Henry John Heinz was born in Pittsburgh in 1844 from German immigrants. Interestingly enough, his second cousin was Frederick Trump, who is the grandfather of Donald Trump. He started out packing food in Sharpsburg, PA where he founded Heinz Noble & Company with a friend. They primarily sold horseradish but went bankrupt in 1875. This did not stop Heinz, as he founded F & J Heinz with his brother. One of the company’s first products was tomato ketchup, and Heinz ended up buying out his other 2 partners, resulting in the present day name H. J. Heinz. He continued to develop the company, adding many new products such as mustard, salad dressings, and sauces.
Today, Heinz ranks number one in many categories, including ketchup sales. They are established globally and have become a household name, especially in Pittsburgh. Berkshire Hathaway purchased Heinz for 23 billion in 2013, the largest in food industry history. In 2015 Kraft merged with Heinz creating KraftHeinz.
It is amazing to me that such a simple idea like ketchup could end up as a billion dollar company. Heinz lived the immigrant’s dream; not being afraid of failure, and never giving up, resulting in a venture that is still strong today.
This blog post was very interesting. I had no idea that Heinz has a relation to Trump. It is really inspiring to read stories of people who did not give up on an idea yet instead bounced back after failure and became such a big success.
What a cool post! I think it’s a very interesting fact that Henry Heinz’s second cousin is President Donald Trump’s grandfather. I also love that as a humble immigrant Heinz was able to create something to not only support his family but better the surrounding community for generations to come.
As a person who loves ketchup I thoroughly enjoyed this article!! His story is quite interesting and it will probably make the ketchup taste even better!!