“Krafft-ing” a legacy…

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Of all the American food brands, Kraft (and its iconic logo) is one of the most recognizable… and why not, as it has been a brand for over 100 years. There are not too many food brands that can say that.

While the Kraft company has a long history, and has had many changes, I wanted to focus on how the company got started in today’s story…

James Lewis Krafft was born was born on December 11, 1874 to George and Minerva Krafft of Stevensville, Ontario, Canada. He was the second oldest of eleven children. The Krafft family owned a dairy farm, so from his earliest days, he could say that he was born into the dairy business.

James, or simply “J.L.” was helpful around the farm for his early years, but now his younger siblings had grown up and it was time for him and his older brother to find work outside the farm to help earn a wage. The two brothers found work at Ferguson’s General Store where they helped with general duties, but eventually realized that they could help grow the business of the General Store if they offered a delivery service. While the brothers initially considered the $500 per year wage a success, J.L. knew that he was capable of doing more…a lot more.

J.L. took some of these hard-earned funds and invested in the Shefford Cheese Company of Buffalo, NY and eventually immigrated to the U.S. and went to work for them. The Shefford Cheese Company published their “Articles of Incorporation” in late 1902 and J.L. was listed as one of their “Directors”. J.L. rented a small flat at 511 Rhode Island Street in Buffalo (which is now home to the Left Bank Restaurant).

When J.L. first visited Chicago in 1903 on a business trip, he made his way over to South Water Street, as this was the “hub” for all perishable foods like produce, meats, and dairy products that had been off-loaded from the neighboring Chicago river. It was on this very trip that J.L. has learned that his business partners at the Shefford Cheese Company had dissolved his partnership, essentially leaving him unemployed and stranded in Chicago. J.L. realized that he had only $65 dollars in his pocket…probably enough to make it home…or, to try his luck in this new bustling city and try and make a career for himself.

J.L. realized that storekeepers and restaurant owners during this time in history would have to travel on their own to South Water Street to gather their own perishable goods.

I would imagine about this time, memories of his delivery days at Fergusson’s General Store flooded back and seeing hundreds of carriages on South Water Street, all competing for these perishable goods, he was determined to make a cheese delivery service work.  

J.L used those few dollars to rent a wagon and a horse named “Paddy”. He knew that if he could work hard and be first in line, that he could get the best selection and hopefully the best price. His ambition and determination helped earn him a meager beginning.

The following year, J.L. wrote to his friend Wilfred “...I haven’t got a comparatively large business now, but I know what I can do and in less than five years I am honest in saying I expect to have one of the best wholesale cheese businesses in this City.” It was shortly after that J.L. decided to make “God his partner”, leaning back to his Mennonite upbringing and giving back a good portion of his profits to charity…a legacy that stayed with him the rest of his life. This “partnership” paid off, as by late 1908, he was earning enough money to bring some of his brothers into the business. By 1909, his brothers Charles, Frederick, Norman and John were able to join the business and they officially incorporated as the J.L. Kraft & Bros. Co. and their first brand logo was created.

By 1910, the brothers had doubled their sales. By 1912, they were able to open a second office in New York City. Up to this point in their business, they were always selling other peoples cheese under their own branding…The decision was made to purchase their own manfacturing plant. This dream came true when they bought their first plant in 1914 in Stockton, Illinois. Thirty-Six small local farms produced the milk needed for production.

At this  part of the story, I need to pause and bring you up to speed on another, but very important piece of the story – Refrigeration.

Home refrigeration as we know it today really didn’t come about until 1927…and even when it did, a standard monitor-top refrigerator like the one shown here was approximately $520 (about $7,000 in today’s dollars).

From the 1880’s until 1927, ice boxes were the standard method of keeping perishable “cool”, but never as cold as the product should have been kept…The result?, many dairy products spoiled easily. This was a problem that J.L. felt that he could solve…

Being raised on a farm, he saw how his family would can fruits and vegetables, then store them without refrigeration…He wondered if he could do the same process with cheese.

Back to our story…

Now that J.L. owned a factory, he could experiment with double-boilers, low-heat/high-heat, fast stirring, etc. until he was able to master the process of creating cheese in a can that did not need refrigeration. In today’s standards, that may not seem that impressive, but you must remember that milk was not even nationally pasteurized during this time, so “sterilized”  cheese was seen as a step in the right direction.

Seven more flavors followed: Chile, Swiss, Pimento, Rarebit, Camembert, Roquefort, and Limburger.

While the natural cheese industry scoffed at this creation, consumers immediately took to it. Retailers were able to display it unrefrigerated on wooden racks, consumers did not need to refrigerate it at home, and almost immediately the J.L. Kraft at Bros. Co. started to created recipes so that consumers learned many way that they could enjoy this new product.

This led to J.L. Kraft to patent this process. On June 6, 1916, the U.S. Patent Office granted him patent number 1,186, 524 for this innovation.

Just 10 short months later, America joined the Europe into World War I and the U.S. Government purchased 6 million pounds of these tins for the troops…they were a perfect size for a soldier to carry, they came with their own key to open, and they did not require refrigeration to ship them.

With this boost in sales, they were able to open their next sales office in Canada in 1919.

Another patent in 1921 helped introduce a 5 lb. loaf of Pasteurized Cheese in a wooden box and is said to have helped double consumtion of this cheese in the U.S.

By 1926, the company name had changed to the Kraft Cheese Company and was netting sales of $36 million dollars.

In 1928, the company named changed once again to the Kraft-Phenix Cheese Company when the company mergered with the Phenix Cheese Company.

British immigrant George Herbert Garstin had managed Phenix since the 1920’s. He created his own patent on pasterizing cheese, but J.L. Kraft had beat him to it. When the two companies merged, J.L. Kraft was so charitible, that he shared the profits from his earlier 1916 patent. Phenix Cheese Co. produced Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

While there are many more stories, I will jump ahead to the J.L. Kraft’s later years.

Charity was something that stayed with him the rest of his life. In 1947, J.L. Kraft wrote a book called Adventures in Jade. Inside this book, just under his signature, was a small plaque reading “All the royalties of this book will go into a trust set up by the author for the purpose of distributing the revenue solely to charity.”

Through the early readio and television year, Kraft continued to innovate. Looking back, J.L Kraft had ambition, integrity, inginuity, and charity.

Until next time,

Your Cheese Traveler,

Trevor