Gerber Products Company

The Gerber Products Company is a U.S. company for baby food and other baby products. The company was founded in 1927 in Fremont (Michigan) by Daniel Frank Gerber. Today is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. Gerber has 4500 employees and a turnover of about 1.6 billion U.S. dollars (2006). Gerber Products is now part of Nestlé.

History

Daniel Frank Gerber was the owner of the Fremont Canning Company. This company produced canned packaged fruits and vegetables. After pointing a pediatrician Daniels' wife, Dorothy Gerber (1904-1988), her seven -month-old daughter Sally fed pureed food. Daniel Gerber recognized the economic exploitation of these baby food. He began to produce this food in his company and market. In 1928, five were already products on the market: peas, prunes, carrots and spinach and beef vegetable soup. Six months later, the products were sold across the U.S..

The brand was known in the baby food industry internationally and now offers 300 different food products in more than 50 countries. The cans are labeled in 16 different languages. In the U.S., Gerber has a market share of 83%.

1994 Gerber was acquired by Sandoz. Two years later, formed by the merger with Ciba -Geigy, the company Novartis. On 12 April 2007, Nestlé announced to buy Gerber for 5.5 billion U.S. dollars from Novartis.

Products

Since 1967, also life insurance policies are sold. The target audience are younger families. The Gerber Life Insurance Company is the largest direct marketer of life insurance in the United States. Currently, more than two million insurance policies are managed with an amount of more than 650 million U.S. dollars.

In the early 1990s Gerber wanted to enter the market of sugar-free foods. The tuned to suffering from diabetes infants food was taken, however, after a few years out of the range when not entered the desired sales success. Were also introduced new fruit juices and health products. The health products have now been taken off the market for unexpected side effects.

Trivia

• The company's logo is decorated with a baby's head. This is not, as is sometimes claimed, Sally Gerber or even Richard Nixon or Humphrey Bogart, but Ann Turner Cook.