Gerber Products Company
The Gerber baby, which appears on the packaging of all Gerber products, is a portrait of five-month-old Ann Turner Cook.
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Baby foods |
| Founded | 1927 Fremont, Michigan, U.S. |
| Founder | Daniel Frank Gerber |
| Headquarters |
Fremont, Michigan, U.S. 43°28′6.75″N 85°57′08.25″W / 43.4685417°N 85.9522917°WCoordinates: 43°28′6.75″N 85°57′08.25″W / 43.4685417°N 85.9522917°W |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
| Parent | Nestlé |
| Subsidiaries | Gerber Life Insurance Company |
| Website | gerber |
Fremont, Michigan, U.S.
Gerber Products Company is a purveyor of baby food and baby products. A formerly American-owned company headquartered in Fremont, Michigan, Gerber is now a subsidiary of Nestlé Group. Its subsidiary, Gerber Life Insurance Company, is headquartered in White Plains, New York.
Gerber was founded in 1927 in Fremont, Michigan, by Daniel Frank Gerber, owner of the Fremont Canning Company, which produced canned fruit and vegetables. At the suggestion of a pediatrician, Gerber's wife, Dorothy, began making hand-strained food for their seven-month-old daughter, Sally. Recognising a business opportunity, Gerber began making baby food. By 1928 he had developed five products for the market: beef vegetable soup and strained peas, prunes, carrots, and spinach. Six months later, Gerber's baby foods were distributed nationwide.
The brand eventually became a major company in the baby food industry, offering more than 190 products in 80 countries, with labeling in 16 languages. Its primary competitors are Beech-Nut and Del Monte Foods, but Gerber controls 83 percent of the baby food market in the United States.
In 1994 Gerber merged with Sandoz Laboratories. Two years later, Sandoz merged with CIBA-Geigy to form Novartis, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. In 2007 Gerber was sold to Nestlé for $5.5 billion.
Some believe that Dorothy Gerber was the initial inspiration behind their baby food products. Legend has it that she came home one day after a visit to her infant daughter's pediatrician toiling in the kitchen straining fruits and vegetables for her child. After much hard work she suggested to her husband Daniel, whose family already owned the Fremont Canning Company, to create this food in an industrial setting, lightening the load of mothers everywhere. A different interpretation of the story is that he was frustrated and upset having come home to find his wife looking strained and miserable in the kitchen. Not wanting to "exchange" his beautiful wife for this kitchen-bound monstrosity, he then invented the Gerber baby food product line.
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