O-Pee-Chee facts for kids
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Trade name
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O-Pee-Chee |
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| Industry | Candy, Collectibles |
| Fate | Acquired by Nestlé |
| Founded | 1911 |
| Founder | J.K. McDermid D.H. McDermid |
| Defunct | 1996 |
| Headquarters | , |
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Area served
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United States, Canada |
| Products | Bubble gum Trading cards |
The O-Pee-Chee Company, Ltd. was a Canadian company that made candy and trading cards. It started in 1911 and was based in London, Ontario. O-Pee-Chee made its first trading card sets in the 1930s. These cards featured baseball, gridiron football, and ice hockey players. The company was sold to Nestlé in 1996.
The O-Pee-Chee name was brought back by the trading card company Topps in 1997. They used it to release hockey cards until 2004. Later, in 2007, Upper Deck took over the O-Pee-Chee brand. They still release O-Pee-Chee card sets today.
Contents
History of O-Pee-Chee
How O-Pee-Chee Started
The O-Pee-Chee Gum Company began in 1911. Two brothers, John McKinnon (J.K.) McDermid and Duncan Hugh (D.H.) McDermid, started it. They wanted to make chewing gum. The brothers already knew a lot about the gum business. They had worked for another gum company in London, Ontario, called C.R. Somerville.
After the Somerville company moved, the McDermid brothers bought its box-making part in 1910. Soon after, they started O-Pee-Chee. Their first product was a box of Gipsy gum.
The name O-Pee-Chee comes from the Ojibwe language. It means "the Robin." This word is also found in a famous poem called The Song of Hiawatha. The name was also used for J.K. McDermid's summer home.
The McDermid family owned O-Pee-Chee Company Limited until 1944. J.K.'s son, John Gordon McDermid, then ran the company. After he passed away in 1953, Frank Leahy took over. Leahy later bought the company from the McDermid family in 1961. He led the business until 1980. Then, Gary Koreen, Leahy's son-in-law, bought the company.
In its first year, O-Pee-Chee made about $177,000 in sales. They earned a profit of about $4,700. They made chewing gum, mints, and popcorn. The company had 30 employees back then.
In 1928, O-Pee-Chee built a new factory in London. This factory helped them make gum for export, especially to the United Kingdom. This plant was used until 1989.
During the tough times of the Great Depression, the company struggled. In 1933, O-Pee-Chee signed a deal with a company from Buffalo, New York. This allowed O-Pee-Chee to sell their gum and other new products in Canada, Great Britain, and Ireland.
O-Pee-Chee and Trading Cards
Trading cards became a very important part of O-Pee-Chee's business. Their first card sets came out in the mid-1930s. These included a large baseball set in 1934 and several hockey sets. They also made cards for Mickey Mouse and "Fighting Forces." They made more sets in the 1940s. But it was in the late 1950s that they started selling cards regularly.
During World War II, it was hard to get sugar and other supplies. O-Pee-Chee stayed in business by helping with war efforts. They supplied dried egg powder to Europe and the United Kingdom. During this time, the only gum they made was Thrills gum, which is still sold today!
After the war, Frank P. Leahy became the company's president in 1953. Under his leadership, the company grew a lot in the late 1950s.
Around this time, O-Pee-Chee made deals with two big candy companies in the United States. These deals allowed O-Pee-Chee to make and sell their products in Canada. This brought many new products to Canada. It also helped O-Pee-Chee grow its sales and improve its manufacturing.
Working with U.S. Companies
In 1958, O-Pee-Chee made a big deal with the Topps Company from the United States. This agreement meant O-Pee-Chee would release new trading card sets every year in Canada. Kids loved these packs, which usually had a stick of bubble gum and a stack of picture cards. In that first year, they helped make hockey and football cards.
In the 1960s, O-Pee-Chee and Topps worked closely. They made cards for sports and popular entertainment. The main sports were baseball, gridiron football, and ice hockey. Starting in 1961, O-Pee-Chee began printing these cards at its headquarters in London, Ontario.
In the early 1960s, The Beatles became super popular. O-Pee-Chee had the rights to make and sell Beatles bubble gum cards in Canada. In 1964, they released four very popular sets of Beatles cards.
From 1968-69 onwards, O-Pee-Chee and Topps made two different hockey card sets each year. One was for Canada (O-Pee-Chee) and one for the United States (Topps). The O-Pee-Chee cards often had more cards in the set. Also, the O-Pee-Chee card backs included text in both English and French. This was important because of Canadian laws and the large French-speaking population in Quebec.
In the 1970s, O-Pee-Chee also made cards based on popular movies and TV shows. These included Happy Days (1976), Charlie's Angels (1977), and Superman (1978). They also made cards for Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), E.T. (1982), and Batman Returns (1992).
In the 1980s, O-Pee-Chee and Topps also made sticker albums for hockey and baseball. These stickers were very popular.
In 1989, O-Pee-Chee moved into a new, modern factory in London East. This new plant helped them make products better and allowed for future growth.
By the early 1990s, more companies started making NHL hockey cards. O-Pee-Chee released a special "Premier" hockey series that was very popular with collectors.
The End of an Era
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| Owner | Upper Deck (2007-present) |
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| Introduced | 1996 |
| Previous owners | O-Pee-Chee Company Ltd. |
| Website | O-Pee-Chee cards |
In the mid-1990s, major strikes in Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League hurt the trading card business. O-Pee-Chee announced they would stop making cards and focus only on candy.
In 1996, the O-Pee-Chee Company was bought by the Nestlé Corporation. Even after the company was sold, the O-Pee-Chee brand name lived on for card collecting. Topps used the O-Pee-Chee name under a special agreement from 1996 to 2004.
Since 2007, the Upper Deck has owned the O-Pee-Chee brand name. They continue to make O-Pee-Chee hockey cards today. Old O-Pee-Chee cards are now very popular with collectors. Cards of famous players can be worth a lot of money!
Products O-Pee-Chee Sold
O-Pee-Chee sold many different products in Canada, including:
Candy Products
- Bazooka Gum
- Nerds Candy
- SweeTarts
- Tart N Tinys
- Ton 'o' Gum
- Thrills Gum
Trading Cards
- The Beatles (1964)
- Wacky Packages Sticker Cards (many sets)
- NHL Hockey (many sets)
- MLB Baseball (many sets)
- Star Wars (1977)
- Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Return of the Jedi (1983)
- Batman (1989)
- Batman Returns (1992)
- Ghostbusters II (1989)
- Voltron (1984)
- Gremlins (1984)
- Dick Tracy (1989)
- WWF Wrestling (1987)
- New Kids on the Block (1989)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- Nintendo GamePack (1989)
- Happy Days (1976)
- Michael Jackson (1984)
- Jaws (1978)
- Moonraker
- The Partridge Family (1971)
- Fright Flicks (1988)
