Hellmann's and Best Foods

Encyclopedia : H : HE : HEL : Hellmann's and Best Foods

Hellmann's and Best Foods are brand names that are used for the same line of mayonnaise and other food products. The Hellmann's brand is sold in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and also in Latin America, Europe, and Canada. The Best Foods brand is sold in the United States west of the Rockies. Both brands are owned by Unilever.

Hellmann's and Best Foods are basically marketed the same way. They both have similar logos and web sites, and they have the same English slogan: "Bring out the best." The Spanish slogan is "Haz una cara...Hellmann's!". In Brazil it is "Hellmann's, a verdadeira maionese" (Hellmann's, the true mayonnaise).

Contents

1 History
2 Recipe and marketing issues
3 List of products
4 Notes
5 External links

History

In 1905, Richard Hellmann opened up a delicatessen in New York City, where he used his wife's recipe to sell the first ready-made mayonnaise. It became so popular that he began selling it in bulk to other stores. In 1912 he built a factory for producing Mrs. Hellmann's mayonnaise in jars. It was mass marketed and called Hellmann's Blue Ribbon Mayonnaise.

While Hellmann's Mayonnaise thrived on the East Coast, the California company Best Foods introduced their own mayonnaise. Best Foods Mayonnaise became popular on the West Coast.

In 1932, Best Foods bought out the Hellmann's brand. By then both mayonnaises had such commanding market shares in their respective halves of the country that the company decided that both brands and recipes be preserved. To this day:

Best Foods Mayonnaise is only sold west of the Rocky Mountains, specifically, in or west of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Hellmann's is sold east of the Rockies, specifically, in or east of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.David Feldman in his 1986 book Imponderables (New York: William Morrow and Co.) implies that both products can be found in the El Paso area, which is close to the Best Foods/Hellmann's dividing line. (p. 211) It is not known whether this is still the case today.

In 1955, Best Foods acquired Rosefield Packing Co., makers of Skippy peanut butter. Then Best Foods was bought by Corn Products Refining Company in 1958 to form Corn Products Company, which in 1969 became CPC International Inc.

By the 1990s, CPC International, whose brands also included Mazola corn oil, Knorr soups and condiments, Arnold bread, and Thomas's muffins, changed its name to Bestfoods Corporation. The company was acquired by Unilever a few years later.

In the United Kingdom, Hellmann's mayonnaise arrived in 1961. Unilever says that it had over 50% market share by the late 1980s. [link]

Recipe and marketing issues

When Best Foods acquired the Hellmann's brand, it was decided then that the respective recipes for both mayonnaises be preserved. Today, the two products are made in the same plant. However, at least as recently as March 2003, the recipes were almost, but not entirely, identical. From the company's FAQs at the time:

The products are basically the same. Both trademarks evolved simultaneously -- Hellmann's in the East and Best Foods in the West. Taste preferences vary; some people find that Best Foods mayonnaise is slightly more tangy.[link]

Both labels contain the same list of ingredients in the same quantity order: soybean oil, water, whole eggs and egg yolks, vinegar, salt, sugar, lemon juice, calcium disodium EDTA, and natural flavors. This implies that Best Foods may contain more lemon juice, although the relative quantity order is the same as the Hellmann's recipe.[link]

Maintaining the separate identities of both brands poses some unique challenges. Marketing campaigns for both products are identical; however, Hellmann's and Best Foods must make separate television commercials for each product and cannot utilize nationwide media to market their product.Feldman, p. 212-213.

List of products

The following is a list of products that are sold under the Hellmann's and Best Foods brands in the US. In other countries, especially Europe, Hellmanns is a major player in the dressings market too, with a wide range of flavours and formats:

Real Mayonnaise - Their original mayonnaise product.
Light Mayonnaise - Mayonnaise with half of the calories and fat as the Real version.
Canola Real Mayonnaise - Mayonnaise made with canola oil.
Reduced Fat Mayonnaise - Mayonnaise with only 2 grams of fat per serving and no cholesterol.
Mayonnaise with Lime Juice
Dijonnaise - Mayonnaise blended with dijon mustard.
Honey Mustard - Mustard blended with honey.
Tartar sauce
Sandwich Spread - A blend of mayonnaise and relish.

In Brazil:

Hellmann's Hot - Mayonnaise with red pepper
Hellmann's Fresh - Mayonnaise with herbs, garlic and lemon juice

Notes

External links

http://www.bestfoods.com
http://www.hellmanns.com
http://www.hellmanns.ca
[Hellmann's Squeezy]

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.