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Breyers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Bryers or Dreyer's.
This article is about the ice cream brand. For the brand of model horses, see Breyer Animal Creations. For the singular for the plural, see Breyer (disambiguation).
Brand logo
Product typeFrozen dessert
OwnerUnilever
CountryUnited States
Introduced1866; 158 years ago (1866)
Previous ownersKraft Foods Inc.
Websitebreyers.com

Breyers is an American ice cream brand created in 1866 by William Breyer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By the 1920s, the brand was producing more than one million gallons annually. It was sold to the National Dairy Products Corporation in 1926 and again in 1993 to Unilever, which merged it with Good Humor to form the Good Humor-Breyers division.

History

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Breyer ice cream truck, c. 1915

The Breyers brand was created in 1866 by William Breyer, who made ice cream in his kitchen and sold it from a horse-drawn wagon in Philadelphia.[1] By the time of his death in 1882, he had opened six shops in Philadelphia while still manufacturing the ice cream in his home.[2]

In 1896, Breyer's sons Fred and Henry opened the first manufacturing facility for Breyers ice cream, incorporated the company, and began using the briar leaf in the company logo.[3][4] The company opened its second facility in 1904 and became the first to use brine-cooled freezers the following year. By 1914, Breyers Ice Cream Company was selling one million gallons of ice cream annually. The company opened additional plants in Long Island City, New York, and Newark, New Jersey in the 1920s, and became a subsidiary of the National Dairy Products Corporation (NDPC) in 1926.[5] NDPC sold the brand to Kraft in 1952.[5] In 1969, Breyers became part of Kraftco – the precursor company to Kraft Foods, Inc. – with sales first in the southeastern United States, later extending west of the Mississippi River in 1984.[3]

By 1986, Breyers was the best-selling ice cream brand in the United States.[6] Its expansion into California was met with consumer confusion due to the similarity in name with Dreyer's, the most popular ice cream brand on the West Coast of the United States.[6] Breyers' carton branding had drawn many imitators, leading to a redesign in the 1980s to make its cartons black with images of the product.[7]

Unilever

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Unilever purchased Breyers ice cream in 1993 and merged it with Gold Bond and Good Humor ice cream to create the Good Humor-Breyers division. Kraft retained the rights to produce Breyers-branded yogurt.[3][8] Unilever closed its last Breyers plant in Philadelphia in 1995.[5] Good Humor-Breyers moved its headquarters from Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Toronto and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, in 2007.[9]

Breyers Yogurt was manufactured under license from Unilever at an upstate New York facility until the licensing agreement was terminated and the Breyers Yogurt line was discontinued in April 2011.[10] Catterton continued to produce YoCrunch yogurt but without the Breyers co-branding until it sold the company in August 2013 to Group Danone.[11][12]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Ettinger, Amy (2017). Sweet spot: An ice cream binge across America. New York, New York: Dutton. p. 15. ISBN 9781101984192. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  2. ^ Funderburg, Anne Cooper (1995). Chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla: A history of American ice cream. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. p. 56. ISBN 0879726911. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Goff, H. Douglas; Hartel, Richard W. (2013). Ice Cream. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-4614-6096-1. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
  4. ^ Riddle, Holly (February 2, 2023). "The Untold Truth Of Breyers". Mashed. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c Ivey, Dave (September 5, 1995). "Ice cream factory closing after 128 years; 240 jobs melting away". Associated Press. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Gellene, Denise (June 19, 1986). "East vs. West in Ice Cream Fight: Breyers' Attempt to Scoop Dreyer's Breeds Confusion". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  7. ^ "Firms put priority on packaging as product competition heats up". The Globe and Mail. Associated Press. January 16, 1987. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
  8. ^ Janofsky, Michael (September 9, 1993). "Unilever to Gain Breyers In Kraft Ice Cream Deal". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2024.
  9. ^ "Unilever to close Green Bay office". Milwaukee Business Journal. October 11, 2007. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  10. ^ North Lawrence Dairy Done Archived 2011-01-27 at the Wayback Machine, Watertown Daily Times, January 18, 2011
  11. ^ "Danone acquires YoCrunch, a mix-in toppings specialist, to support continued yogurt growth in the USA". Finance.danone.com. August 2013. Archived from the original on 2015-04-12. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
  12. ^ "Danone Buys YoCrunch Yogurt-Topping Maker to Grow in U.S." Bloomberg.com. August 2013.
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