In 1869, fruit merchant Joseph Campbell and icebox manufacturer Abraham Anderson started the Anderson & Campbell Preserve Company in Camden, New Jersey. By 1877, the partners realized each had different visions for the company. Joseph Campbell bought Anderson’s share and expanded the business to include ketchup, salad dressing, mustard, and other sauces. Ready-to-serve Beefsteak Tomato Soup became a Campbell’s best seller.
In 1894, Joseph Campbell retired and Arthur Dorrance took over as company president. Three years later, soup history was made when Arthur Dor
rance reluctantly hired his nephew John Dorrance. John held a chemistry degree from MIT and a Ph.D. from the University of Gottengen in Germany. He turned down more prestigious and better paying teaching positions to work for his uncle. His Campbell’s salary was only $7.50 per week and he had to bring in his own lab equipment. However, John Dorrance soon made the Campbell’s Soup Company very famous.
Soups were inexpensive to make but very expensive to ship. Dorrance realized that if he could remove soup’s heaviest ingredient – water, he could create a formula for condensed soup and slash the price of soup from $.30 to $.10 per can. By 1922, soup was such an integral part of the company presence in America, that Campbell’s formally accepted “Soup” into its name.
The Mother of the Campbell Kids
The Campbell Kids have been selling Campbell’s Soup since 1904 when Grace Wiederseim Drayton, an illustrator and writer, added some sketches of children to her husband’s advertising layout for a Campbell’s condensed soup. The Campbell advertising agents loved the child appeal and chose Mrs. Wiederseim’s sketches as trademarks.
In the beginning, Campbell Kids were drawn as ordinary boys and girls, later, Campbell Kids took on the personas of policemen, sailors, soldiers, and other professions.
Grace Wiederseim Drayton will always be the “mother” of Campbell Kids. She drew for the company advertising for nearly 20 years. Drayton’s designs were so popular that doll makers wanted to capitalize on their popularity. Campbell’s gave the E. I. Horsemen Company the license to market dolls with the Campbell label on their sleeves. Horseman even secured two U.S. design patents for the dolls’ clothes.
TRULY AN AMERICAN SUCCESS STORY
Today, Campbell’s Soup Company, with its famous red and white label, is the largest producer of soup in the world, with a 60% market share in the international soup market. It produced revenues of $7.67 billion in 2010, with a gross profit of $3.15 billion. The company has 18,400 employees.
Campbell’s has market shares in a number of food industry categories with products such as soups, sauces, snack foods, baking goods and beverages. Campbell’s products are sold in over 120 countries around the world. Campbell’s also owns a diverse portfolio of food brands including Prego pasta sauces, Pace Mexican food sauces, V8 beverages, and Pepperidge Farm.
Phil Robertson, Editor
