At a young age, Henry Heinz exhibited a strong work ethic and attention to detail that eventually became his key to success. As a child, he sold food products off a horse and wagon and went on to build a giant empire that would changed the prepared foods industry forever. In the end, Heinz stayed true to one of his life’s mottos: “To do a common thing uncommonly well brings success.”
Heinz was born in 1844 in Birmingham, Pennsylvania, to German immigrants who instilled a good work ethic in him at a young age, teaching him and his siblings to tend the garden. At age 8, Heinz started learning his mother’s recipes. With his family’s excess crops, he made homemade pickles and grated horseradish, then sold them in town. By the time he was 14, his parents had given him land for his own garden and he employed horse-and-wagon delivery helpers for his small food business.
Making Food
In 1869, Heinz made a career move when he recruited his friend and neighbor Clarence Noble to help him open his first official prepared food company. Heinz Noble & Company launched as a manufacturer of pickles, horseradish, and mustard.
At that time, people had lost trust in prepared foods because canned horseradish contained other things like wet sticks to add weight. Heinz gained customers’ trust by selling horseradish and other products in clear glass bottles so people could see what they were getting.
Rising From Failure
Heinz’s failure sent him into a deep depression until he realized that he didn’t want to give up. Having trust in him as a businessman, Heinz’s mother and other family members brought him out of his slump by investing in his new business.In 1877, Heinz, one of his brothers, and a cousin opened F & J Heinz with hopes to get back in the business of manufacturing pickles, condiments (including ketchup, a recipe Heinz mastered in 1876), and canned goods. Learning from his failures, he opened his new business with a strategy of controlling his products from the farm to the customer. He bought his own fields to grow vegetables and had a strict policy of controlling cleanliness and food quality.
The company quickly grew to the point where Heinz was able to pay off all of the debts from his former business and buy out his family members to form H. J. Heinz Company in 1888. While his business grew, Heinz focused on cleanliness, food quality, and taking care of his employees. He offered his employees perks like free medical and dental care, and even regular manicures for the workers tasked with peeling cucumbers for pickles.
In the early 1900s, Heinz was so dedicated to food quality and safety that he spent much of his time lobbying Congress. Through his efforts at the country’s capitol, Heinz was able to get The Pure Drug and Food Act of 1906 passed that prohibited the sale of adulterated or misbranded foods and drugs.
Heinz turned the company into a corporation in 1905 and stayed involved with it until he passed away from pneumonia in 1919. To this day, Heinz remains the most popular ketchup brand in the world.
