Frank Daniel Gerber

Background

Gerber was born on January 12, 1873 in Douglas, Michigan, the son of Joseph Daniel Gerber, a tannery owner, and Agnes Moyer Gerber.

Education

Gerber graduated from Fremont High School in 1887, and spent one year at Valparaiso Normal School.

Career

Gerber entered the family tannery at the age of sixteen. Within five years he was a partner, and managed the tannery until it closed in 1905. As lumbering declined in Michigan, the need for diversification became apparent; in 1901 Frank Gerber had helped found the Fremont Canning Company, begun with a modest capital of $10, 000, to provide a market for local farmers by canning their peas and, from 1907, beans and small fruits. This small-town cannery was the basis for the later baby food industry. Despite early business uncertainties Frank Gerber put the company on a firm credit basis; and an upturn after 1908 brought growth and profits. He took advantage of low prewar prices to expand his plant in 1914-1915, thereby facilitating year-round production. He became president in 1917, following the death of his father. That year sales of canned food exceeded $1 million. The postwar slump set the firm back in 1919-1920, but steady recovery followed through the 1920's. The major change came in 1928, mainly at the instigation of Frank's son, Daniel F. Gerber. One evening in 1927, after helping to strain peas for their baby daughter Sally, he decided to heed his wife's advice and persuade his father to begin manufacturing strained baby foods at the cannery. This momentous step was not taken lightly. The Gerbers were not the first to process baby foods, and the idea had long been praised in women's magazines, but in 1928 it was still general practice to give babies a liquid diet until they were a year old. The risk in manufacturing strained baby foods was mainly that of not knowing the size of the potential market. Frank Gerber ordered thorough tests of the market possibilities and of the product itself. Experimental batches were tested on his granddaughter and other babies, with great success. Finally for three months in 1928 the firm launched an advertising campaign in Good Housekeeping, Children, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and elsewhere. Existing strained baby foods were sold through pharmacies on prescription. The Gerbers proposed to sell theirs at 15 cents per 4. 5-ounce can through grocery stores, thus reaching a mass market. To identify the product and reassure mothers, the "Gerber Baby" symbol was adopted, an attractive charcoal sketch by Dorothy Hope Smith that soon became known throughout the world. The firm gained the names and addresses of the customers and of their local grocery outlets. Gerber food brokers could then persuade reluctant wholesalers to stock the product. Within sixty days "Gerber Strained Foods" had won spotty national distribution. First-year gross sales were $345, 000, much more than expected. Despite the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, Gerber expanded its baby food output and added new lines. The firm employed scientists in special laboratories, helped farmers improve crops, published child-care pamphlets, and issued classroom guides for home economics and nutrition. In 1938 the Gerbers began dealing directly with wholesalers through their own company outlets, beginning with a sales office in New York City. They now advised storekeepers on shop layout, stock rotation, and the estimation of market needs. By 1941 baby foods exceeded adult foods in the Gerber line, and the firm changed its name to Gerber Products Company. Two years later it dropped all its adult foods. Local farm output could not sustain Gerber needs, so plants were opened in Oakland, California, Rochester, New York, and Niagara, Ontario. At the height of this expansion Frank Gerber died at Fremont, Michigan, leaving Daniel as senior member of the firm.

Achievements

• Gerber is best remembered as the founder of Gerber Products Company, the purveyor of baby food and baby products.

Connections

Frank married Dora Pauline Platt, daughter of a Fremont newspaper editor, on April 29, 1896; their son, Daniel, was born two years later in Fremont.

Father:

Joseph Daniel Gerber

Mother:

Agnes Mayer

Spouse:

Dora Pauline Platt

granddaughter :

Sally Gerber

Son:

Daniel Frank Gerber

He was an American manufacturer of baby food.