Before the turn of the 20th century, the J.M. Smucker Company (SJM) was founded as a small apple cider and butter business. 127 years later, The J.M. Smucker Company, commonly known as Smucker, has vastly expanded its business beyond mashed fruits, reaching a value of nearly $13B and operating well known brands in market segments from coffee to pet food. The business now competes with consumer packaged goods giants like Kraft-Heinz (KHC), Nestlé (NSRGY), and General Mills (GIS). One thing has remained consistent since the company’s founding—it’s still led by a Smucker: J.M.’s great, great grandson, Mark.
Yahoo Finance’s Brad Smith traveled to Orrville, Ohio, the home and origin of Smucker, to get an inside look at how the fifth generation CEO is leading the historic brand and setting up for the next 127 years.
Mark Smucker took over in 2016. His biggest move to date came in 2023 when the company acquired the sweet snacks giant, Hostess for $5.6B. Smucker’s decision to expand its portfolio follows a relatively proven company recipe over recent years. Some other Smucker acquisitions include Jif peanut butter and Crisco in 2002, Pillsbury and other brands part of International Multifoods in 2004, Folgers in 2008, Café Bustelo in 2010, and Big Heart Pet Brands in 2015. J.M. Smucker Co. has since sold off the Crisco and International Multifoods businesses.
Smucker has also made his mark on the business by leaning into edgier marketing campaigns for many legacy brands, like Jif and Folgers. He has also capitalized on pop culture influence to grow brands, including the popular Uncrustables snack, which the company believes will become a $1B brand in 2026.
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Editor’s note: This article was written by Luke Brooks.
With a name like Smuckers.
It has to be good.
This isn’t the same JM Smucker brand from the past is a crushable a sandwich or a dumpling.
I feel like it’s a peanut butter and jelly dumplings.
You know what I mean?
That just blew my mind.
The 127 year old company has been refreshed by current Ceo Mark Smucker capitalizing on cultural moments and crafting ads for a modern audience continuing to evolve the brand while still being true to their authentic heritage is really important.
Smucker comes from a long line of smuckers who have turned what was once a family operated Jam business into a $13 billion publicly traded company.
The JM Smucker company has spread far beyond jelly under the leadership of Smucker’s dad and uncle, a strategy.
The 54 year old is hoping will spark a similar growth trajectory.
Under his leadership, Yahoo Finance went to Orrville Ohio to get an inside look at how this Smucker plans to take on the next 127 years.
This former Jam and Jelly plant now serves as an innovation center for the company.
Evolving products are key to success according to Smucker, whether homegrown or part of an acquisition, like the company’s latest, the 2023 $5.6 billion purchase of Hostess.
Our strategy is fundamentally about leading and growing categories.
We had been studying Hostess for a couple of years and just really were impressed with the growth that they had achieved and wanted to understand why the consumer continued to look for indulgent treats.
And there, there continued to be a long runway before getting snapped up by Smucker.
Hostess led the US packaged cakes market with a 10% share, bringing in $1.3 billion in 2022.
Transforming the business via acquisition isn’t a new recipe for the company.
Over the course of 17 years, Smucker purchased a range of businesses diversifying its portfolio and increasing the company’s stock 500% and positioning themselves as market leaders in multiple categories.
Before acquiring Hostess, Smucker left the mark as CEO by refocusing the company portfolio and divesting its baking businesses.
We realized that our growth opportunities were far better served in places like coffee and K cups and pet.
And so we made some very difficult decisions to totally transform and reshape our portfolio.
The company’s stock hasn’t grown under Mark Smucker’s tenure in the same way it did during the previous generation’s leadership.
And while revenue is up under Smucker, it is certainly not alone in the massive consumer packaged goods market with the likes of Nestle General Mills and Kraft Heinz elbow to elbow with Smucker on store shelves.
The CEO is aiming to drive future sales by appealing to both modern cravings and modern culture.
A model proven by Uncrustables.
This is the story of the best part of the sandwich and his crust.
In 2023 Smucker began its first national marketing campaign for Uncrustables since acquiring the brand in 1998.
Looking to capitalize on being in the cultural zeitgeist after 20 plus years.
It’s the first time that we’ve advertised because it’s been all word of mouth and we were just trying to keep up with demand.
Now, what’s been great about it?
We’ve, we’ve gotten all kinds of organic endorsements that we didn’t ask for.
We had Jason Kelsey, we had Drake eating one on stage.
We had actually, there’s been a couple of DJ s in L A that have posted about them.
Smucker expects the brand to reach $1 billion in sales in 2026.
Up from $290 million in 2019.
Making our brands more relevant to things that are happening today is a way that we can connect those brands with today’s consumer.
Long before Uncrustables, the JM Smucker company began in 1897 as an apple cider and butter business created by Jerome Monroe.
Smucker.
Mark Smucker’s great great grandfather.
The business has been passed down through five generations of Smucker ceo s going public in 1959 to grow the business.
Jm Smucker lived on campus in this house built in 1907.
The house is still used by the business today.
Jerome Monroe was a Mennonite dairy farmer and he didn’t really like milking cows.
So he invented this large cider press.
He started making apple butter with that cider press which shortened the manufacturing time and started selling them out of a horse drawn wagon.
I think about coming into the business later in life.
I never really think about it as I’m the fifth generation, I think.
Well, yeah, my great great grandfather JM started it and it would be great to continue the same tradition.
Despite his last name and early involvement in the business, Smucker wasn’t always gunning to be the sixth.
Ceo Smucker spent time working in South America and even teaching in Alabama before coming back to work for the family business, eventually overseeing the company’s Canadian operations.
And the acquisition of brands including Pillsbury.
Smucker describes the challenge of integrating a business four times larger than Smucker north of the border as a light bulb moment trying to integrate those two businesses together, having to transform that business to a more branded growth business, the process of building that team and making those decisions.
Even the tough ones made me realize that I’m really passionate again about the people and the brands and that’s what I care most about.
And in order for me to really make a mark and build a legacy if I can nurture the culture of our people and modernize these brands, that is really what’s gonna make this company great, modernizing the brands of a 127 year old staple and institution can come with some internal resistance.
There always have been disagreements.
We’ve done a very good job of keeping those disagreements behind closed doors and letting our employees see a united front.
One interesting shift that took place is as we went about modernizing these brands, we had some very restrictive rules self imposed about where we would advertise.
We were very conservative in terms of the types of brand tag lines or slogans that we would use.
That’s why choosy mothers choose g taking off those shackles was something that I think we struggled with as a family.
But ultimately, it was my decision and the decision this team and again, pushing these brands and connecting them to culture is really what catalyzed the growth over the last several years.
The business world was rocked today by the merger of the Peanut Butter Group and Chocolatey Corp. Our brands had become maybe a little bit stale if you think about Folgers being maybe your grandmother’s coffee, we had a responsibility to turn up the volume on some of these brands.
We actually created a marketing model that is much more focused on the consumer and then making sure that the actual advertising is relevant in today’s culture.
Just like it’s Uncrustables strategy.
Smucker is refreshing marketing across the board.
This includes the company’s most historic brands.
Once rooted in the past, we have younger consumers.
You now have Gen Z.
Soon we’ll be seeing Gen Alpha, their tastes will change and what creates an emotional connection between the brand and and the consumer is often something that is is newer.
Smucker also values new when it comes to the products themselves.
It’s basically a lava cake.
So this is brand new.
This has just hit the shelves.
It’s all an effort to keep a finger on the pulse of what consumes want.
The other brand that is going, Gangbusters is Cafe Bustelo.
So, Cafe Bustelo is true to its roots as an authentic Latino coffee and all of the advertising is always bilingual.
It’s the fastest growing coffee brand uh in, in the coffee category right now, Smucker has three major brands in the nearly $12 billion at home coffee market.
The company does coffee testing and innovation here in their coffee college.
How many cupping?
How many samplings do you do?
Usually a year?
Ballpark?
It’s a, it’s a huge number.
We think it’s about 30,000 cups per year.
What started as a small business out of a horse drawn wagon has grown into a portfolio of major brands with 9000 employees across the country and in its home of Orville Ohio, as you think about the future of the company.
What’s the next 5 to 10 years look like for smuckers.
You know, our strategy is super clear right now.
It’s, you know, owning and marketing, leading food brands and growing categories.
And we’ve again gotten so focused over these last five years by selling some brands, but acquiring new ones like hostess, we would like to continue that journey growing this amazing portfolio of brands and hopefully adding to it at the opportune time in the next five years.
