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Hills Bros. Coffee

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Hills Bros. Coffee
WWII-era jar of Hills Bros. coffee with the original "taster" logo[1]
OwnerMassimo Zanetti Beverage USA
CountryUnited States
MarketsWorldwide
Previous ownersNestlé
Sara Lee
Websitehttp://www.hillsbros.com

Hills Bros. Coffee is a maker of packaged coffee, founded in San Francisco.

History

Hills Bros. Coffee building at 2 Harrison Street.

The company has its origins with the sons of shipbuilder Austin Hills (1823–1905), who was born in Rockland, Maine, and ran a business in California building clipper ships. His sons were Austin Herbert Hills (1851–1933), and Reuben Wilmarth Hills I (1856–1934).[2][3]

When Reuben and Austin began to produce roasted coffee there were at least twenty-five other companies already engaged in some form of coffee production and distribution in San Francisco including, of course, the well-known Folger Company started by William Bovee (which began in San Francisco thirty years earlier). Most of these coffee businesses were started by family groups which contributed to the growth of San Francisco. San Francisco in the nineteenth century was ripe for the importing and roasting of coffee. The foundation for commercial production of coffee dated back to the 1820s when English planters brought coffee to Costa Rica. By the early 1840s German and Belgian planters followed with coffee plantations in Guatemala and El Salvador, two of the several Central American countries where Hills Bros. would obtain its mild coffee beans. During the Gold Rush (1849) San Francisco rapidly expanded and grew. Coffee was imported and sold, after roasting, to restaurants and hotels. Yankee gold miners and others without equipment to roast and brew their own coffee, populated "coffee houses." In 1873, two brothers, Austin Herbert and Reuben Wilmarth Hills arrived in San Francisco from their home in Rockland, Maine with their father Austin who had come to California some years earlier. Five years later in 1878 A. H. and R. W. Hills established a retail stall to sell dairy products in the Bay City Market under the name of their new partnership Hills Bros. Their small business expanded in less than four years with the acquisition of a retail coffee store titled Arabian Coffee & Spice Mills on Fourth Street in San Francisco. In two more years (1884) still larger quarters were occupied at Sacramento and Sansome Streets.[4][2]

In 1898, Edward Norton, of New York, was granted a United States patent on a vacuum process for canning foods, subsequently applied to coffee. Others followed. Hills Brothers, of San Francisco, were the first to pack coffee in a vacuum, under the Norton patents, in 1900.[5]

In 1900, Hills Bros. were the first to pack roast coffee in vacuum sealed cans.[6] They incorporated under the Hills Bros. name in 1906.[7] In 1926 Hills Bros. moved its operations to 2 Harrison Street in San Francisco,[2] a Romanesque revival building on the Embarcadero designed by George W. Kelham that is now a city landmark.[8] The roasting operations once made the surrounding area smell like coffee, according to a Key System "March of Progress" style public service film from 1945.[9] In January 2012, the building had become home to Wharton | San Francisco, a satellite campus of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.[10] A Wharton sign can be currently seen on the Embarcadero side of the building. Google LLC and the Mozilla Corporation also have offices on several floors of the building.[11]

A symbol of an Arab drinking coffee called "the taster", introduced in 1898,[12] was designed by an artist named Briggs in 1906[2] but was replaced by a new, European-American, "taster" to represent the original founders in 1990.[13][14] In 1976, Hills Brothers hired American singer Sergio Franchi as their TV spokesperson to introduce several lines of specialty flavors.[15] Noted character actor John Zaremba was the primary commercial spokesperson for Hills Brothers in the 1970s and early 1980s, portraying a fictional coffee bean buyer.[16]

In 1930 Hills Bros. expanded into Chicago.[2] On 2 November 1938, Hills Brothers Coffee Company filed a petition to rezone 37 ½ acres for industrial purposes to build a plant in Elmhurst, Illinois, north of the North Western tracks to where Schiller Street extended beyond Geneva Avenue. Opposition caused Hills to drop its request.[17]

During World War II, the company's metal containers were replaced with glass jars.[1] In 1984 they purchased the name and manufacturing facilities of the Chase & Sanborn Coffee Company.[18]

In 1985 Nestlé bought Hills Bros. and MJB coffee companies.[2][19] Hills Bros. opened a new roasting plant in Suffolk, Virginia in 1988.[20] The San Francisco headquarters were closed in 1997, moving operations to Nestlé's U.S. headquarters in Glendale, California.[19] Nestlé sold Hills Bros. to Sara Lee in 1999.[2][21] Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA purchased the brand in 2006. Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA is headquartered at the Suffolk plant. Austin E. Hills was, formerly, chairman of the board of directors.[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Hills Bros. Coffee Jar". National Museum of American History. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "History - Hills Bros". Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA. Archived from the original on 2013-10-02. Retrieved 2014-07-10.
  3. ^ Pendergrast, Mark (2000). Uncommon Grounds. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-05467-6. Their father, Austin Hills, born in Rockland, Maine, in 1823, built clipper ships. In 1863 he joined several other Maine friends in search of the fabled California gold. . . . The two original patriarchs, brothers Austin Herbert and Reuben Wilmarth Hills, died in 1933 and 1934, respectively, but their children carried on.
  4. ^ Broussard-Simmons, Vanessa; Wilson, T. Carroll; Shay, Wendy (2020). Guide to the Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Incorporated Records (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Processed by Grace Meyer, volunteer, 1996; Deirdre Ryan, intern, 1996; and Vanessa Broussard-Simmons, archivist, 1996.
  5. ^ Ukers, William Harrison (1922). "Chapter 30: Development of the Green and Roasted Coffee Business in the United States". All About Coffee. New York: Tea and Coffee Trade Journal Co. p. 506 – via Project Gutenberg.
  6. ^ Wilson, Thomas Carroll (1954). "Statement of T. Carroll Wilson, vice president, Hills Bros. Coffee, Inc.: Study of Coffee Prices: Hearings Before a Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Banking and Curency, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, Second Session, on S. Res. 182 and S. Res. 195 to Investigate Recent Coffee Price Increases and Problems Relating to Economic Stabilization, Etc". United States Congress Senate Committee on Banking and Currency. U.S. Government Printing Office. free download
  7. ^ "Hills Bros Coffee Fuels Up Chicago". Business Wire. Retrieved 2009-05-25. Hills Bros. Coffee, founded in 1906, has grown to become a market leader in the coffee industry, offering the highest quality coffee beans throughout the United States
  8. ^ "San Francisco Landmark 157: Hills Bros. Coffee Plant". Retrieved 2011-01-27. This Romanesque Revival building was designed by George Kelham.
  9. ^ "Key System and March of Progress". SF Museum and Historical Society. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  10. ^ "Tour Wharton | San Francisco". The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on 2011-08-27. Retrieved 2011-09-10.
  11. ^ "Mozilla Locations". Mozilla. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
  12. ^ Zonana, Victor F. (11 April 1988). "The Hills Bros. 'Turk' and Other Tales". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 May 2021. Twenty-two years after he retired as a vice president and director of Hills Bros. Coffee Inc., 86-year-old T. Carroll Wilson... hired as a warehouseman in 1924... in 1900 the company was the first coffee roaster to package in vacuum cans
  13. ^ Friedlander, Jonathan (September–October 2010). "America's Arabian 'Cuppa Joe'". Saudi Aramco World. 2010 (5): 34–39. Archived from the original on 2018-12-24. Retrieved 5 May 2021. But it was in San Francisco in 1878 that Austin and Reuben Hills purchased the Arabian Coffee & Spice Company, and they made Hills Bros into one of the longest-lasting purveyors of coffee in America. Integral to the company's success was the "Arab gentleman" image that became its brand up through the 1950's. So iconic did he become that, today, the company has commemorated him with a bronze statue at the entrance of its old factory....In 1990, Hills Bros adopted a new "taster" figure designed to evoke its turn-of-the-century American founders....
  14. ^ "Archived copy". archive.aramcoworld.com. Archived from the original on 8 March 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. ^ Westbury Music Fair program: Sergio Franchi. August 10–15, 1976. "Who's Who at the Music Fair." NY: Melvin A. Hoffman, 1976.
  16. ^ "John Zaremba Starred in Hill Bros. Ads : Actor Known for TV Coffee Spots Dies". Los Angeles Times. 1986-12-20. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
  17. ^ Reedy, L.W. (26 June 2015). "A Halloween Parade through the Highlands". L.W. Reedy. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  18. ^ "Hills Bros. Coffee Inc. has announced that it purchased the name and manufacturing facilities of the Chase & Sanborn Coffee Company". Associated Press in New York Times. September 29, 1984. Retrieved 2007-06-21. San Francisco-based Hills Bros. bought coffee roasting plants in New Orleans, Miami and Casa Grande, Ariz., and will continue to produce ground and instant coffee under the Chase & Sanborn name, according to Rosalind Reidy, a Hills Bros. spokesman. Chase & Sanborn, based in Miami, filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Federal bankruptcy laws in May 1983. Terms of the purchase were not made public.
  19. ^ a b Chiem, Phat X.; Howe, Kenneth (28 June 1997). "Last Call at Nestle Beverage / Owner of Hills Bros. closes shop in S.F. as it moves to Glendale". SFGATE. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  20. ^ SUCCESS BREWS FOR HILLS BROS. COFFEE CO. (n.d.). Washington Post. Retrieved June 20, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/07/02/success-brews-for-hills-bros-coffee-co/34518f5c-6d00-4547-bfbe-0a189c9f9d72/
  21. ^ "Nestle to Sell Hills Bros., Chase, MJB Coffee Lines". Brandweek. November 29, 1999. Retrieved 2009-05-25. Nestle plans to sell its U.S. roast and ground coffee operations, including the Hills Bros., Chase & Sanborn and MJB brands. "We will announce something in the coming days," chief executive Peter Brabeck said. Nestle decided to put its American ground and roasted coffee operations up for sale because it intends to focus on coffee-based beverages. In an attempt to stimulate flagging instant coffee sales, Nestle is relaunching its Nescafe brand in the United States, introducing new varieties and flavors.
  22. ^ Lionel, Gosselin (2005). "Coffee Industry Icon and Former Chairman of Hills Bros Coffee, Inc. Appointed Advisor to Coffee Pacifica". Retrieved 2016-11-06. Coffee Pacifica, Inc. announced that Austin E. Hills, a former chairman of the board of Directors of Hills Bros. Coffee, Inc. was appointed a special advisor to Coffee Pacifica.

Further reading

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