The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-08-15
STUMBLING ONTO
A MONEY MAKER
How keIIogg-Blrse Co. Discovered
Formula for Making Famous
"Rcd Glover Brand
Syrup"
HAS HAD A BIG GROWTH
Company Has Been In Business Since
1856 and Each Succeeding
Year Has Shown an
Increase.

A chemist for large manufacturing
concern will often spend eighteen
hours a day for eighteen months striv-
ing to perfect a formula that will make
some particular article more salable,
and in the end find he has failed to
attain the perfection to which he was
working. On the other hand he will
often throw together certain ingred-
tents in sort Of haphazard fashion
and luckily turn out product that
meets with great success in the selling
time and again and is often one of
those freaks OF fortune which puts
barrels of money into the hands of our
present day millionaires
Red Glover Brand Syrup, pro-
duct of the Kellogg-Birge Company of
this city, is one of the greatest sellers
of its kind and the story of how the
present formula was reached is one of
those interesting little stories OF bust
ness life
About five years ago the estate OF
the late ]. C. Hubinger was being clos
ed up. ]. G. Hubinger had dipped into
the grocery business and from his es-
tate the Kellogg Birge Company had
bought some miscellaneous goods, in
Guiding two fifty-pound cans of honey,
and the company was at loss to know
how to utilize it. Finally one of the
RI ~ NJ =, do cd he,
used In a corn syrup that was being
made at the time. The suggestion
was adopted and five percent honey
went into the syrup. A few samples
were made up, the goods were labelled
five percent honey" and the travel
The new syrup made a ten-strike, but
the company paid no attention to its
selling possibilities until sometime
after the supply had been exhausted.
Requests came in, inquiries were made
of the travelling men, and the demand
ed to make the syrup with honey in it.
1t seems that the honey supplied what
was lacking in the previous syrup and
RED Glover Brand Syrup" has become
known all over the country.
That is the story of how just one
article manufactured by the Kellogg
Birge Company attained It's selling
magnitude. Dealing with the jobbing
plant as a whole is an entirely differ
emit story. Established away back in
1856, the company has reached its
present proportions not through any
lucky turn in the wheel of fortune but
because of the progressiveness and in
tegrity of It's officers. For fifty years
the company did business at Third and
Main streets, and for the past six years
has been housed in fine home at the
corner Of Fourth and Johnson streets.
The Kellogg-Birge company is one
of the five leading grocery jobhers in
the state of Iowa Travelling men sell
for the company in more than half
the states of the Union, and an i'm
mense volume of business is done
every year.
One OF the new departments which
has been growing every year Is the
rups, preserves, jellies, jams, cereals,
flavoring extracts, spices and canned
goods are made. This department has
been in existance for nine years and
today is the largest connected with
any wholesale grocery house west OF
Chicago. One hundred people are
employed during the busy season and
the goods are sold by the regular
travelling men from Ohio in the east
to Colorado In the west. The princt'
pal brands are "Gate City and "Kel,
logg's."
Especial attention has been given
to the sanitary and hygenic condi-
lions in the manufacturing depart
ment. Every morning before the en-
ployes go to work everything is steri'
lized and absolute cleanliness is the
motto.
For years the Kellogg-Birge com.
pany has been one of Keokuk's most
stable commercial institutions. A
large force OF people is employed to
carry on the business and many II
the employees have been with the
company for a number of years. The
officers are Ira w. Wills, president;
c. R. Joy, vice president; e. M. Maj
ors, treasurer; Arthur Hambleton,
cashier; II. G. Brown. secretary
Adv.
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