The History of Smucker’s

Jerome Monroe Smucker founded The J.M. Smucker Company in 1897, when he began selling homemade cider and apple butter from the back of his horse-drawn wagon. After years of selling fruit spreads and related products door-to-door, the operation expanded, and in 1921, The J.M. Smucker Company was incorporated. In 1940, Smucker’s introduced a line of ice cream toppings and in 1942, the company began distributing their fruit spreads nationally. The company’s famous tagline, “With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good,” debuted in 1962. In 1982, Smucker’s acquired the Magic Shell brand of hardening ice cream toppings and in 1998, the brand purchased MenUSAaver, the company that invented and first distributed frozen crustless sandwiches. Smucker’s rebranded the product and launched Smucker’s Uncrustables soon after. In 2002, Smucker’s bought Jif, followed by Folgers in 2008 and several more acquisitions throughout the 2010s. Today, Smucker’s is still a family-run company and is best known for its line of jellies and fruit spreads, Uncrustables, and ice cream toppings.