J&J Snack Foods

Did You Know?

• The company's largest acquisition to date was the 1998 purchase of National Icee Corp. through the Icee-USA subsidiary, which had about $40 million in annual sales.
• In 2022, J&J Snack Foods acquired Dippin' Dots, LLC for $222 million.

History

In 1971, Gerald Shreiber, a father of three, was shopping for a waterbed for his daughter when he struck up a conversation with the store's owner, who discussed his investment loss in a bankrupt soft pretzel company called J&J Soft Pretzel. On September 27, 1971, Shreiber attended the Camden, New Jersey District Court's bankruptcy auction and purchased J&J Soft Pretzel with a bid of $72,100. The company at the time had eight employees and $400,000 of sales. In 1972, a West Coast office opened in Los Angeles, California, opening the company up to business across the United States. A year later, Superpretzel Soft Pretzel was registered as a trademark and became the first official brand of JJSF. In 1978, JJSF expanded its presence in the soft pretzel market through the acquisitions of Frampton Corp in St. Louis, Missouri, and Pretzel Man Corp in Los Angeles, California; the King-sized pretzel was also introduced and sales began in food service locations. In 1981, Shreiber found new possibilities in a cancelled supply agreement with Whimsy Stores, who at the time was selling churros; JJSF acquired some product inventory and began the foundation of the churros segment, starting the brand Tio Pepe's Churros. A year later, JJSF acquired exclusive rights to the AMF pretzel twister machines, making the company a leader in the efficiency of soft pretzel manufacturing. In 1983, the acquisition of Bachman Soft Pretzel Co. added another manufacturing plant. By 1986, JJSF extended its product line to frozen fruit juice bars with Super Juice and to baked goods with the acquisition of Southern Food Products; Superpretzel entered the grocery store arena for the first time, expanding JJSF's business outside the foodservice segment. As sales exceeded the $25 million mark, the company went public, offering 600,000 shares, and traded on NASDAQ as "JJSF". In the same year, Shreiber was introduced to the frozen beverage industry through a chance meeting with the then-owner of Icee, Omar Knedlik. One year later, JJSF acquired Icee-USA, extending its product offering to frozen carbonated beverages. From 1988 to 1989, JJSF acquired five more companies, most notably Luigi's Real Italian Ice and MIA Products Co.; the acquisition of MIA Products brought JJSF their current frozen novelty manufacturing plant. By 1989, Luigi's was successfully introduced to super markets and sales for the entire company reached $86 million.

Products

JJSF's portfolio of products includes soft pretzels, frozen beverages, frozen juice treats and desserts, stuffed sandwiches, burritos, churros, fruit pies, funnel cakes, cookies, and bakery goods, and other snack foods and drinks. JJSF has a total of 25 brands, with principal brands including Superpretzel Soft Pretzels, Pretzel Fillers, Icee, Slush Puppie, Arctic Blast, Pepe Churros, California Churros, Funnel Cake Factory funnel cakes, Luigi's Real Italian Ice, Daddy Ray's fruit bars, Philly Swirl, Whole Fruit, BeneFIT Baked Bars, and Minute Maid frozen novelties. The company is structured in three business groups: Food Service, Frozen Beverages, and Retail Supermarket.