Reily Foods Company facts for kids
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| Private | |
| Industry | Food & Beverages |
| Founded | 1902 |
| Headquarters | New Orleans, LA, USA |
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Key people
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Wm. B. Reily IV, President & CEO |
| Products | See brands listing. |
Reily Foods Company is a big company that makes and sells many different foods and drinks. It started by selling coffee and tea. Over time, it grew to include things like condiments (like ketchup or mustard), salad dressings, seasonings, and baking products.
One of their most famous products is Luzianne Iced Tea. You can find Luzianne Iced Tea all over the United States. Other products are more popular in the Southern United States. Reily Foods Company has its main office in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Contents
How Reily Foods Started
The story of Reily Foods Company began with a man named William B. Reily. He started working in grocery stores in the late 1870s. After eight years, he decided to open his own grocery store.
A couple of years later, Reily moved to Monroe, LA. There, he started a wholesale grocery business called Southern Grocery Company, Inc. A wholesale business sells products in large amounts to other stores. William Reily noticed that his coffee products were very popular. He realized he could make a lot of money by roasting and selling his own coffee.
After running his successful wholesale business for 14 years, Reily moved to New Orleans. This is where he would start the company we know today as Reily Foods.
Building the Coffee Business
On December 11, 1902, William Reily and his business partners officially started their coffee company in New Orleans. At that time, most of the coffee beans brought into the United States came through New Orleans. This meant Reily could pick the very best beans!
The next year, the company added more products to help their customers. Both his coffee and tea were sold under the brand name Luzianne. This name sounds like "Louisiana" and was a local way of saying it. In 1906, the company changed its name to Reily Taylor Company. Then, in 1919, it became Wm. B. Reily & Co., Inc.
The Rise of Iced Tea
In 1932, William Reily and his sons noticed that iced tea was becoming very popular, especially in the Southern states. So, they created a special blend of tea just for making iced tea. This product, Luzianne Iced Tea, became a huge success. Today, it is one of the best-selling iced teas in the United States and a main product for the company.
Growing with New Products
For many years, Wm. B. Reily & Co. only made Luzianne coffee and tea. But in 1965, Reily Foods started to buy other companies. This helped them add many new types of products.
Adding More Brands
Their first big purchase was the JFG Coffee Company in 1965. While JFG mostly made coffee, Reily also got a small regional mayonnaise brand from them. Three years later, Reily bought CDM coffee. CDM was a very popular coffee brand in New Orleans that had been around for a long time.
In 1974, Reily bought Blue Plate Foods. This added Blue Plate Mayonnaise to their list of brands. Blue Plate was one of the first ready-made mayonnaises sold in stores. It is still one of the most popular mayonnaise brands in the South today.
Over the next 30 years, Reily Foods continued to grow by buying many other brands. These included:
- Swans Down Cake Flour
- Try Me Sauces & Seasonings (like Tiger Sauce)
- Wick Fowler's 2-Alarm Chili
- La Martinique Salad Dressings
- Carroll Shelby's Original Texas-Style Chili
- Presto Cake Flour
- No Pudge Fat Free Brownie Mix
- French Market Coffees
- New England Tea & Coffee
The Reily Family Business
For over 100 years, the Reily Foods Company has been led by a member of the Reily family.
- From 1902 to 1932, William B. Reily guided the company. He grew it from a small coffee roasting business into a top supplier of coffee and tea.
- From 1932 to 1968, his two sons, William B. Reily, Jr. and James W. Reily, took over. They helped the company expand quickly in the coffee and tea markets.
- In 1968, William B. Reily III became the leader. He helped the company add many new products through new ideas and by buying other brands.
- Today, the company is led by the fourth generation of the family, Wm. B. Reily IV. He is the President and CEO.
The family home of Wm B Reily, called Kalorama, is in Collinston, Louisiana. It is now a nature preserve that people can visit. It has also been added to the national register of historic places.
Reily Foods Brands
Here are some of the well-known brands made by Reily Foods:
- Luzianne
- Luzianne Iced Tea
- Luzianne Coffees
- Luzianne Cajun Foods
- French Market Coffees
- New England Tea & Coffee
- Bonus Blend Coffees
- JFG Coffees
- JFG Mayonnaise
- Coffee Partner Ground Chicory
- Blue Plate Mayonnaise
- La Martinique Dressings
- Try Me Sauces & Seasoning
- Carroll Shelby Chili
- Wick Fowler Chili
- Swans Down Cake Flour
- Presto Self-Rising Cake Flour
- No Pudge! Fat Free Brownie Mix
Other Companies They Own
Reily Foods also owns these companies:
- Evamor Alkaline Artesian Water
- SIP Technologies
