Andrew F. Smith

Swanson

Appears in
Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America
Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America

By Andrew F. Smith

Published 2004

  • About

Swanson, the company whose name is synonymous with TV dinners, began as Jerpe Commission Company, a wholesale grocery firm, in 1899 in Omaha, Nebraska. The founders, Carl A. Swanson, Frank D. Ellison, and John P. Jerpe, specialized in the sale of poultry, eggs, and butter. In 1945 the company, which since 1928 had been owned solely by Swanson, changed its name to Swanson and Sons and began producing a line of canned and frozen chicken and turkey products.

When they took over the business in the early 1950s, Swanson’s sons realized that postwar America had changed. The most important difference was that record numbers of women were working outside the home. The brothers, seeing an opportunity, in 1951 began selling easy-to-prepare frozen beef, chicken, and turkey potpies. Their efforts met with instant success.