Campbell’s buys stake in Rao’s maker to boost pasta sauce platform

Campbell’s has taken a bigger bite of the jarred sauce aisle, buying a 49 percent stake in La Regina di San Marzano di Antonio Romano and La Regina Atlantica, the company behind Rao’s Homemade tomato-based pasta sauces. The deal, valued at about US$286 million, gave Campbell’s a closer hold on a brand that has become one of the most powerful names in premium pasta sauce.

For pasta shoppers, the point is not just corporate. It is what happens to the bottle on the supermarket shelf and the sauce simmering in the home pot. Rao’s has surged past US$1 billion in trailing 12-month net sales, and Campbell’s now calls it its fourth billion-dollar brand, alongside Campbell’s, Goldfish and Pepperidge Farm. That kind of scale can change how often a sauce is stocked, how widely it travels, and how aggressively it is promoted.

Campbell’s first disclosed definitive agreements to buy the stake on Dec. 8, 2025, and completed the acquisition on May 4, 2026. The company said the investment strengthens its long-term strategic partnership with La Regina and is expected to be neutral to fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings per share. In practice, Campbell’s is buying more control over the supply chain behind one of the most recognizable premium Italian-style sauce labels in North America.

La Regina was founded in 1972 by Antonio Romano in Scafati, Italy, and has partnered with Rao’s since 1993. Campbell’s said La Regina produces all of Rao’s tomato-based sauces, a detail that matters to anyone who has watched premium sauce brands live or die by consistency. When one manufacturer controls the tomato base for the brand, the relationship between craftsmanship, availability and scale becomes the whole story.

That story is especially important for Rao’s, which traces its roots to the New York City restaurant founded in 1896 and was turned into a grocery brand by Frank Pellegrino, Sr. in 1992. Campbell’s has said Rao’s growth has been powered by expanded distribution across major North American retailers, national advertising and innovation. It also said the brand has grown from a regional sauce into a $1 billion portfolio spanning Italian sauces, soups, pasta and frozen meals.

The larger question for the pasta aisle is whether a beloved premium name can keep its cachet while a major food company pushes it harder. Campbell’s clearly thinks the answer is yes. By tying Rao’s more tightly to its Taste Elevation business and to the Sovos Brands acquisition it completed in 2024, the company is betting that scale can widen the reach without flattening the identity. For now, Rao’s still looks like Rao’s, only with a much larger engine behind it.