Hills Bros. Coffee

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

History

File:Hills Bros Coffee San Francisco.jpg
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).[1][2][3]

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.[4]

In 1900, Hills Bros. were the first to pack roast coffee in vacuum sealed cans.[5] They incorporated under the Hills Bros. name in 1906.[6] In 1926 Hills Bros. moved its operations to 2 Harrison Street in San Francisco,[1] a Romanesque revival building on the Embarcadero designed by George W. Kelham that is now a city landmark.[7] 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.[8] In January 2012, the building had become home to Wharton | San Francisco, a satellite campus of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.[9] 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.[10]

A symbol of an Arab drinking coffee called "the taster", introduced in 1898,[11] was designed by an artist named Briggs in 1906[1] but was replaced by a new, European-American, "taster" to represent the original founders in 1990.[12][13] In 1976, Hills Brothers hired American singer Sergio Franchi as their TV spokesperson to introduce several lines of specialty flavors.[14] 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.[15]

In 1930 Hills Bros. expanded into Chicago.[1] 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.[16]

During World War II, the company's metal containers were replaced with glass jars.[17] 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.[1][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.[1][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

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  1. ↑ a b c d e f Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Westbury Music Fair program: Sergio Franchi. August 10–15, 1976. "Who's Who at the Music Fair." NY: Melvin A. Hoffman, 1976.
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  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. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  22. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

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Further reading

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External links

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