He had studied the paternalistic ways of German factories and likewise wanted to build a community of workers who would be so content with their jobs that they'd never dream of rebelling against the company. The first step was to start from scratch to insure that the Pittsburgh offices and manufacturing would be in one place. He chose a site a half-mile up the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh, at the edge of Allegheny City, which had a large German population. The twenty-four lots already had buildings, including a sawmill, brewery, and church.
The new buildings would portray solid architecture - constructed of glazed pressed brick in Romanesque style. Eventually seventeen red structures surrounded a grassy courtyard. The plant not only processed food but also manufactured the packaging, from cans to boxes. It incorporated the latest innovations in motors, the most modern stables, and conveniences for the health and pleasures of employees, including a restaurant, dressing rooms, emergency hospital, gymnasium, rooftop garden, self-improvement classes from singing to dressmaking , and carriage rides during working hours!
Employees enjoyed showers, private lockers, laundered uniforms, weekly manicures, and a suggestion box at a time when it was a luxury just to have rest rooms with running water which were not always present in factories or even residences. The company's showpiece was the Time Office where employees checked in and out.
The small square building was made of terracotta Pompeian brick, fitted with stained glass windows, and capped by a dome of gold leaf upon which perched a golden eagle. The move into the new buildings began in October , although it took eight years to complete the complex.
Sales methods were rapidly changing at the time. Salesmen traditionally covered their territories by horse and wagon, delivering goods as they sold them. Heinz outfitted each with a team of sharp horses and a brightly painted enclosed wagon that served as a mobile billboard. Beginning in , salesmen called on their accounts, from grocers to hotels, but now with a sample case and took orders to be delivered later.
To make sure the public knew the products, Heinz plastered his name on delivery wagons, billboards, and buildings. Always with an eye and ear for catchy advertising, in he was reading the signs on an elevated train in New York City when he was impressed by one advertising "21 styles of shoes. He even put massive "57" signs made of concrete on hillsides. If there was a local outcry criticizing such a blight on the landscape, all the better; H.
Like other manufacturers and merchants, H. Thanks to innovations in color printing that could be produced inexpensively, the front boasted bright colored illustrations, while the reverse described the products in a list or even a cryptic puzzle. These early advertisements revealed a consistent theme in Heinz's marketing strategy: the use of adorable healthy children and wholesome young women conveyed the idea that Heinz foods were also healthy and wholesome. The pickle pins given away at the Chicago World's Fair were one more example of H.
The exposition's exhibits were spread among four hundred buildings and structures on seven hundred acres. Food manufacturers exhibited in the Agricultural Building, at the southeast corner of the fairgrounds, almost completely surrounded by lagoons, and it alone offered nineteen acres of displays under roof. The main floor was devoted to foreign products and governments, while American food manufacturers such as Durkee and Company, Schlitz Brewery, Knox Gelatin, and Heinz filled the second floor.
And that posed a problem. After touring the fair and seeing the first floor of the Agricultural Building, weary visitors were not about to climb the long stairway to the upper level. He made a small card with the promise that presenting it at the Heinz exhibit earned the bearer a free souvenir. He had workers hand them out and boys scatter them across the grounds. Throngs suddenly descended on the Agricultural Building, skipped the foreign displays, and climbed the stairs for their free souvenirs: a small green pickle made of gutta-percha a substance derived from the latex of several tropical trees of the genera Palaquium and Payena which could be molded into various shapes with a hook to serve as a charm.
Police had to control the crowds and support beams had to be added. Foreign exhibitors filed a complaint, but American companies gave Heinz a dinner and an affectionately inscribed silver cup. Heinz gave away one million pickle charms at the fair.
The New York Times reported on the medals the company won - not to mention the sagging floor - playing right into H. Heinz never missed the chance for positive publicity. After the Pittsburgh plant was finished in , H. Each tour ended with complimentary samples of Heinz products and a pickle pin to take home.
Tens of thousands of school children, senior citizens, church groups, card clubs, and foreign tourists visited the factory each year. In , the Heinz Company established a chemistry laboratory to monitor the quality of produce, accuracy of recipes, cooking procedures, cleanliness of the manufacturing processes, and uniformity of finished products.
The "food technologists" also conducted research to improve nutrition, flavor, and appearance. Until the early s, there were no laws to regulate food manufacturing.
He and son Howard eventually lobbied for laws to regulate the food industry; they were prime proponents of the Pure Food and Drug Act of It was H. A random line from his diary of February 6, , reads, "It is more pleasant to remember others than to be remembered. It pays,' it increases my output. But I don't want to put it merely on a dollars and cents basis. An advisory board of eight to ten men supervised daily operating procedures, yet H.
In , without consulting the committee, he raised the wages of women at the Pittsburgh factory by It was this focus on people, with an eye on the bottom line, which led Heinz in three decades to build one of the country's largest and most profitable businesses. In that time, H. Heinz Company became the largest maker of pickles, ketchup, vinegar, sauerkraut, and horseradish, and the second largest producer of mustard.
At the time of his death from pneumonia in , his company employed a workforce of sixty-five hundred, operated twenty-five factories, owned its own freight cars, and managed a branch company in London and agencies throughout the world. Before his death, one last tangible connection with his humble beginnings remained. The family and company had long ago moved from Sharpsburg, but the family's residence still stood.
He had grated and bottled his first horseradish and launched his first business venture with Noble in the dwelling. Now he went back and arranged to have the house moved to the factory complex.
Everything about the move was tenuous, from keeping it intact, to pulling it out of mud while being transported, to it being inundated with flood waters before it could be loaded on a barge. The journey five miles downriver was just as perilous, but it arrived to cheering crowds. In the s, the house was moved again, this time disassembled brick-by-brick and rebuilt at Henry Ford's Greenfield Village. It continues to inspire visitors with H.
Alberts, Robert C. The Good Provider: H. Heinz and his 57 Varieties. It worked. These pickle charms are from a similar marketing gimmick in the s. An ad from shows the "57 varieties" slogan in use. By this point the company had settled on 57 products to highlight, but still actually sold more than Senator John Heinz History Center.
You can bet that this brilliant little piece of trivia will pop up in a pub quiz or if you're ever on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. You'll thank us one day. The BetterMaternityCare campaign are planning to march! Check out our exclusive interview with Linda Kelly from Women Ascend here. This is why all Heinz tomato ketchup bottles have the '57 varieties' slogan on them.
Ben Kenyon. It's always been there. Clothes from Shein and AliExpress found to have high levels of hazardous chemicals.
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