H. B. Reese | |
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| Born | Harry Burnett Reese (1879-05-24)May 24, 1879 |
| Died | May 16, 1956(1956-05-16) (aged 76) West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Resting place | Hershey Cemetery,Hershey, PA |
| Other names | HB, Harry Reese, Poppy Reese, Mr. Reese's |
| Occupation | Chocolatier/Confectioner |
| Known for | InventingReese's Peanut Butter Cups |
| Title | Founder and Chairman of the Board, H. B. Reese Candy Company,Hershey, PA |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 16 |
Harry Burnett Reese (May 24, 1879 – May 16, 1956) was an American inventor and businessman known for creatingReese's Peanut Butter Cups,[1] and founding theH. B. Reese Candy Company.[2] In 2009, he was posthumously inducted into theCandy Hall of Fame.[3]
H. B. Reese was born on May 24, 1879, on the Frosty Hill Farm, an agricultural anddairy farm located near theMuddy Creek Forks Historic District inYork County, Pennsylvania.[2] He was of Welsh and English descent and was the only child of Annie Belinda Manifold (1854–1935) and Aquilla Asbury Reese Jr. (1845–1914). In addition to his farmland work, Reese raised frogs that he sold to restaurants in theBaltimore area. By 1898, Reese was an establishedFrench horn player who performed with local area bands.[4]
On August 1, 1900, Reese married Blanche Edna Hyson (1882–1968), the daughter of Mary Elizabeth Markey (1857–1952) and Robert Bortner Hyson (1853–1930). Together they had 16 children, 8 daughters and 8 sons (13 of whom survived to adulthood).[5]
Reese's mother Annie Belinda Manifold (1854–1935) and her sisters Elizabeth Turner Manifold (1846–1910) and Mary Collins Manifold (1847–1933) lived with him for the rest of their lives. At least 20 family members were present during a typical Reese family supper and sometimes more than 40.[4]
By 1903, Reese was managing thefishing operations of his father-in-law'scannery business located inDitchley, Virginia. In 1912 he managed adairy farm inWoodbine, Pennsylvania, but took a factory job inNew Freedom, Pennsylvania, in 1915 to support his growing family.[6]
In 1916, Reese read an ad in theYork Daily Record byMilton S. Hershey seeking to hire people to manage and operate his numerous dairy farms that were located in theHershey, Pennsylvania, area. In 1917, Hershey hired Reese to work as a dairyman at Farm 28-A. In 1918, Hershey asked Reese to manage a dairy farm called the Round Barn. Hershey visited the Round Barn every two weeks because it was an experimental dairy farm that used newmilking machines (more efficient than milking cows by hand) as he sought new approaches to animal treatment and milk production. In 1919, Hershey found the Round Barn too expensive to operate and closed it.[6]
Jobless in 1919, Reese formed a new business called the R&R Candy Company that he operated from an old canning factory located inHummelstown, Pennsylvania, where he manufacturedmilk chocolate coveredalmonds andraisins, selling them to local stores.[7]
Reese knew he needed high-quality manufacturing equipment in order to boost the potential of hisHummelstown, Pennsylvania, candy business. In January 1920, he reorganized the R&R Candy Company as the Superior Chocolate and Confectionery Company and proceeded to raise today's[when?] equivalent of $290,000 by issuingstock in the newly formed company. A State charter for the new company was issued on May 14, 1920, with the following company officers:[8]
Nonetheless, the business ultimately failed.[9]
Under pressure to support his 10 children — with yet another baby on the way — Reese took apaper mill job inSpring Grove, Pennsylvania, where he worked a second job as abutcher. He also had a third jobcanning vegetables.[7]
In 1921, Reese's father-in-law purchased a home at 18 E. Areba Avenue inHershey, Pennsylvania, for his son-in-law's growing family. With his return to Hershey, Reese began working atThe Hershey Company factory in the shipping department and was soon promoted to foreman.[9]
On the side, working from the basement of his Areba Avenue home, he made a variety ofconfectionery products includinghard candy,chocolate coverednuts andraisins,mints as well as two popularmilk chocolate coveredcaramel-coconut candy bars that he invented:[10]
Theingredients for both bars included fresh gratedcoconut,caramel,molasses,cocoa butter andhoney. The main difference between the two bars was that theJohnny Bar hadnuts as an ingredient. From the very beginning, Reese usedchocolatemanufactured byThe Hershey Company for his chocolate coatings.[11]
Reese incorporated the H. B. Reese Candy Company in 1923. Selling a large assortment of candies onconsignment, his employees coated by hand each piece of candy on marble slabs, some coated withmilk chocolate and others withdark chocolate that were placed in two-pound and five-pound boxes that were sold indepartment store candy displays. To promote sales, Reese set up special coating tables in the front display windows of large, downtowndepartment stores and had his employees coat candies in full view of shoppers passing by while other employees handed out freshly made samples.[12]
Below is a brief list of thecandy initiallymanufactured by the H. B. Reese Candy Company. They were made withingredients such as realcocoa butter, freshcream, freshgratedcoconut and freshlyroastedpeanuts:[4]
| Butter cream | Marshmallow |
| Butterscotch | Marshmallow-Nut* |
| Chocolate Jets* | Nougat* |
| CoatedDates* | Nuttees* |
| CoconutCaramel* | Peanut Butter Cups* |
| CoconutCream* | Peanut Clusters* |
| CreamCaramel | PeppermintCream* |
| Honey DewCoconut* | Raisin Clusters* |
Note: *These 12 candies were sold in five-pound boxes during theholiday season.[4]
Borrowing money from aYork County, Pennsylvaniabank in 1926, Reese built a large home and a newfactory that were located next to each other at 203-205 W Caracas Ave inHershey, Pennsylvania. By 1935, he had 62 employees as well as his 6 sons working for him and was so successful that he was able to pay off all hismortgages.[13]
By 1928, H. B. and Blanche had 16 children. That same year, Reese inventedReese's Peanut Butter Cups after one of his customers inHarrisburg, Pennsylvania, reported supply problems with another confectioner who made a candy consisting of peanut butter covered withchocolate.[4] Reese developed an automated manufacturing process and the candy became part of his assorted chocolate line.[9] Soon the company was packaging 120 individually wrapped pieces per box that sold for a penny per cup. Each candy wrapper prominently displayed the slogan:"Made in Chocolate Town, So They Must Be Good". Sales of the pennypeanut butter cup helped Reese pay off themortgages on both his house andfactory by 1935. This was especially noteworthy since theUnited States was still in the grip of theGreat Depression and chocolate was considered a luxury.[4]
The product gained in popularity and quickly became Reese's primary focus. DuringWorld War II, economic constraints and scarcity of materials led him to discontinue his other candies.[6] In 1943, the five-cent cup was introduced and aspackaging machine and plantautomation were placed into production, the sales of Reese's doubled every four years.[14]
Before Reese died in 1956, he began construction of a second plant located at 925 Reese Avenue,Hershey, Pennsylvania. Completed on November 30, 1957, this new modern plant contained 100,000 square feet of state-of-the-art manufacturing technology built at a cost equivalent of $6.9 million at a time when the sales of Reese's were equivalent to $125 million.[15]
After a short illness, H. B. Reese died of aheart attack[16] eight days before his 77th birthday, on May 16, 1956, at the St. Mary's Medical Center inWest Palm Beach, Florida, where he had been vacationing. His residence at the time of his death was located at 630 Linden Road in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
On July 2, 1963 (seven years after the death of H. B. Reese), when the sales of Reese's were equivalent to $243 million, his sons Robert, John, Ed, Ralph, Harry and Charles Richard Reese, merged the H. B. Reese Candy Company withThe Hershey Company in a tax free stock-for-stockmerger. In 2024 after 61 years of stock splits,[17] the Reese brothers' original 666,316 shares of Hershey common stock represent 16 million Hershey shares valued at over $4.4 billion that pay annual cash dividends of $87.6 million.[18][19] At the time of its 1963 merger, the H. B. Reese Candy Company was celebrating its 40th anniversary and had just added 200,000 square feet of new state-of-the-art manufacturing capacity to its 925 Reese Avenue plant in Hershey.[8] In 1969, only six years after the Reese/Hershey merger, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups became the best-selling product of The Hershey Company.[9]
As of September 20, 2012, Reese's were theNo. 1 selling candy brand in the United States with sales of $2.603 billion.[1] Furthermore, back in 1973, the H. B. Reese Candy Company plant added yet another 200,000 square feet of manufacturing space in order to begin production of theKit Kat for sale in the United States[8] which had 2012 U.S. sales of $948 million, making Kit Kat the No. 4 selling candy brand in the United States.[1]
| Hershey Company | |||||
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| Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company |
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| Milton Hershey Foundation | |||||
