Oprah Winfrey to Launch New Line of Food Products


Entertainment media mogul Oprah Winfrey is looking to expand her scope of business beyond OWN–and television and film production. She is looking to produce food and beverage items. In fact, she may even be lining up enough products to open her own retail outlet or gourmet food store, according to reports. Last month, Winfrey quietly filed documents to trademark a line of food products called Oprah’s Kitchen, the New York Daily News reports. The 62 year-old media mogul’s forthcoming brand will include bottled water, energy drinks, coconut water, and lemonade—and it seems that’s just the beginning.

According to The Daily News, Winfrey’s merchandising application that was filed also reveals that in addition to drinks, she has plans to launch a line of dairy, meat, fish, and preserved foods products, as well as spices, baked goods, fresh fruit, and vegetables. There could also be specialty items such as cut flowers and beer. Winfrey is even considering a line of Oprah bacon, baked beans, sorbet, pickles, fruit leather, and even caviar.

If approved, this venture would mark a major expansion of Winfrey’s already massive empire, though it wouldn’t be her first foray into the food and beverage business. In 2014, she partnered with Teavana and Starbucks to create Oprah Chai (which we tried, obviously). More recently, Winfrey reportedly paid $43 million for a 10% stake in Weight Watchers, for which she has become the prominent face of the brand.

The Oprah Winfrey Network is headquartered in Los Angeles. As of 2015, Winfrey, who is the founder and CEO of Harpo Inc. based out of Chicago, held the 19th spot on the BE 100s Industrial/Service Companies list, with $175 million in revenue reported for 2014. The entrepreneur to hold the second spot on this BE 100s list, Janice Bryant Howroyd, CEO of ACT-1 Group, a staffing firm, is the first black women to own and operate a company that is generating $2.2 billion in revenues annually.

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That’s not to say that Winfrey isn’t a billionaire. She is bringing home the bacon and frying it up with her various ventures that are generating multiple revenue streams. According to Forbes, her net worth reportedly at $3.1 billion, making her California’s richest, self-made woman.


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