Who owns best foods

Budweiser beer dates back to the s when a German, Adolphus Busch, moved to St. Louis and married the daughter of a local brewer, Eberhard Anheuser. Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. For reprint rights. Times Syndication Service.

Jun 2, , IST. Holiday Inn. Sunglass Hut. American Apparel. General Electric appliances. Lucky Strike. Trader Joe's. Not wanting to sacrifice either well-known name, the company decided to sell the mayonnaise as Best Foods to the west of the Rocky Mountains and as Hellmann's in the east. Current company owner Unilever insists that the recipes are identical, but some fans say there's a difference; a HuffPost survey showed that a majority of tasters preferred Hellmann's over Best Foods, with many saying it tasted sweeter and less tangy than its West Coast counterpart.

Included in Hellmann's early marketing efforts was a booklet called Cakes and Cookies With Personality , writes Smith. Among the recipes was the iconic chocolate mayonnaise cake, developed by Mrs. Paul Price and now "an American classic," featured on the Hellmann's website to this day. It's unknown if Price invented the chocolate mayonnaise cake; many websites refer to the dessert as World War II chocolate cake, or Depression-era chocolate cake, because its ingredients reflected the resourcefulness of home cooks during times of scarcity.

While eggs, butter, and other pricey ingredients "couldn't be spared, but there was a jar of mayo in the closet," those living through the Depression could still make a mean chocolate cake via Wide Open Eats. If you're skeptical, remember that the main ingredients in mayonnaise are eggs and oil, which are usually included in cake recipes.

Plus, the vinegar enhances the flavor of the chocolate, according to Serious Eats. If you caught Hellmann's Super Bowl commercial with Amy Schumer, you know that the mayonnaise brand is on a mission to reduce food waste. Hellmann's also claims to be working toward a more environmentally friendly production process, using percent cage-free eggs in its mayo and partnering with agricultural organizations to obtain sustainably sourced oils.

The brand has also begun packaging some of its products with recycled plastic , and it aims to make all of its materials reusable, recyclable, or compostable by For decades, chefs, professional tasters, and everyday eaters have considered Hellmann's to taste just plain perfect via Slate. It acquired several other major corn wet milling businesses in subsequent years and soon became the undisputed giant of the industry.

By Corn Products manufactured more than 75 percent of all American-made glucose, selling roughly 30 percent of this to the confectionery industry. For some refined corn products it was said to have 90 percent of the U. In the early s the company responded to mounting competition by eliminating obsolete refining plants and replacing them with modern facilities to lower manufacturing costs.

One of these plants, the world's largest corn-products manufacturing plant, was begun in near Summit, Illinois, and, when it was completed, processed about one-third of CP's total output at that time.

Corn Products continued to broaden its product line during its early years. Although by Karo corn syrup accounted for 80 percent of its sales, the company introduced Mazola corn oil in , and at that time was also packaging syrups, jams, and both edible and laundry starches. Much of this production was sold to wholesalers for sale under private labels. In the federal government brought suit against Corn Products and its related companies for violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

The government charged CP with conspiracy to restrain trade in the corn-refining business by attempting to regulate the production and sale of many corn products, and asked the court to declare CP a combination in restraint of free trade, and therefore, to dissolve it. In , following protracted litigation, the Supreme Court ordered CP to divest itself of several properties, but did not require that the company be dissolved. The company continued to grow, purchasing its first overseas plant, in Germany, in In January the company purchased several more German production facilities.

During the Great Depression the food industry was a relatively stable one. In Edward T. Bedford died. His successor at CP was George M. Amid continuing prosperity in the s, Corn Products shut down its most visible public symbol: its large Edgewater, New Jersey, corn refinery, which could be seen from Manhattan across the Hudson River.

The plant's mounting obsolescence, together with rising tariffs on Argentine corn, forced CP to ship Midwestern corn overland to the plant; the natural solution was to transfer its work to the Midwest.

During World War II the United States mounted an enormous lend-lease assistance program to aid the Allies while struggling to keep its own troops supplied. These wartime demands were felt nowhere more than in the agricultural-products industry.

Corn supplies were restricted because of heavy demand and pricing structure. It was not just a simple problem of shortage, however. The government-mandated price for corn was so low that farmers, with a limited amount of the grain, found it more profitable to feed the corn to their hogs than to sell it to refiners. Nonetheless, CP survived the war and soon was expanding again. Knorr Company of West Germany, a maker of bouillon, dehydrated soups, and other convenience foods.

This acquisition was the last in a long string of postwar acquisitions for the company. By CP was involved in the producing and processing of feed and grain, corn and chemical refining, banking, construction, and the running of a railroad and a shipping line.

The Best Foods, Inc. A second antecedent of Best Foods, American Cotton Oil Company, also moved from a basic commodity business to packaged-good marketing around In June American Cotton Oil sold its cottonseed-crushing mills in the South and began to concentrate on its soap-making subsidiary, the N.

Fairbank Company. Among the subsidiary's products was Gold Dust, a popular brand of soap. The Gold Dust name was applied to the surviving consumer-products company, and the Gold Dust Corporation was incorporated in September in New Jersey.

Gold Dust then acquired the F. Dalley Company's shoe polish lines, including the popular Shinola brand. The union of American Linseed and Gold Dust occurred in , when Gold Dust bought blocks of American Linseed stock, acquired American Linseed's packaged-goods division, and, in July , finally bought the rest of the business, selling its flaxseed operations. The Best Foods division of Gold Dust and Postum's Richard Hellmann Company linked up to distribute the margarine, dressings, and spreads they both manufactured.

In Best Foods made several important acquisitions. It first bought the Rit Dye Company after a series of transactions begun a decade earlier.

The purchase of these two companies gave Best Foods ownership of the Skippy peanut butter brand.