Hormel Chili and Omaha Steaks Team Up to Premium-ize Canned Chili

Canned chili has spent decades as the ultimate convenience play — fast, cheap, dependable. Now two of America's most recognizable food names are betting that shoppers want that same speed without settling for a blended, undifferentiated bowl.

Hormel Foods and Omaha Steaks have co-developed HORMEL® Chili & OMAHA STEAKS® 100% Natural Beef Chili with Beans, a new co-branded product engineered to deliver what the companies call a "competition-style" experience — ready in minutes, but built around prominent pieces of beef and a slow-simmered flavor profile. The launch was announced from Austin, Minnesota, and the product is now available nationally at select stores.

What's Actually in the Can

The pitch here is texture and beef presentation. Unlike chili with a more blended consistency, this recipe is designed to showcase its beef and vegetables, delivering what the brands describe as a more substantial, satisfying eat.

One clarification worth flagging for anyone parsing the co-brand: Omaha Steaks does not supply the meat. Hormel Chili produces the product using high-quality, 100% natural beef, while Omaha Steaks collaborated on the recipe — helping shape the meat presentation, texture, and overall eating experience. In other words, this is a knowledge partnership, not a supply-chain one.

Every detail — from beef selection and presentation to seasoning and simmer — was tuned to reflect the quality consumers associate with both names.

"For more than 90 years, HORMEL® Chili has been bringing convenient, flavorful meals to tables across the country. Working with Omaha Steaks allowed us to approach every element of this recipe through a more premium lens, particularly the quality, texture and prominence of the beef," said Brett Ament, brand manager at Hormel Foods.

"Our collaboration with HORMEL® Chili brings together two brands with a shared passion for creating exceptional food," said Nate Rempe, president and CEO of Omaha Steaks. "We applied 109 years of experience with premium meats and a deep understanding of what creates an exceptional eating experience to help develop a chili that is rich, flavorful and worthy of both names."

Two Heritage Brands, One Trade-Up Play

The pedigree on both sides is real. HORMEL® Chili, first established in 1935, is the country's best-selling canned-chili brand. Omaha Steaks, "America's Original Butcher," was founded in 1917 and is a fifth-generation, family-owned company recognized as the nation's largest direct-response marketer of premium beef and gourmet foods. Hormel Foods itself is a global branded food company with over $12 billion in annual revenue and a portfolio that includes SPAM®, SKIPPY®, PLANTERS®, and APPLEGATE®.

Putting a premium-beef reputation behind a shelf-stable staple is a deliberate move to reframe the category — and it lands squarely inside the "affordable premium" trend reshaping center-store grocery.

Why It Matters

For grocery buyers, foodservice operators, and CPG watchers, this launch is a clean example of the premiumization of convenience — and there are practical takeaways:

• Co-branding as a shelf differentiator. In a crowded canned-goods aisle, a second trusted name does the trust-building work that packaging claims alone can't. Buyers evaluating center-store resets should watch how a premium halo affects velocity and price elasticity in a value-driven category.
• "Substantial" is the new value message. Shoppers increasingly want convenient meals that still feel like real food — visible beef and vegetables, hearty texture. Operators building grab-and-go and pantry programs can lean into that same "convenient but not compromised" positioning.
• Expertise partnerships, not supply deals. Omaha Steaks contributed recipe development and eating-experience know-how rather than product. That's a lower-friction collaboration model any brand can study when it wants credibility in an adjacent category without rebuilding its sourcing.
• Menu and merchandising angles. A more premium canned chili opens cross-merchandising with cheese, chips, and toppings, and gives quick-service and c-store operators an easy back-bar or loaded-fries base with a recognizable name attached.

The strategic signal: even the most utilitarian shelf-stable categories are up for reinvention when brands can credibly promise better ingredients without adding steps for the consumer.

How to Serve It

The product is ready to heat and enjoy on its own, or it can be finished with favorite toppings such as shredded cheese. More information, recipes, nutritional details, and where-to-buy info are available at hormelchili.com.

Chasing more center-store and brand-collaboration plays worth studying? See how Bush's Beans turned British comfort food into a viral limited-edition drop, and how McCormick extended its Black Currant "Flavor of the Year" through partner collaborations.

Would you trade up for a premium canned chili — and does a co-brand like this change what you'd stock or serve? Drop your take in the comments.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Top 40 Under 40” for founding American Wholesale Floral. Politz is also the founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.