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HENRY J HEINZ    Founder of a Food Empire

Born: 11 October 1844
Died: 14 May 1919
Location: Sharpsburg, Pittsburgh, USA

The eldest child of German immigrants, Henry grew vegetables in the family garden and sold them in a wheelbarrow around the village. He professed faith in Jesus Christ as his Saviour as a youngster, and with the family were actively involved in the church. By the age of 12 he was growing enough produce to load a horse and cart daily to sell around the village.

At the age of 25 he married Sarah Young, also a fervent Christian. The same year 1869, the company name “Henry J Heinz Food” was registered. The first produce was bottled horseradish – a delight to the housewife as washing and grating horseradish was worse than peeling onions! As the firm grew Heinz still found time to run the Sunday School and be an officer in the church.

A bumper harvest at a time of  banking collapse led to the firm going bust. Despite a bankruptcy court discharging him from liability, Heinz cleared every debt arising from the failure of his firm. When with family help he restarted his business, his former creditors did all they could to help him. The landlord of his former business property even gave him a new lease free of rent for a time as he respected his integrity.

Once again the company grew with the small bottles of Heinz’s Pure Food Products flying off the shop shelves. Heinz insisted his premises must be the cleanest anywhere. The buying of raw materials and the selling methods must be absolutely straight and fair. His company were one of the first to introduce staff welfare facilities – dining rooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms, gyms, swimming pools, free hospital and dental treatment, free life insurance and further education facilities. Few workers ever left.

At the age of 42 he travelled to Europe and personally introduced his products to London’s most famous food store Fortnum & Masons in Piccadilly. Henry Heinz came up with the famous 57 varieties logo in 1869 while travelling on a train in New York when he noticed an advert for a brand of shoes which boasted ’21 styles’. Turning it over in his mind he thought of his enormous number of food varieties and the ‘57’ logo was born.

The company continued to grow, but he poured much of his personal wealth into an organisation promoting Sunday Schools and youth work. He died in 1919 owning 26 factories, 227 offices and other premises, 100,000 acres of farmland, and employing 6,523 people.

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

The preface of his last will and testament reads: “Looking forward to the time when my earthly career shall end, I desire to set forth, at the very beginning of this will, as the most important item in it, a confession of my faith in Jesus Christ as my Saviour.”

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