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HOLSUM HISTORY |
It
was the turn of the century. Horse-drawn carriages made their way down
unpaved streets. A young sign painter, brush in hand,
worked diligently on the bread advertisement he w as
painting on the wall of the building. As he worked, he thought to
himself that he could certainly find better things to say about bread
than the words he was painting. And, very soon, the young sign painter
did just that.
The young man was W.E. Long. In 1900, he founded the
Company that bears his name to this day -- The W.E. Long Company. Long
was young, enthusiastic and firmly believed in the future of the baking
industry. In the beginning, Long peddled his advertising program town to
town. He was successful at presenting ideas for billboards to bakers. While traveling in New York State in 1908, W.E. Long saw the brand name "Holsum." He inquired about the availability of the brand name and soon obtained the exclusive right to the name "Holsum" for the W.E. Long Company. By 1909, the young painter had established his company as being a specialty house in bakery advertising. Now, the young man turned to a different aspect of the bakery business. Until this time, bread was sold without benefit of wrapper. While President Theodore Roosevelt was hunting big game in Africa, Long presented his clients with an idea. Why not be the first to sell wrapped bread? And so, in 1909, Holsum Bread was not only: "Fresh and Sweet – Good to Eat"….but, it was hand-wrapped and tied with a string. Thus a new kind of bread was born, far surpassing any
other bread on the gro In looking at the overall baking industry picture, it was becoming more and more obvious that the independent wholesale baker was fighting a long bitter uphill battle against the chain and corporate bakers. Looking to the years ahead, it seemed obvious that to survive necessitated unified action, specifically at this stage in advertising and merchandising. To accomplish this, it was quite obvious that a common denominator wrapper design and brand name would have to be agreed upon and used. In 1948, Long The distinctive HOLSUM logo comprised of a rectangular background on which the trademark HOLSUM appears, with a large star in the upper left corner of the background and a smaller star in the lower right corner of the background. From its humble beginning, Holsum has become both well
and favorably k |
cers’
shelves. It was not any surprise to learn that the bread wrapped in a
red and white package quickly became popular with housewives.
and another
employee, William L. Goodman, began planning the Holsum Unification Program.
This program had been one of Mr. Long’s earliest dreams. Under the HUP,
an official Holsum wrapper was designed and
introduced to the market creating one consistent image for Holsum bread.
It was a combined advertising and marketing promotional package that
could be used by bakers throughout the country. The
production of this program was to be financed by the shared cost of
combined advertising dollars of all participants. The program was called
the Official Cooperative Advertising Program or OCAP.
nown
across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and South America.