Description
Folgers Coffee is a brand of ground, instant, and single-use pod coffee produced and sold in the United States, with additional distribution in Asia, Canada and Mexico. It forms part of the food and beverage division of The J.M. Smucker Company. Folgers roasts its coffee in New Orleans.
History
The precursor of the Folger Coffee Company was founded in 1850 in San Francisco, California, as the Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills. The founding owner, William H. Bovee, saw an opportunity to produce roasted and ground coffee ready for brewing. Before that, Californians had to purchase green coffee beans, and roast and grind them on their own. To help build his mill, Bovee hired James Athearn (J.A.) Folger as a carpenter. Folger had arrived from Nantucket Island at age 15 with his two older brothers during the California Gold Rush. In the 1850s, kerosene became a cheaper alternative to whale oil, Nantucket's dominant business. Many Nantucket ships were re-purposed to instead bring coffee from South America to San Francisco. After working at Bovee's mill for nearly a year, Folger had saved enough money to buy part of the company, and went to mine for gold. He agreed to carry samples of coffee and spices, taking orders from grocery stores along the way. Upon his return to San Francisco in 1865, Folger became a full partner at Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills. In 1872, he bought out the other partners and renamed the company J.A. Folger & Co.
In 1861, James Folger married. He and his wife had four children, and two of the children worked for the family business. In 1889, Folger died, and his oldest son, James A. Folger II, became president of J.A. Folger & Co at the age of 26.
In the 1900s, the company began to grow dramatically due primarily to a salesman named Frank P. Atha. Atha sold coffee in the California area, but proposed to James Folger II that he open and manage a Folgers Coffee plant in Texas. The company grew exponentially after Atha opened the Texas plant.
Under the mid-20th century leadership of Peter Folger, the brand became one of the principal coffee concerns in North America. In 1960, the construction of a Folger Coffee Company plant in New Orleans was started due to new shipping routes from Central America. Procter & Gamble acquired Folger's in 1963 and removed the apostrophe from its name. During P&G's ownership, Folgers became the number one coffee brand in America.
On August 9, 1969, company heiress Abigail Folger was stabbed to death in Los Angeles as part of the Manson Family's Tate–LaBianca murders.
P&G announced in January 2008 that Folgers would be spun off into a separate Cincinnati-based company but reversed itself that June and announced Folgers would be acquired by the end of 2008 by The J.M. Smucker Company. Utilizing a rare financial technique called a Reverse Morris Trust, Smucker purchased Folgers in November 2008 and made it a subsidiary, whose products lead the 10 billion USD at-home retail coffee category.
