Del Monte Foods files for bankruptcy, seeks buyer

Del Monte Foods, the nearly 140-year-old company known for its wide array of canned vegetables and fruits, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday after struggling with rising borrowing costs, pandemic missteps and a changing global economy.

It may come as a surprise that the 138-year-old grocery market canned food staple Del Monte Foods is headquartered right here in the Bay Area community of Walnut Creek.

In 2017 Del Monte was acquired by the private equity firm KKR. This is a common scenario, a private equity firm buys a business and begins to extract and sell off everything of value until the business is severely weakened or destroyed.