Charles Mortimer

1900 (age 78)

Brooklyn, N.Y.

In 1921 he left Stevens to take a full-time sales job with R. B. Davis Baking Powder Company. A German named Ludwig Roselius had developed Sanka as a replacement for his decaffeinated Kaffee Hag, which the American government had seized during World War I; Roselius hired the Batten agency to handle the advertising. He had responsibility for advertising and merchandising of two products: Calumet baking powder and Sanka. In 1930, Mortimer was named merchandising manager for a group of products including Calumet baking powder, Sanka, Log Cabin syrup, Certo, and Sure Jell. In 1929, Postum, in partnership with the Goldman Sachs investment firm, paid about $22 million for Birds Eye Frosted Foods, a marginally successful company that produced only frozen haddock, thereby acquiring Clarence Birdseye's 168 patents, including those controlling his quick-freezing process, the Birds Eye brand name in frozen foods, and rights to the name General Foods; it adopted that name for itself. In 1928 Sanka had been sold only in the New York City area. By 1935, in the face of the Great Depression and a pricing strategy that made Sanka expensive, Mortimer had made Sanka into a national brand and had doubled sales. To do this, he shifted the advertising away from its emphasis (which he himself had developed) on Sanka as a substitute for coffee to a campaign making two points: Sanka was a coffee that let people sleep; Sanka was itself an excellent brand of coffee. At that time, this meant sponsoring a program. Sanka was soon sponsoring a dramatic half-hour program featuring Helen Hayes; it was a striking success, perhaps drawing the largest audience of any dramatic program then on radio. Here he continued General Foods' creative leadership in using radio as a primary marketing medium, most prominently through the "Maxwell House Coffee Hour" radio variety show, Jack Benny's half-hour show sponsored by Jell-O, and Kate Smith's program sponsored by Swans Down flour and Calumet baking powder. These shows featured such leading entertainment figures as Abbott and Costello, Frank Morgan, Lanny Ross, and Meredith Willson. Again his flair for marketing made its mark: Birds Eye froze thousands of snowballs, then sold them in July as part of a promotional campaign. Under the new structure, General Foods products were grouped into five divisions, each of which had full responsibility for production and marketing. He also began a strong foreign expansion. By 1959 it had the largest private food research laboratory in the United States, and had raised research expenditures from barely 0. 5 percent of sales to 1. 3 percent. His nickname was "How Soon Mortimer" because he always wanted to know when a job would be done. He declared that "knowing more about the total company than any other person around" was the first requirement of his job. He sharpened his sense of what the company was doing by dropping in on executives, checking the shelves of grocery stores to see how his products were doing, and talking with customers. He also took new products home to test them himself. His family so liked Spanish Minute Rice that he canceled the test marketing and put it directly on the market; it was an immediate success. By the time Mortimer canceled the line in 1960, it had cost the company $30 million. During Mortimer's time as president (1954 - 1959) and chairman (1959 - 1965), General Foods' annual sales grew from $825 million to $1. 5 billion and the number of employees from 18, 000 to 30, 000. More important, it moved from making only a small profit to earning one of the best in the food industry and one well above the average for American industry. See also Lawrence M. Hughes, "General Foods Organizes Management and Markets for the Next 10 Years, " Sales Management, July 15, 1955; and Time, Dec. 7, 1959. An obituary is in the New York Times, Dec. 29, 1978. ]

Charles Mortimer

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Background

Mortimer, Charles Greenough, , New York 1900 1978 Male Executive Food Industry Executive food industry executive, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. , the son of Charles Greenough Mortimer, an inventor, and Cecilia Clara Dessoir.

Education

The family soon moved to suburban East Orange, N. J. , where Mortimer attended public high school.

At graduation he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve, which assigned him to a submarine engineering training program at nearby Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N. J.

Career

In 1921 he left Stevens to take a full-time sales job with R. B. Davis Baking Powder Company.

A German named Ludwig Roselius had developed Sanka as a replacement for his decaffeinated Kaffee Hag, which the American government had seized during World War I; Roselius hired the Batten agency to handle the advertising.

He had responsibility for advertising and merchandising of two products: Calumet baking powder and Sanka.

In 1930, Mortimer was named merchandising manager for a group of products including Calumet baking powder, Sanka, Log Cabin syrup, Certo, and Sure Jell.

In 1929, Postum, in partnership with the Goldman Sachs investment firm, paid about $22 million for Birds Eye Frosted Foods, a marginally successful company that produced only frozen haddock, thereby acquiring Clarence Birdseye's 168 patents, including those controlling his quick-freezing process, the Birds Eye brand name in frozen foods, and rights to the name General Foods; it adopted that name for itself.

In 1928 Sanka had been sold only in the New York City area.

By 1935, in the face of the Great Depression and a pricing strategy that made Sanka expensive, Mortimer had made Sanka into a national brand and had doubled sales.

To do this, he shifted the advertising away from its emphasis (which he himself had developed) on Sanka as a substitute for coffee to a campaign making two points: Sanka was a coffee that let people sleep; Sanka was itself an excellent brand of coffee.

At that time, this meant sponsoring a program.

Sanka was soon sponsoring a dramatic half-hour program featuring Helen Hayes; it was a striking success, perhaps drawing the largest audience of any dramatic program then on radio.

Here he continued General Foods' creative leadership in using radio as a primary marketing medium, most prominently through the "Maxwell House Coffee Hour" radio variety show, Jack Benny's half-hour show sponsored by Jell-O, and Kate Smith's program sponsored by Swans Down flour and Calumet baking powder.

These shows featured such leading entertainment figures as Abbott and Costello, Frank Morgan, Lanny Ross, and Meredith Willson.

Again his flair for marketing made its mark: Birds Eye froze thousands of snowballs, then sold them in July as part of a promotional campaign.

Under the new structure, General Foods products were grouped into five divisions, each of which had full responsibility for production and marketing.

He also began a strong foreign expansion.

By 1959 it had the largest private food research laboratory in the United States, and had raised research expenditures from barely 0. 5 percent of sales to 1. 3 percent.

His nickname was "How Soon Mortimer" because he always wanted to know when a job would be done.

He declared that "knowing more about the total company than any other person around" was the first requirement of his job.

He sharpened his sense of what the company was doing by dropping in on executives, checking the shelves of grocery stores to see how his products were doing, and talking with customers.

He also took new products home to test them himself.

His family so liked Spanish Minute Rice that he canceled the test marketing and put it directly on the market; it was an immediate success.

By the time Mortimer canceled the line in 1960, it had cost the company $30 million.

During Mortimer's time as president (1954 - 1959) and chairman (1959 - 1965), General Foods' annual sales grew from $825 million to $1. 5 billion and the number of employees from 18, 000 to 30, 000.

More important, it moved from making only a small profit to earning one of the best in the food industry and one well above the average for American industry.

See also Lawrence M. Hughes, "General Foods Organizes Management and Markets for the Next 10 Years, " Sales Management, July 15, 1955; and Time, Dec. 7, 1959.

An obituary is in the New York Times, Dec. 29, 1978. ]

Politics

Mortimer was a trustee of Smith College and the Stevens Institute of Technology and was national chairman for the Emancipation Centennial United Negro College Fund Development Campaign (1963 - 1964).

Connections

married:: Kempley
married:: Mather
children:: Kempley

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