Not only was Margaret new to the grocery trade, but she had the cheek to insist that her premium bread be sold for 25 cents a loaf to cover her costs— even though the going price for bread was 10 cents. To convince the reluctant grocer, Margaret sliced up her savory bread and gave him a taste. In an instant, the sale was hers. The grocer not only took all the loaves that she brought, but by the time she arrived back home, he had left a phone message asking for more.
And as word about the extraordinary product got around, the tiny company grew. It had no business model, no strategic plan. Margaret just baked the bread by hand in her kitchen, making sure that every loaf was as good as it could be. In , Pepperidge Farm celebrated the production of its ,th loaf of bread. Six months later, production soared to one million loaves.
Then, Readers Digest published an article called "Bread Deluxe" and told Margaret's story to the world. Demand for Pepperidge Farm products caught fire, and production had to shift into high gear. The Christian Science Monitor noted, "In response to this growing demand, Margaret Rudkin pushed her vivid red hair back from a perspiring brow and said she had always known the people of the United States wanted homemade bread -- but did they all have to have it at once?
Margaret's operation quickly outgrew her kitchen and moved to her garage where the business thrived from to When the business moved into its first real factory in , Margaret only intended to stay there for a year while planning to build a new bakery but World War II put that plan on hold.
But by the time peace came in , she had a plan in hand to fulfill her dream of building a modern commercial bakery. On July 4, , Pepperidge Farm celebrated Independence Day by cutting the ribbon on a new state-of-the-art bakery in Norwalk, Connecticut. With streamlined production in place, the business thrived. While most of the bread-making process was automated by now, employees still kneaded the bread by hand because Margaret knew that's what top quality bread required.
During the s, the Rudkins often traveled to Europe. On a visit to Belgium, Margaret became captivated by a unique collection of fancy chocolate cookies produced by the purveyors to the Belgian Royal House. And Pepperidge Farm Swirl bread is the number one sweet bread with a 40 percent share of the segment. It has proven to be one of the most strategic acquisitions our company has ever made.
Pepperidge Farm has been an essential part of Campbell and a consistent growth engine over the last 50 years. Pepperidge Farm President Pat Callaghan and the entire Pepperidge Farm team provide Campbell with a steady stream of innovation, fantastic products and solid growth year in and year out.
To recognize their many contributions to Campbell, and also reflect our corporate commitment to the cause of hunger relief, we are pleased to provide a gift to the Norwalk and Camden communities in the name of all our employees. Growth opportunities in grain-based products are especially strong, as consumer demand for foods that are part of a healthy diet continues to rise.
Our founder, Margaret Rudkin, would be so pleased to see that great tasting grain products—which have always been the core of Pepperidge Farm—are now more relevant than ever. She had no manufacturing or marketing experience and very little available capital. What she did have was:. Rudkin baking an all-natural bread as a mail order business. Word quickly spread and she was soon selling to local stores.
Within 2 months due to the growth of sales, her operation moved from her kitchen to a garage and then to an abandoned stable on the property of Pepperidge Farm named after a large Pepperidge tree on the grounds. Under his leadership, Pepperidge Farm pioneered the mass marketing of upscale food products. The company's marketers lured customers into paying premium prices for the company's products by having them placed high on store shelves and emphasizing the products' high quality and all-natural ingredients.
New products flowed freely from a seat-of-the-pants approach to new product development. On the advertising side, a nostalgic campaign featuring the tagline "Pepperidge Farm Remembers" ran throughout the s, while the first television advertising for Goldfish crackers debuted in Finally, distribution was aided and expanded through the opening of a string of new plants.
In January production began at a cookie and frozen food plant in Richmond, Utah. In two more plants commenced operation: a bakery facility in Aiken, South Carolina, and a cookie facility in Willard, Ohio.
In a side note during this period, Pepperidge Farm in August was given responsibility for managing Godiva Chocolatier, Inc. This arrangement ended in August when Godiva became an independent Campbell subsidiary. This ushered in a chaotic period in the early s when the Pepperidge Farm presidency changed hands several times and the company suffered through a string of high-profile failed product launches.
Three products introduced in the early s all failed miserably in the marketplace: Deli's, a line of pastry-wrapped fruits, vegetables, and meats; Star Wars cookies; and Pepperidge Farm Apple Juice. All three of these products flew in the face of one of the company's founder's key principles: her emphasis on quality first and foremost. They simply were not up to the standards expected of the Pepperidge Farm brand. Richard Shea, named president of Pepperidge Farm in June , quickly got the company back on track.
He purged hundreds of products from the lineup and improved production efficiency by closing several outdated plants, upgrading the remaining plants, and constructing two new high-tech plants. Through these initiatives, the time required for getting products from the plants to stores was cut in half, improving the freshness of the company's offerings and thereby revitalizing Pepperidge Farm's emphasis on basic quality.
The company also scored its first hit new product in years in with the debut of the American Collection cookie line, which was later renamed Chocolate Chunk. From to Pepperidge Farm was led by David L.
Under his watch, the Goldfish brand was successfully repositioned more as a kid's snack item. In the product was altered for the first time since its introduction with the addition of a stamped smile, a change backed by the tagline "the snack that smiles back. Other successful product introductions during this period included frozen pot pies, French toast, and Texas toast.
Pepperidge Farm also launched a new umbrella ad campaign in late featuring the slogan "Never have an ordinary day. By this time, bread production had reached million loaves per year, while the company was also producing more than 75 billion Goldfish crackers and more than million Milano cookies annually. After Albright's departure, Mark A. Sarvary was named Pepperidge Farm president in August Crew Group Inc. In a historic move, this plant replaced the firm's facility in Norwalk, the one that Margaret Rudkin had designed herself and that had been in operation since The Norwalk plant closed in July , but Pepperidge Farm kept its headquarters in the building adjacent to the plant.
In another historic shift, the company in September introduced its first new spokesperson in nearly 50 years, an animated character known as "John Dough" who replaced "the Old Timer. Gould had joined the company in December as chief marketing officer, having previously worked at both General Mills, Inc.
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