College Inn

What College Inn does

College Inn is a consumer packaged goods brand specializing in premium broths, stocks, and bone broths, serving home cooks and families across the United States. Its product portfolio spans approximately 15 SKUs organized by protein type — beef, chicken, turkey, and vegetable — and by format, including regular broth, slow-cooked stock, reduced-sodium variants, USDA-organic options, and collagen/protein-positioned bone broths. Products are sold in multiple package sizes (14.5 oz cans, 32 oz cartons, 48 oz cans/cartons), and a seasonal Turkey Broth is offered October through December to align with holiday cooking occasions.

The brand originated in the 1920s as the College Inn restaurant in Chicago's Hotel Sherman, where Chef Joe Colton created the original Chicken a la King dish with a secret recipe chicken broth, and that heritage underpins the brand's 'restaurant-quality' positioning in packaged form. College Inn is currently operated as a brand under B&G Foods, with the company website's legal links pointing to bgfoods.com. Its go-to-market is direct-to-consumer through retail grocery distribution — primarily in the eastern United States — at chains including Walmart, Albertsons, Safeway, Giant Eagle, Publix, Stop & Shop, and Shoprite, plus online retailer availability. Marketing is content-driven, centered on an extensive recipe library and organic social presence on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, with no paid digital advertising or AI-driven capabilities disclosed.

Name

College Inn

Legal name

College Inn

Website

https://collegeinn.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1920

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

College Inn is a packaged-food brand owned by B&G Foods that produces premium broths, stocks, and bone broths sold primarily through eastern-U.S. grocery chains for home cooking applications.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cooking Broths and Stocks

NAICS

Poultry Processing (311615), Meat and Meat Product Merchant Wholesalers (42447)

SIC

Miscellaneous Food Preparations & Kindred Products (2090), Sausages & Other Prepared Meat Products (2013)

akta.pro primary industry

Canned Fruits Manufacturing (AFAKACAA)

Keywords

• Cooking broths
• Culinary stocks
• Bone broth
• Packaged soups
• Cooking ingredients

Headquarters

HQ city

Pittsburgh

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel

Revenue model

1. Retail packaged goods sales: College Inn generates revenue through the sale of prepared broths and stocks to consumer households via retail grocery store distribution.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

College Inn manufactures and sells premium packaged broths and stocks for home cooking applications. The product line spans Beef, Chicken, Turkey, and Vegetable variants available as broths, stocks, and bone broths in multiple sizes and formats, with reduced sodium, unsalted, and organic options to address varied consumer dietary preferences.

Product overview

College Inn is a packaged food company specializing in premium broths and stocks. The product portfolio consists of multiple product lines organized by protein type (Beef, Chicken, Turkey, Vegetable) and format (Broth, Bone Broth, Stock), with some varieties available in reduced sodium and organic options. The core products include Beef Broth, Chicken Broth, Turkey Broth, and Vegetable Broth/Stock, each available in various sizes (32 oz. Carton, 48 oz. Carton, 14.5 oz. Can, 48 oz. Can). Additionally, the company offers Bone Broth variants (Chicken and Beef) positioned as premium products with higher protein content, Organic Chicken Broth for health-conscious consumers, and reduced sodium options across most product lines for consumers monitoring sodium intake.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Beef Broth Premium quality savory beef broth made from 100% natural ingredients with farm-grown vegetables and a unique blend of seasonings, available in multiple sizes for home cooks preparing soups, stews, gravies, and sauces.
• 50% Less Sodium Beef Broth Lower-sodium variant of beef broth with 50% less sodium than regular beef broth, made from premium quality beef and bones, for consumers monitoring sodium intake.
• Beef Stock Slow-cooked beef stock made from premium 100% natural ingredients including beef, onions, carrots, and seasonings, providing a rich flavor base for soups, sauces, and braises.
• Unsalted Beef Stock Unsalted slow-cooked beef stock blending 100% natural beef with onions, carrots, and seasonings, allowing consumers to control sodium content in their cooking.
• Beef Bone Broth Slowly simmered premium quality beef and bones with farm-grown vegetables and seasonings, producing a richer depth of flavor for sipping and cooking applications.
• 50% Less Sodium Beef Bone Broth Lower-sodium beef bone broth with 10 grams of protein per serving, crafted from slowly simmered beef, bones, and vegetables.
• Chicken Broth Premium quality chicken broth made from 100% natural chicken and bones with farm-grown vegetables and a unique blend of seasonings, reflecting the brand's original 1920s secret recipe.
• 40% Less Sodium Chicken Broth Lower-sodium chicken broth with 40% less sodium than regular chicken broth, made from premium quality chicken and bones.
• Chicken Stock Roasted chicken stock made from slow simmering premium 100% natural ingredients for a rich, flavorful base for soups, sauces, and braises.
• Unsalted Chicken Stock Unsalted version of roasted chicken stock made from slowly simmered premium ingredients including chicken, onions, carrots, and seasonings, allowing sodium control.
• Organic Chicken Broth Organic gluten-free chicken broth crafted from premium organic ingredients including organic chicken stock, farm-grown vegetables, and unique seasonings.
• Chicken Bone Broth Slowly simmered chicken bone broth with 8 grams of protein per serving and naturally occurring collagen for richer depth of flavor, suited for sipping and cooking.
• 35% Less Sodium Chicken Bone Broth Lower-sodium chicken bone broth with 35% less sodium and 8 grams of protein per serving with naturally occurring collagen.
• Turkey Broth Seasonal turkey broth made from premium 100% natural ingredients including turkey and bones with a unique blend of seasonings, available October through December for holiday cooking.
• Vegetable Stock Richer, bolder vegetable stock made from premium 100% natural ingredients including onions, carrots, bell peppers, and herbs, suitable for vegetarian and vegan cooking applications.
• 40% Less Sodium Garden Vegetable Broth Lower-sodium vegetable broth with 40% less sodium made from 100% natural farm-grown vegetables with no GMO ingredients.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves1 record

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• 365 by Whole Foods: Whole Foods' 365 private-label broth/stock line is a direct substitutable competitor on the better-for-you shelf and applies private-label price pressure across the broth category College Inn operates in.
• Great Value (Walmart): Walmart's Great Value broth and stock SKUs sit on the same Walmart shelves as College Inn, representing the most pressing private-label price competition in the category.

Direct peers

• Swanson: Swanson is Campbell's flagship broth and stock brand and the category leader in shelf-stable chicken/beef/vegetable broths—directly competing with College Inn across the same retail banner set and consumer occasions (soups, gravies, holiday cooking).
• Better Than Bouillon: Better Than Bouillon (McCormick) is a concentrated broth/stock competitor that increasingly competes for the same recipe-application occasions as College Inn, particularly among home cooks seeking shelf-stable flavor bases.
• Herb-Ox: Herb-Ox is a long-tenured shelf-stable broth and bouillon brand competing with College Inn in the mainstream grocery broth segment, particularly in the cube and liquid broth formats used for everyday cooking.
• Progresso: Progresso (General Mills) is a major branded competitor in canned broths and stocks, sold across the same grocery channels as College Inn, with overlapping use cases in soups, stews, and holiday meal preparation.
• Imagine Foods: Imagine (Hain Celestial / acquired shelf-stable soup brand) offers organic and conventional broths in cartons, overlapping College Inn's product set across the natural and premium retail shelf.
• Kitchen Basics: Kitchen Basics is a shelf-stable cooking stock brand directly comparable to College Inn's beef, chicken, and vegetable stock SKUs, competing in the same mid-tier retail broth segment.
• Pacific Foods: Pacific Foods (owned by Hormel) competes head-to-head with College Inn in organic, reduced-sodium, and bone-broth broth variants, and operates in the same premium shelf-stable soup/broth category with similar natural-ingredient positioning.

Emerging players

• Orrington Farms: Orrington Farms offers broth bases and cooking stocks positioned in the natural/clean-label niche, sharing the non-MSG, natural-ingredient positioning College Inn emphasizes on packaging.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/CollegeInnBroth
• Instagraminstagram.com/collegeinnbrand
• Pinterestpinterest.com/collegeinnbroth
• Xx.com/collegeinnbroth

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about College Inn