Hello Everyone,
Headquartered in Orrville, Ohio, the J. M. Smucker Company is best known for its fruit spreads. Besides those, the company also makes peanut butter, ice cream toppings, syrups, and Uncrustable® sandwiches. Although you can’t tour the plant, a trip to the town’s J. M. Smucker Store and Café will have you saying “I didn’t know that” about its many acquisitions.
Traveling down the store’s driveway, you’ll pass several banners - Pillsbury, Jif, Folgers, Crisco, Martha White, Hungry Jack, Smuckers, and Eagle Brand. Entering the store, you find products related to all of these as well as Dickinson’s, Big Heart Pet Brands, R. W. Knudsen juices, Laura Scudder’s peanut butter, White Lily’s flours, and Crosse and Blackwell’s British products. You’ll learn all of these companies, and more, have been Smucker acquisitions.
The store had its grand opening in 1999 as the Simply Smucker’s Store. It received its present name in 2007. Displays against the walls showcase products and merchandise from all of their companies. In the center, you’ll find Smucker branded gifts, kitchen accessories, and dinnerware as well as ideas for custom gift baskets to fill with items from the various companies.
At the café up front, you can order an entree prepared in their wood-fired oven or bakery sweets. The store’s rear has a solid wall of Smucker products and a two-room museum. One room’s wall is a timeline of the company’s history. It contains a case with jars ranging from 1897 to 2013 and an antique wood burning stove similar to those depicted on early 1940's Smucker product labels.
In a second room, wallboards hang highlighting Smucker as a sponsor for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics and Paralympic teams. Most of the displayed ads pertain to Folgers and Smucker’s Uncrustables® and Fruit-Fulls®.
Another contains interesting facts about the 1996 “Real Boys” commercial where actors portrayed Tim and Richard Smucker as youths in Orville in 1954. They became the fourth generation to run the company. Jake Lloyd, who portrayed Richard in the 1996 ad, later starred as Anakin Skywalker in the first Star Wars’ episode,The Phantom Menace. In the 2007 ad, Willard Scott did the voice over.
SMUCKER HISTORY
Reading the historical timeline you’ll learn Jerome Monroe Smucker (J.M.) was born in Orrville in 1858. He spent much of his life farming. In 1897, he constructed a cider mill in that town using fruit from trees planted by Johnny Appleseed during the early nineteenth century. He later sold apple butter from the back of a horse-drawn wagon, then in 1921 incorporated his company.
In 1923, Smucker expanded to fruit spreads. The company now makes more than 40 varieties of jellies, jams, preserves, marmalades, conserves, and fruit butters. These include products containing low sugar, sugar free spreads, products in squeezable bottles, and ones combining fruit and honey. They also produce spreadable fruit, peanut butter, and syrups.
Spreads are manufactured in different ways. Jelly comes from fruit juice while jam consists of a blend of crushed pieces of fruit and fruit puree. Preserves contain whole or large pieces of fruit while marmalade is jelly with shreds of citrus fruit peel. Conserves are jams made from a mixture of citrus fruits including nuts. Fruit butters consist of fruit pulp and sugar cooked together. Calling them butter is a misnomer since they don’t contain any.
J. M.’s son Willard modernized plant operations in 1939. He spearheaded the crock packaging and label redesign that grew apple butter sales to one million dollars by 1940. The company introduced a line of ice cream toppings that same year. National distribution started two years later with the first shipment of fruit spread to Los Angeles.
Wyse Advertising created the slogan “With a Name Like Smucker's, It’s Got to be Good”® in 1952. In 1959, J. M. Smucker went public with a listing of 165,000 common shares. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1965 and assumed a spot on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in 2008.
The company cosponsored the Gary Moore radio show in 1962. Four years later, Smucker’s ice cream toppings had a national television spot on NBC’s Tonight Show. The company was a founding sponsor of Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Park, Florida in 1972.
In 1968, the company introduced Goober Grape® combining peanut butter and jelly stripes. Its famous gingham cap was first used in 1979. That was also the year of Smucker’s first acquisition, Dickinson’s.
Magic Shell®, the squeezable topping that hardens on ice cream in seconds, started production in 1982. Today it comes in six flavors ranging from chocolate pretzel and chocolate fudge to Funfetti® Vanilla Cake. The company also produces microwavable toppings, a variety of spoonable ice cream toppings in jars, and pourable flavored toppings. Some are sugar free or sweetened with Splenda®.
In 1987, the company created its Good-for-You offerings including sodium free natural peanut butter. It was followed the next year by Simply Fruit which is spreadable fruit in a wide range of flavors. Natural peanut flavor comes in five varieties with organic in two. Fruit and Honey™ has five different types.
During the 1990's, the Founders House illustration started being featured on every label. This house exists on Main Street in Orrville. From this residence, J.M. Smucker operated his business for part of his life. The J.M. Smucker signature also started being embossed on every jar or package just as the founder would have inscribed it in 1897.
J. M. Smucker Company acquired MenUSAver, makers of a frozen crustless sandwich, in 1998. Seven different sandwiches without crusts are now available including several on whole wheat bread.
In 2004, Fortune magazine named J. M. Smucker to its list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. It also identified J. M. Smucker as one of the fastest growing companies.
A major acquisition occurred in 2004 when the company obtained International Multifoods Corporation. It included Pillsbury’s flour products and frostings, Hungry Jack, Pet milk products, and Martha White baking mixes and ingredients. It acquired Folgers and Knott’s Berry Farm in 2008 and Crisco in 2009.
Big Heart Pet Brands, the largest stand-alone producer of branded pet foods and snacks in the United States, joined J. M. Smucker in 2015. It included such brands of Meow Mix®, Milk-Bone®, Gravy Train®, and 9 Lives. This represented the largest acquisition in company history.
In 2011, the company moved to new headquarters in Orrville - Strawberry Central. Production began at this plant the next year. The company is now run by Tim Smucker, Chairman Emeritus, and Richard Smucker, Executive Chairman, the great-grandsons of J. M. Smucker. Mark Smucker, the great-great grandson, is the President and CEO.
FRUIT SPREAD COMPANIES
Besides its own brand, J. M. Smucker dominates the industry as it also owns Dickinson’s, Knott’s Berry Farm, and Santa Cruz Organic.
In 1897, Grandmother Dickinson started a small family business known for its traditional preserves. Her fame spread to being a regional favorite and then a national gourmet brand. Now the company makes a variety of products. These include English style cheese curds, fruit butters, pepper spreads, and relishes. Its Purely Fruit® is a spread consisting solely of fruit with nothing artificial. Dickinson’s also makes sugar free preserves.
Walter Knott, the founder of Knott’s Berry Farm, is responsible for the boysenberry. In Buena Park, California, his friend Rudolph Boysen experimented with a new strain of berries that kept dying on the vine. Knott managed to nurse the berries back to health and created a cross between a raspberry, loganberry, and blackberry. He named it boysenberry in honor of his friend. All boysenberries in the world trace their roots back to Knott’s Berry Farm.
During this time period, Walter’s wife, Cordelia, started a roadside stand. It sold rhubarb, asparagus, and berries. She later opened a tea room to sell homemade biscuits, fried chicken dinners, and boysenberry pies as well as jellies, jams, and preserves. Today these chicken dinners can be obtained at California’s Knott’s Berry Farm Amusement Park operated by Cedar Fair.
Since the 1930's, Knotts has remained the United States leading consumer of boysenberries. It makes a million pounds of boysenberry products a year. The company also makes red raspberry, strawberry and blackberry preserves; orange marmalade; and strawberry and red raspberry jams.
Santa Cruz Organic® started in 1972 when founder John Battendieri pressed his first batch of "Mr. Natural" apple juice in Central California’s Santa Cruz Mountains. It was one of the first packaged organic products. The company now makes more than 50. Besides fruit spreads, these include juices, carbonated drinks, lemonades, applesauce, chocolate syrups, peanut butters, and peanut powders. The company’s Agua Frescas blend organic fruit juice and fruit juice concentrate, sugar, lemon juice, and other ingredients. Smuckers acquired this company in 1994.
PEANUT BUTTER COMPANIES
J. M. Smucker makes a variety of peanut butter products in both creamy and crunchy styles. These include natural varieties with only a few ingredients, organic, and reduced fat. Goober®PB&J comes in stripes containing strawberry and grape fruit spreads.
Jif, which started in 1955, was acquired in 2002 from Procter & Gamble. It’s well known for its natural and creamy butter spreads that now also come in reduced fat, contain honey, or have added Omega3. The company makes nut butters and spreads in such flavors as salted caramel and chocolate cheesecake. Snacks include peanut butter granola bars, dippers, and peanut butter covered pretzels. They also produce peanut powder for such uses as smoothies and oatmeal.
Adams is a peanut butter company that has been around since 1922. Acquired in 1998, it was one of Smucker’s earliest acquisitions. It comes in creamy and crunchy varieties that are both salted and unsalted. The company also produces both organic and no stir in creamy and crunchy.
Laura Scudder started making potato chips in Monterey Park, California in 1926. She expanded to peanut butter in 1931. In 1994, the J. M. Smucker Company acquired Laura Scudder’s® natural peanut butter business from Bama Foods, Inc. The company now makes eight varieties.
PILLSBURY
Charles A. Pillsbury founded his company in 1869 when he purchased half the interest in Minneapolis Flouring Mill. The first labels, Pillsbury’s Best, appeared on flours and sacks in 1872 and were registered as a trademark three years later. In the late 1940's, the company introduced pie crust mix, hot rolls mix, and the first cake mix.
The first Pillsbury Bake-off occurred in 1949 at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria. Philip Pillsbury, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Art Linkletter awarded prizes to the winners. In 1955, Pillsbury introduced brownie mixes and frostings and in 1964, the first ready-to-spread frosting.
The audition to become the voice for the famous Pillsbury Doughboy was held in 1965. Paul Frees won. He was also the voice of Boris Badenov, in the cartoon “Rocky and Bullwinkle”. When he died in 1986, Jeff Bergman, who was heard as Charlie the Tuna, replaced him.
In 2001, Multifoods purchased Pillsbury’s dessert and baking mix business. J. M. Smucker acquired Multifoods in 2004.
In addition to traditional brownie, cookie, breads and muffins, cake mixes, and frostings, its product line includes gluten free and sugar free mixes. The Purely Simple ™ mixes contain no colors, preservatives, or artificial flavors. Its baking spray contains flour.
One popular line is its Funfetti®, the cookie, cake, and frosting mixes containing candy bits. Some are available year round while others such as Valentine’s Day or Halloween are only obtainable for two months a year. Funfetti® cake mixes and frostings come in a rainbow of solid colors. These are found year round.
Fans of Girl Scout cookies can now find Girl Scouts® Thin Mints® cupcake and brownie mixes. Another favorite, Girl Scouts® Caramel and Coconut, comes in Blondie and cupcake mixes.
HUNGRY JACK
I noticed a revolving rack of Hungry Jack’s history at the front of the store. This brand was first introduced as pancake flour in 1936 then renamed “pancake mix” in 1949.
Hungry Jack is known for being a large variety of pancake and waffle mixes. Among the more unusual ones are a seasonal pumpkin and a gluten free Funfetti®. To go with them, you’ll find seven flavored syrups, including a sugar free one, which comes in microwavable bottles.
MARTHA WHITE
Acquired in 2005, Martha White is known for its company’s southern touch. The company started in 1899 when Richard Lindsey Sr. founded Nashville’s Royal Flour Mill. He named his finest flour after his daughter, Martha White Lindsey. The mill’s name changed to Martha White in 1944 when it was acquired by businessman Cohen E. Williams.
During the 1940's, Martha White started becoming synonymous with country music. It sponsored Nashville’s famous radio show, the Grand Ole Opry. In 1953, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs toured the south with the Martha White Bluegrass Express. They performed a show at local festivals touting Martha White flour and corn meal. Martha White also sponsored these performers at local concerts, on a Nashville radio show, and a television program.
During the 1970's, Tennessee Ernie Ford became their spokesperson. During that year, a variety of fruit muffin mixes were introduced. Now the company offers 20 different varieties.
In addition to these mixes, Martha White makes biscuit and cornbread mixes, corn meal, flour, a hush puppies mix with onion flavor, and two pizza mixes. Since 1996, Martha White has sponsored a national cornbread cook-off using the company’s corn mix. In 2008, the company started the Martha White Muffin Mix Challenge™.
I found the White Lily products in the Martha White section of the store. It’s a southern firm in business since 1833 that makes cornmeal as well as various traditional and premium flours. It was acquired in 2004.
CRISCO
William Proctor and James Gamble formed a partnership in 1837 to sell soap and candles. They expanded to manufacturing and marketing lard then introduced Crisco, the first solidified shortening product made entirely of vegetable oil. It resulted from hydrogenation, a process producing shortening in solid form.
Crisco’s first ad appeared in women’s magazines in January 1912 citing the benefits of the product’s all-vegetable shortening over animal fats and butter. It was more economical, wasn’t absorbed by the food, and didn’t burn or give off smoke at higher temperatures as lard did. Its first radio appearance was on WEAF radio in New York in 1923 on a cooking show. It then aired for the first time on television, on the Crisco Friday night network program in 1949.
The product was introduced in an airtight can with a key. A replaceable lid started being substituted for this in the 1960's. During World War II, glass was used instead since metal was in short supply. Shortening now comes in cans or in cooking sticks.
In 1960, the company introduced Crisco vegetable oil for those preferring liquid cooking oil for food preparation. Puritan Oil, made from sunflower oil, came along in 1976. It provided more unsaturated fats versus the other vegetable oils.
Other improvements came during the 1980's - butter flavor, 100% pure Crisco corn oil, and Puritan canola oil. During the 1990's, other changes occurred. These included the Enviro-Pack in 1993 which used 30% less plastic for packaging. Now all Crisco oils are packaged this way. Crisco Natural Blend Cooking Oil was developed in 1994 which blended canola, sunflower, and soybean oils while non aerosol cooking sprays appeared a year later.
The 2000's have been active years for this company as well. In 2003, 100% pure corn oil was added to their product list. Packaging changed in 2005 with the clean pour spout and built-in measuring cup. That year, the company also added several olive oils and no-stick flour sprays for baking. These sprays combined Crisco oil with Pillsbury flour. During the rest of the decade, pure peanut oil, zero grams fat, and Puritan Omega3 hit the grocery shelves. Today’s customers also purchase such specialty products as saute oils and sticks and organic pure coconut oil.
FOLGERS AND OTHER COFFEES
In 1849, James A. Folger and his two older brothers were sent by the family from Nantucket to mine for gold. They could pay passage to San Francisco for all but only afford to send two to the mining towns. Fifteen-year-old James had to stay behind and work for his travel expenses while his older brothers proceeded to the goldfields.
In 1850, working as a carpenter, he erected William H. Bovee’s mill, the Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mill. Bovee inaugurated roasted and ground coffee that was ready for the pot. After working for Bovee for a year, James A. eventually made it to the goldfields carrying coffee and spice samples and taking orders from grocery stores in the mining country .
Upon his return to San Francisco in 1865, he became a full partner of Pioneer Steam Coffee. In 1872, he bought his partners out and renamed the firm J. A. Folger and Company. When he died in 1959, his son, James A. Folger,II took over as president.
The company’s principal product was bulk-roasted coffee delivered in sacks and drums to grocery stores. It also produced ground coffee under various labels, depending upon the grade. In 1901, the company opened a plant in Texas.
Proctor and Gamble acquired Folgers in 1963 providing national distribution. Under the name Folgers, it became America’s number one coffee brand. In 2008, it merged with the J. M. Smucker Company. Today Folgers produces ground and instant coffee. Customers can purchase single serve or the K-cup pods®.
In the Folgers section, I noticed Smucker manufactures and distributes the coffee for Dunkin Doughnuts available at grocery stores. This includes the various roasts, seasonally flavored ones such as pumpkin spice and white chocolate peppermint, and bakery flavored ones such as blueberry muffins and chocolate glazed doughnuts. The company also makes hazelnut and French vanilla flavored coffees.
Smucker added three companies manufacturing coffee in 2011. Café Bustelo provides a Latin flavor. Gregorio Bustelo and his wife started making this in 1931 in the East Harlem area known as El Barrio. Another firm, Medaglia D'Oro®, makes two Italian espressos. It started in 1924.
Pilon traces back to 19th century Cuba where Café Pilon became the country’s leading coffee. Pepe Sauto, a Cuban immigrant, started making it in Miami in 1965 at Rowland Coffee Roasters. It’s available in six types.
R. W. KNUDSEN
Russell W. Knudsen started bottling fruit juices in 1961 from his organic grape vineyard in Paradise, California. The company offers a large variety of organic and natural juices and specialty products. It also makes a Celebratory line of sparkling beverages in champagne bottles. The Just Line of Juice consists of unsweetened organic juices containing one fruit. Simply Nutritious® contains fruits and herbal ingredients. Other beverages include sports drinks, juice boxes for children and adults, concentrates, and vegetable juices. Specialty products are cranberry sauce and mull spices in tea bags. Smucker acquired this company in 1984.
CROSSE & BLACKWELL
Originally founded as West and Wyatt, Crosse & Blackwell was purchased in 1830 by Edmund Crosse and Thomas Blackwell. It manufactures such Indian favorites as chutneys, red currant jelly and orange marmalade, and pub delights such as fish and chip vinegar and Chow Chow Piccalilli Mustard & Pickle Relish. The firm also makes meat sauces such as ham glaze and mint, seafood sauces, and mincemeat. It became part of J. M. Smucker in 2004.
BIG HEART PET BRANDS
While the store’s display is devoted to Milk-bone®, the company provides a wealth of well known names for pet owners. This includes Nature’s Recipe and Dick Van Patten’s Natural Pet Foods for both dogs and cats. For dogs, brands include Kibbles ‘N Bits®, Pup-Peroni®, Milo’s Kitchen® dog treats, Snausages®, Gravy Train®, and Canine Carry Outs® comprised of snacks and chew bones. Cat owners will recognize 9 Lives, Meow Mix, and Pounce® treats.
Bob Martwick, an animal talent scout, discovered 9 lives spokescat Morris at the Hinsdale, Illinois Humane Society in 1968. Between 1969-1978, Morris starred in 58 commercials and in 1973 played opposite Burt Reynolds in the movie, Shamus. In 2006, a new Morris launched Morris’s Million Cat Rescue® to save those animals in need of a forever home.
“The Company sees itself as enhancing the quality of life for its consumers. If we thought of our business as just jams, jellies, and cooking oil, we would never have been so successful.” Richard Smucker.
To learn more about these companies, their products, and other acquisitions, click on the J. M. Smucker brands page. It leads to web sites for all the acquisitions where all products are talked about and recipes are posted for many.
Disclaimer: Nan and Earl Miller have no connections to J. M. Smucker.
Headquartered in Orrville, Ohio, the J. M. Smucker Company is best known for its fruit spreads. Besides those, the company also makes peanut butter, ice cream toppings, syrups, and Uncrustable® sandwiches. Although you can’t tour the plant, a trip to the town’s J. M. Smucker Store and Café will have you saying “I didn’t know that” about its many acquisitions.
Traveling down the store’s driveway, you’ll pass several banners - Pillsbury, Jif, Folgers, Crisco, Martha White, Hungry Jack, Smuckers, and Eagle Brand. Entering the store, you find products related to all of these as well as Dickinson’s, Big Heart Pet Brands, R. W. Knudsen juices, Laura Scudder’s peanut butter, White Lily’s flours, and Crosse and Blackwell’s British products. You’ll learn all of these companies, and more, have been Smucker acquisitions.
The store had its grand opening in 1999 as the Simply Smucker’s Store. It received its present name in 2007. Displays against the walls showcase products and merchandise from all of their companies. In the center, you’ll find Smucker branded gifts, kitchen accessories, and dinnerware as well as ideas for custom gift baskets to fill with items from the various companies.
At the café up front, you can order an entree prepared in their wood-fired oven or bakery sweets. The store’s rear has a solid wall of Smucker products and a two-room museum. One room’s wall is a timeline of the company’s history. It contains a case with jars ranging from 1897 to 2013 and an antique wood burning stove similar to those depicted on early 1940's Smucker product labels.
In a second room, wallboards hang highlighting Smucker as a sponsor for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics and Paralympic teams. Most of the displayed ads pertain to Folgers and Smucker’s Uncrustables® and Fruit-Fulls®.
Another contains interesting facts about the 1996 “Real Boys” commercial where actors portrayed Tim and Richard Smucker as youths in Orville in 1954. They became the fourth generation to run the company. Jake Lloyd, who portrayed Richard in the 1996 ad, later starred as Anakin Skywalker in the first Star Wars’ episode,The Phantom Menace. In the 2007 ad, Willard Scott did the voice over.
SMUCKER HISTORY
Reading the historical timeline you’ll learn Jerome Monroe Smucker (J.M.) was born in Orrville in 1858. He spent much of his life farming. In 1897, he constructed a cider mill in that town using fruit from trees planted by Johnny Appleseed during the early nineteenth century. He later sold apple butter from the back of a horse-drawn wagon, then in 1921 incorporated his company.
In 1923, Smucker expanded to fruit spreads. The company now makes more than 40 varieties of jellies, jams, preserves, marmalades, conserves, and fruit butters. These include products containing low sugar, sugar free spreads, products in squeezable bottles, and ones combining fruit and honey. They also produce spreadable fruit, peanut butter, and syrups.
Spreads are manufactured in different ways. Jelly comes from fruit juice while jam consists of a blend of crushed pieces of fruit and fruit puree. Preserves contain whole or large pieces of fruit while marmalade is jelly with shreds of citrus fruit peel. Conserves are jams made from a mixture of citrus fruits including nuts. Fruit butters consist of fruit pulp and sugar cooked together. Calling them butter is a misnomer since they don’t contain any.
J. M.’s son Willard modernized plant operations in 1939. He spearheaded the crock packaging and label redesign that grew apple butter sales to one million dollars by 1940. The company introduced a line of ice cream toppings that same year. National distribution started two years later with the first shipment of fruit spread to Los Angeles.
Wyse Advertising created the slogan “With a Name Like Smucker's, It’s Got to be Good”® in 1952. In 1959, J. M. Smucker went public with a listing of 165,000 common shares. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1965 and assumed a spot on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in 2008.
The company cosponsored the Gary Moore radio show in 1962. Four years later, Smucker’s ice cream toppings had a national television spot on NBC’s Tonight Show. The company was a founding sponsor of Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Park, Florida in 1972.
In 1968, the company introduced Goober Grape® combining peanut butter and jelly stripes. Its famous gingham cap was first used in 1979. That was also the year of Smucker’s first acquisition, Dickinson’s.
Magic Shell®, the squeezable topping that hardens on ice cream in seconds, started production in 1982. Today it comes in six flavors ranging from chocolate pretzel and chocolate fudge to Funfetti® Vanilla Cake. The company also produces microwavable toppings, a variety of spoonable ice cream toppings in jars, and pourable flavored toppings. Some are sugar free or sweetened with Splenda®.
In 1987, the company created its Good-for-You offerings including sodium free natural peanut butter. It was followed the next year by Simply Fruit which is spreadable fruit in a wide range of flavors. Natural peanut flavor comes in five varieties with organic in two. Fruit and Honey™ has five different types.
During the 1990's, the Founders House illustration started being featured on every label. This house exists on Main Street in Orrville. From this residence, J.M. Smucker operated his business for part of his life. The J.M. Smucker signature also started being embossed on every jar or package just as the founder would have inscribed it in 1897.
J. M. Smucker Company acquired MenUSAver, makers of a frozen crustless sandwich, in 1998. Seven different sandwiches without crusts are now available including several on whole wheat bread.
In 2004, Fortune magazine named J. M. Smucker to its list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. It also identified J. M. Smucker as one of the fastest growing companies.
A major acquisition occurred in 2004 when the company obtained International Multifoods Corporation. It included Pillsbury’s flour products and frostings, Hungry Jack, Pet milk products, and Martha White baking mixes and ingredients. It acquired Folgers and Knott’s Berry Farm in 2008 and Crisco in 2009.
Big Heart Pet Brands, the largest stand-alone producer of branded pet foods and snacks in the United States, joined J. M. Smucker in 2015. It included such brands of Meow Mix®, Milk-Bone®, Gravy Train®, and 9 Lives. This represented the largest acquisition in company history.
In 2011, the company moved to new headquarters in Orrville - Strawberry Central. Production began at this plant the next year. The company is now run by Tim Smucker, Chairman Emeritus, and Richard Smucker, Executive Chairman, the great-grandsons of J. M. Smucker. Mark Smucker, the great-great grandson, is the President and CEO.
FRUIT SPREAD COMPANIES
Besides its own brand, J. M. Smucker dominates the industry as it also owns Dickinson’s, Knott’s Berry Farm, and Santa Cruz Organic.
In 1897, Grandmother Dickinson started a small family business known for its traditional preserves. Her fame spread to being a regional favorite and then a national gourmet brand. Now the company makes a variety of products. These include English style cheese curds, fruit butters, pepper spreads, and relishes. Its Purely Fruit® is a spread consisting solely of fruit with nothing artificial. Dickinson’s also makes sugar free preserves.
Walter Knott, the founder of Knott’s Berry Farm, is responsible for the boysenberry. In Buena Park, California, his friend Rudolph Boysen experimented with a new strain of berries that kept dying on the vine. Knott managed to nurse the berries back to health and created a cross between a raspberry, loganberry, and blackberry. He named it boysenberry in honor of his friend. All boysenberries in the world trace their roots back to Knott’s Berry Farm.
During this time period, Walter’s wife, Cordelia, started a roadside stand. It sold rhubarb, asparagus, and berries. She later opened a tea room to sell homemade biscuits, fried chicken dinners, and boysenberry pies as well as jellies, jams, and preserves. Today these chicken dinners can be obtained at California’s Knott’s Berry Farm Amusement Park operated by Cedar Fair.
Since the 1930's, Knotts has remained the United States leading consumer of boysenberries. It makes a million pounds of boysenberry products a year. The company also makes red raspberry, strawberry and blackberry preserves; orange marmalade; and strawberry and red raspberry jams.
Santa Cruz Organic® started in 1972 when founder John Battendieri pressed his first batch of "Mr. Natural" apple juice in Central California’s Santa Cruz Mountains. It was one of the first packaged organic products. The company now makes more than 50. Besides fruit spreads, these include juices, carbonated drinks, lemonades, applesauce, chocolate syrups, peanut butters, and peanut powders. The company’s Agua Frescas blend organic fruit juice and fruit juice concentrate, sugar, lemon juice, and other ingredients. Smuckers acquired this company in 1994.
PEANUT BUTTER COMPANIES
J. M. Smucker makes a variety of peanut butter products in both creamy and crunchy styles. These include natural varieties with only a few ingredients, organic, and reduced fat. Goober®PB&J comes in stripes containing strawberry and grape fruit spreads.
Jif, which started in 1955, was acquired in 2002 from Procter & Gamble. It’s well known for its natural and creamy butter spreads that now also come in reduced fat, contain honey, or have added Omega3. The company makes nut butters and spreads in such flavors as salted caramel and chocolate cheesecake. Snacks include peanut butter granola bars, dippers, and peanut butter covered pretzels. They also produce peanut powder for such uses as smoothies and oatmeal.
Adams is a peanut butter company that has been around since 1922. Acquired in 1998, it was one of Smucker’s earliest acquisitions. It comes in creamy and crunchy varieties that are both salted and unsalted. The company also produces both organic and no stir in creamy and crunchy.
Laura Scudder started making potato chips in Monterey Park, California in 1926. She expanded to peanut butter in 1931. In 1994, the J. M. Smucker Company acquired Laura Scudder’s® natural peanut butter business from Bama Foods, Inc. The company now makes eight varieties.
PILLSBURY
Charles A. Pillsbury founded his company in 1869 when he purchased half the interest in Minneapolis Flouring Mill. The first labels, Pillsbury’s Best, appeared on flours and sacks in 1872 and were registered as a trademark three years later. In the late 1940's, the company introduced pie crust mix, hot rolls mix, and the first cake mix.
The first Pillsbury Bake-off occurred in 1949 at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria. Philip Pillsbury, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Art Linkletter awarded prizes to the winners. In 1955, Pillsbury introduced brownie mixes and frostings and in 1964, the first ready-to-spread frosting.
The audition to become the voice for the famous Pillsbury Doughboy was held in 1965. Paul Frees won. He was also the voice of Boris Badenov, in the cartoon “Rocky and Bullwinkle”. When he died in 1986, Jeff Bergman, who was heard as Charlie the Tuna, replaced him.
In 2001, Multifoods purchased Pillsbury’s dessert and baking mix business. J. M. Smucker acquired Multifoods in 2004.
In addition to traditional brownie, cookie, breads and muffins, cake mixes, and frostings, its product line includes gluten free and sugar free mixes. The Purely Simple ™ mixes contain no colors, preservatives, or artificial flavors. Its baking spray contains flour.
One popular line is its Funfetti®, the cookie, cake, and frosting mixes containing candy bits. Some are available year round while others such as Valentine’s Day or Halloween are only obtainable for two months a year. Funfetti® cake mixes and frostings come in a rainbow of solid colors. These are found year round.
Fans of Girl Scout cookies can now find Girl Scouts® Thin Mints® cupcake and brownie mixes. Another favorite, Girl Scouts® Caramel and Coconut, comes in Blondie and cupcake mixes.
HUNGRY JACK
I noticed a revolving rack of Hungry Jack’s history at the front of the store. This brand was first introduced as pancake flour in 1936 then renamed “pancake mix” in 1949.
Hungry Jack is known for being a large variety of pancake and waffle mixes. Among the more unusual ones are a seasonal pumpkin and a gluten free Funfetti®. To go with them, you’ll find seven flavored syrups, including a sugar free one, which comes in microwavable bottles.
MARTHA WHITE
Acquired in 2005, Martha White is known for its company’s southern touch. The company started in 1899 when Richard Lindsey Sr. founded Nashville’s Royal Flour Mill. He named his finest flour after his daughter, Martha White Lindsey. The mill’s name changed to Martha White in 1944 when it was acquired by businessman Cohen E. Williams.
During the 1940's, Martha White started becoming synonymous with country music. It sponsored Nashville’s famous radio show, the Grand Ole Opry. In 1953, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs toured the south with the Martha White Bluegrass Express. They performed a show at local festivals touting Martha White flour and corn meal. Martha White also sponsored these performers at local concerts, on a Nashville radio show, and a television program.
During the 1970's, Tennessee Ernie Ford became their spokesperson. During that year, a variety of fruit muffin mixes were introduced. Now the company offers 20 different varieties.
In addition to these mixes, Martha White makes biscuit and cornbread mixes, corn meal, flour, a hush puppies mix with onion flavor, and two pizza mixes. Since 1996, Martha White has sponsored a national cornbread cook-off using the company’s corn mix. In 2008, the company started the Martha White Muffin Mix Challenge™.
I found the White Lily products in the Martha White section of the store. It’s a southern firm in business since 1833 that makes cornmeal as well as various traditional and premium flours. It was acquired in 2004.
CRISCO
William Proctor and James Gamble formed a partnership in 1837 to sell soap and candles. They expanded to manufacturing and marketing lard then introduced Crisco, the first solidified shortening product made entirely of vegetable oil. It resulted from hydrogenation, a process producing shortening in solid form.
Crisco’s first ad appeared in women’s magazines in January 1912 citing the benefits of the product’s all-vegetable shortening over animal fats and butter. It was more economical, wasn’t absorbed by the food, and didn’t burn or give off smoke at higher temperatures as lard did. Its first radio appearance was on WEAF radio in New York in 1923 on a cooking show. It then aired for the first time on television, on the Crisco Friday night network program in 1949.
The product was introduced in an airtight can with a key. A replaceable lid started being substituted for this in the 1960's. During World War II, glass was used instead since metal was in short supply. Shortening now comes in cans or in cooking sticks.
In 1960, the company introduced Crisco vegetable oil for those preferring liquid cooking oil for food preparation. Puritan Oil, made from sunflower oil, came along in 1976. It provided more unsaturated fats versus the other vegetable oils.
Other improvements came during the 1980's - butter flavor, 100% pure Crisco corn oil, and Puritan canola oil. During the 1990's, other changes occurred. These included the Enviro-Pack in 1993 which used 30% less plastic for packaging. Now all Crisco oils are packaged this way. Crisco Natural Blend Cooking Oil was developed in 1994 which blended canola, sunflower, and soybean oils while non aerosol cooking sprays appeared a year later.
The 2000's have been active years for this company as well. In 2003, 100% pure corn oil was added to their product list. Packaging changed in 2005 with the clean pour spout and built-in measuring cup. That year, the company also added several olive oils and no-stick flour sprays for baking. These sprays combined Crisco oil with Pillsbury flour. During the rest of the decade, pure peanut oil, zero grams fat, and Puritan Omega3 hit the grocery shelves. Today’s customers also purchase such specialty products as saute oils and sticks and organic pure coconut oil.
FOLGERS AND OTHER COFFEES
In 1849, James A. Folger and his two older brothers were sent by the family from Nantucket to mine for gold. They could pay passage to San Francisco for all but only afford to send two to the mining towns. Fifteen-year-old James had to stay behind and work for his travel expenses while his older brothers proceeded to the goldfields.
In 1850, working as a carpenter, he erected William H. Bovee’s mill, the Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mill. Bovee inaugurated roasted and ground coffee that was ready for the pot. After working for Bovee for a year, James A. eventually made it to the goldfields carrying coffee and spice samples and taking orders from grocery stores in the mining country .
Upon his return to San Francisco in 1865, he became a full partner of Pioneer Steam Coffee. In 1872, he bought his partners out and renamed the firm J. A. Folger and Company. When he died in 1959, his son, James A. Folger,II took over as president.
The company’s principal product was bulk-roasted coffee delivered in sacks and drums to grocery stores. It also produced ground coffee under various labels, depending upon the grade. In 1901, the company opened a plant in Texas.
Proctor and Gamble acquired Folgers in 1963 providing national distribution. Under the name Folgers, it became America’s number one coffee brand. In 2008, it merged with the J. M. Smucker Company. Today Folgers produces ground and instant coffee. Customers can purchase single serve or the K-cup pods®.
In the Folgers section, I noticed Smucker manufactures and distributes the coffee for Dunkin Doughnuts available at grocery stores. This includes the various roasts, seasonally flavored ones such as pumpkin spice and white chocolate peppermint, and bakery flavored ones such as blueberry muffins and chocolate glazed doughnuts. The company also makes hazelnut and French vanilla flavored coffees.
Smucker added three companies manufacturing coffee in 2011. Café Bustelo provides a Latin flavor. Gregorio Bustelo and his wife started making this in 1931 in the East Harlem area known as El Barrio. Another firm, Medaglia D'Oro®, makes two Italian espressos. It started in 1924.
Pilon traces back to 19th century Cuba where Café Pilon became the country’s leading coffee. Pepe Sauto, a Cuban immigrant, started making it in Miami in 1965 at Rowland Coffee Roasters. It’s available in six types.
R. W. KNUDSEN
Russell W. Knudsen started bottling fruit juices in 1961 from his organic grape vineyard in Paradise, California. The company offers a large variety of organic and natural juices and specialty products. It also makes a Celebratory line of sparkling beverages in champagne bottles. The Just Line of Juice consists of unsweetened organic juices containing one fruit. Simply Nutritious® contains fruits and herbal ingredients. Other beverages include sports drinks, juice boxes for children and adults, concentrates, and vegetable juices. Specialty products are cranberry sauce and mull spices in tea bags. Smucker acquired this company in 1984.
CROSSE & BLACKWELL
Originally founded as West and Wyatt, Crosse & Blackwell was purchased in 1830 by Edmund Crosse and Thomas Blackwell. It manufactures such Indian favorites as chutneys, red currant jelly and orange marmalade, and pub delights such as fish and chip vinegar and Chow Chow Piccalilli Mustard & Pickle Relish. The firm also makes meat sauces such as ham glaze and mint, seafood sauces, and mincemeat. It became part of J. M. Smucker in 2004.
BIG HEART PET BRANDS
While the store’s display is devoted to Milk-bone®, the company provides a wealth of well known names for pet owners. This includes Nature’s Recipe and Dick Van Patten’s Natural Pet Foods for both dogs and cats. For dogs, brands include Kibbles ‘N Bits®, Pup-Peroni®, Milo’s Kitchen® dog treats, Snausages®, Gravy Train®, and Canine Carry Outs® comprised of snacks and chew bones. Cat owners will recognize 9 Lives, Meow Mix, and Pounce® treats.
Bob Martwick, an animal talent scout, discovered 9 lives spokescat Morris at the Hinsdale, Illinois Humane Society in 1968. Between 1969-1978, Morris starred in 58 commercials and in 1973 played opposite Burt Reynolds in the movie, Shamus. In 2006, a new Morris launched Morris’s Million Cat Rescue® to save those animals in need of a forever home.
“The Company sees itself as enhancing the quality of life for its consumers. If we thought of our business as just jams, jellies, and cooking oil, we would never have been so successful.” Richard Smucker.
To learn more about these companies, their products, and other acquisitions, click on the J. M. Smucker brands page. It leads to web sites for all the acquisitions where all products are talked about and recipes are posted for many.
Disclaimer: Nan and Earl Miller have no connections to J. M. Smucker.
The Place to Buy Products Associated with Smucker and All of Its Affiliates
The Smucker's Wall at the Store's Rear
Early Smucker Packaging
Typical Smucker Jars Between 1954 and 1962
"If It's Smucker's It's Got to be Good"
Some of Dickinson's Many Products
Each Company Has Its Own Section.
Great Tasting Peanut Butter Waiting for Great Tasting Fruit Spreads
Pillsbury Sells Their Own Labeled Shirts in Addition to Mixes
A Sampling of Pillsbury's Many Mixes
Meet the Pillsbury Doughboy
Household Accessories For Sale Accompanying Crisco's Many Oils
Part of The Surprising Number of Companies J. M. Smucker Has Under Its Roof
Folgers - Started by a Gold Miner, Ending as Being the Number One Coffee
The First Dog Biscuit Treat Made in the United States