CEO Interview With ConAgra's Gary Rodkin

It’s virtually impossible to get through a grocery store without buying one of Conagra Foods brands. Hebrew National hot dogs, Healthy Choice frozen foods, Orville Redenbacher popcorn—ConAgra makes those and about 1,500 other products found at the supermarket.

Many Americans are eating at home more often to save money during rough economic times, and ConAgra’s stock is up nearly 60 percent since the spring of 2009.

When Gary Rodkin became the boss of Conagra Foods in 2005, after spending years at PepsiCo and General Mills, one analyst compared him to “a top draft choice going to a last-place team.” Since then Rodkin, 57, has cut costs and sold off assets, such as the company’s Butterball turkey division and its commodities trading business.

Indeed, after all the moves he’s made, he insists the turnaround days are over. Now it’s time to increase ConAgra’s $12.7 billion in sales, both domestically and around the world, he says.

No, there won’t be ConAgra-branded foods. “To try to make ConAgra its own brand would be very difficult,” Rodkin admits. But expect the continuation of an advertising campaign, started last year, designed to inform investors what, exactly, ConAgra is and does.

Rodkin sat down with SmartMoney at his office in Omaha and talked about the company’s strategy and the product he’s pinning much of its future growth on: sweet potato fries.