H. J. Heinz, founder

(1844-1919)

 

Henry John Heinz was born in Birmingham, PA son of German immigrants.  Originally known as Anchor Pickle and Vinegar Works, it became the H. J. Heinz Company in 1888.

Key Lineage and History

Founder (1869-1919):  Henry John Heinz found the company in Sharpsburg, PA.

The Second Generation (1919-1941): Howard Heinz, son of H.J. took over as president, guiding the comany through the Great Depression and significantly growing the company.

The Third Generation (1941-1987):  Jack Heinz led the company into the 1980, serving as CEO. 

Henry John "Jack" Heinz II 

(1908-1987)

Henry John "Jack" Heinz II (1908-1987) was an American business executive and CEO of the H.J. Heinz Company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He represented the third generation (1941-1987).

The family's direct leadership ended with the death of Jack Heinz II in 1987.  

His grandfather, Henry J. Heinz founded the company in the 19th century and he worked in a variety of positions within the company before becoming CEO.  When taking over in 1941, he was 33 and one of the youngest men in the United States to head a major company.  He  took advantage of the postwar boom and expanded the company into a multi-billion dollar international food empire.  He helped drive significant international growth and modernizing the food firm.  As grandson of the founder, he led acquisitions like Star-Kist and Ore-Ida before passing the reins to Anthony O'Reilly as Jack was the last Heinz family member to run the company. While his son, Senator H. John Heinz III was  involved in the company he did not run it as CEO before his untimely passing in 1991 at age 52.  His wife, Teresa Heinz later married John Kerry.  

The family-related ownership ended in 2013 when the company was acquired by 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway for $23 billion. On March 25, 2015, Kraft announced its merger with Heinz, arrange by Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital.  The resulting Kraft heinz Company is the fifth largest food company in the world.  The merger to form Kraft Heinz was completed on July 2, 2015.

After leaving active involvement with the company, Jack Heinz became chairman of the Howard Heinz Endowment which disbursed more than $300 million in grants to Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania organizations in the arts, social services, health, education, urban and international affairs.  

.. an interesting bit of trivia .. 

Since 1896, the company used its "57 Varieties" slogan.  It was inspired by a sign advertising 21 styles of shoes and Henry Heinz chose the number 57, even though the company then manufactured more than 60 products, because "5" was his lucky number and "7" was his wife's lucky number.  

The Heinz 57 Center is located at the corner of Sixth and Smithfield Avenues .. the heart of downtown Pittsburgh. The address is an historic downtown office building, originally the Kaufmann & Baer Co. department store.  The building was built in 1914 and has approximately 790,000 square feet, standing 13 stories (190 feet tall).  

Gimbels entered the Pittsburgh market in 1925 by purchasing the established Kaufmann & Baer, founded in 1914 by a member of the Kaufmann family.