Henry J. Heinz was one of eight children, born to parents who emigrated from Kallstadt, Germany to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
When Heinz turned six, he began helping his mother with her garden (1850).
By age eight, Henry began selling goods to neighbors out of a basket he would carry around (1852).
When he was nine, Henry was grinding and making his own horseradish sauce — it was his mother's recipe (1853)
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdDemand was so strong, Heinz began to use a horse and cart to deliver his goods by age 12 (1856).
At 16, Heinz began making three weekly deliveries to Pittsburgh, Penn (1860).
By the time he was 25, Heinz had formed his first company with a friend. It was named Heinz Noble & Company (1869)
Their first product sold was horseradish (1869).
But in just a few years they went bankrupt and shut down. Heinz quickly formed a new business with his cousin, the F & J Heinz Co. (1875).
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdIn 1876 they began selling ketchup and the company took off.
In 1888, Henry bought out his family members and launched a major factory along the Allegheny.
In 1896 Heinz added the 57 to the bottle, after seeing a shoe store advertise 21 styles of shoes. Although he was selling more than 60 products at the time, Heinz thought 57 was lucky
Today, Heinz sells more than 650 million bottles of ketchup every year, as well as baked beans and tomato sauce...
Since Henry's passing, two other Heinz men have run the company
William Johnson (pictured), is the company's sixth CEO (and only the third to not have a relation to the Heinz family). Source: Heinz
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip Ad...which requires 2 million tons of tomatoes — more than any other company.
Bonus: Ketchup moves out of its glass bottles at .028 miles per hour, and if you hit the 57 it'll move faster
Now that you know everything about one empire...