Newman's Own - History

History

The brand started with a homemade salad dressing that Newman and Hotchner prepared and gave to friends as gifts. The successful reception of the salad dressing led Newman and Hotchner to commercialize it for sale. After that initial item, made with $40,000 of Newman's own funds as seed money, pasta sauce, frozen pizza, iced tea, lemonade, limeade, fruit cocktail juices, popcorn, pretzels, salsa, cookies, coffee, grape juice, dog food, cat food, condiments, and other products were produced. Newman's Own Lemonade was introduced in 2004 and Newman's Own premium wines in 2008. Each label features a picture of Newman, dressed in a different costume to represent the product. The company incorporated humor into its label packaging, as in the label for its first salad dressing in 1982, "Fine Foods Since February".

In 1993, Newman's daughter Nell Newman founded Newman's Own Organics as a division of the company, later to become a separate company in late 2001. It produces only organic foods. Her father posed with her for the photographs on the labels.

Newman and Hotchner co-wrote a memoir about their company and the Hole in the Wall Camps, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good (ISBN 0-385-50802-6), published in 2003. Newman and Robert Forrester had arranged for the continuation of the distribution of Newman's Own profits to charity after Newman's death through the establishment of the Newman's Own Foundation. After Newman's death on 26 September 2008, some feared that the company would become defunct, but as of 2010 it is expected to continue to prosper.