Heinz: The Pittsburgh Food Company Behind a Global Pantry Brand

The H. J. Heinz Company is part of Pittsburgh’s corporate history as well as a familiar name on grocery shelves around the world. Founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869, the company was headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Heinz expanded well beyond its hometown. The company manufactured food products on six continents and marketed them in more than 200 countries and territories. In 2013, Heinz said it had 150 brands that ranked first or second in their categories worldwide. Its strongest position in the United States was ketchup, where the company held more than half the market. Its Ore-Ida label held 46 percent of the frozen potato sector in 2003.

The company’s branding also became one of its most recognizable features. Heinz has used the “57 Varieties” slogan since 1896. The number did not correspond to the company’s actual product count: Heinz was making more than 60 products when the slogan was introduced. The figure was selected after Henry Heinz encountered a sign promoting 21 styles of shoes. He combined that idea with personal associations attached to the numbers five and seven, choosing a phrase that was memorable rather than strictly descriptive.

Heinz later became part of a major reshaping of the food industry. In February 2013, the company agreed to be purchased by Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital in a deal valued at $23 billion. Two years later, Kraft announced a merger with Heinz. Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital arranged the transaction, creating the Kraft Heinz Company.

The resulting company was described as the world’s fifth-largest food company. That transition marked a change in corporate ownership and structure, but the Heinz name remained attached to the products and brand identity built over more than a century.

For Pittsburgh, the Heinz story offers a concise example of how a company with deep local roots developed an international reach. Its headquarters in the city connected Pittsburgh to a food business whose products were sold across a global network, while its slogans and labels helped turn a corporate name into a widely recognized consumer brand. The supplied historical record does not identify a specific LGBTQ connection to Heinz, but the company’s Pittsburgh headquarters make it relevant as part of the city’s broader institutional and commercial history.

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Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://web.archive.org/web/20130208082640/http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/09/18/287706/ - https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jun/24/asa.advertising - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/jun/24/advertising.gayrights - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ketchup-changeup-heinz-ceo-prompts-194107781.html - https://web.archive.org/web/20081007062214/http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,24452906-462,00.html - https://www.facebook.com/heinzfactoryemployeehelpgroup Image rights Photograph description: Second North American blizzard of 2010 (Pittsburgh) Creator: Piotrus ( User:Piotrus ). License: CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASecond_North_American_blizzard_of_2010_(Pittsburgh%2C_Oakland)_-_tree_and_Heinz_Chapel.JPG. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.