Who doesn’t love a wacky business story? Slate featured a Shakespearean tale of tuna titans, and we just had to share it.
Once upon a tuna…
In the late 20th century, 3 players dominated the American canned tuna biz: StarKist, Bumble Bee, and Chicken of the Sea.
Things were going swimmingly — by 1989, the average American was eating ~4 pounds of the stuff per year.
But then tragedy struck: We developed taste buds. Consumption has fallen ~30% over the past 4 decades, forcing Big Tuna to swim offshore in search of cheaper wages.
That’s when things floundered
In 2015, StarKist tried to buy Bumble Bee. A federal antitrust investigation uncovered much more than an attempted monopoly.
Throughout the 2010s, the companies fixed prices to avoid undercutting each other (and giving consumers a better deal).
StarKist and Chicken of the Sea fessed up, but Bumble Bee CEO Chris Lischewski refused, forcing a grand jury trial with Oscar-worthy moments:
- Chicken of the Sea’s COO faked a car accident to avoid a potentially damning meeting on price fixing.
- A Bumble Bee sales rep burst into tears while taking the stand.
- Jury deliberation took a cool 30 minutes. Lischewski was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
