diversified has the company's line become that even the scantily clad jolly green giant adorning its products has had to vary his appearance: on frozen food boxes, he wears a scarf.

"It Sounds Silly." Although dwarfed by other industry heavyweights, Green Giant has regularly harvested a profit every year since 1932, largely because it coddles all its vegetables as it does its tiny pet, the pea. Green Giant's peas are planted with great care somewhere among the company's 175,000 acres across the U.S. (which make Green Giant rank among the five largest U.S. farmers). Their development is zealously checked against "maturity guide charts," unique documents that are considered the company's secret weapon. To ensure a uniform pea, whether it is grown in Wisconsin or Washington, sugar content, size and color must meet the charts' stringent standards.

With the help of the charts and the company's own meteorologists, field supervisors can predict far in advance almost the exact hour when the peas have reached their point of destiny. Then, loud whistles send workers scrambling into the fields at any hour to harvest the crop. "It sounds silly," admits a Green Giant officer, "but if we figure the peas should be picked at 10 o'clock Sunday night, that is when we start picking." Later, quality-control men count the loose skins in cans--rejecting those with too many --and make an "organoleptic" test in which they bite sample peas, taste, swallow and, hopefully, like them.

Still Loyal. Green Giant couples its dedication to quality control with a devotion to earnings. President Felton, former accountant, has installed "profit directors'' for each major commodity to do little else than devise means for making more money. He also makes good use of the company's appealing trademark, the jovial giant who stands with his feet planted in the harvest fields. The image, on which Green Giant spends $8,000,000 a year in advertising and promotion, makes customers smile--and stockholders too. Because of new diversification, Felton looks for a big profit jump once the frozen food line and other new products are better established. But while it moves into mushroom sauce and other more sophisticated fare, the company is still loyal to its early love. As long as there is a Green Giant, says Felton, there will always be a pampered pea.

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