WEEKEND EDITION- America’s Love of the Jeep, Hot Sauce Wars

Published Dec 24, 2022, 9:50 AM

This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.

Welcome to the Daily Dive Weekend Edition. I'm Oscar Ramirez, and every week I explore the top stories making waves in the news and some that are just playing interesting. I'll connect you with the journalists and the people who know the story and bring you news without the noise so you can make an informed decision. You can catch a new episode of The Daily Dive every Monday through Friday, and it's ready where you wake up. On the weekend edition, I'll be bringing you some of the best stories from the week. The military has long had a special relationship with the jeep, specifically the World War Two jeep in the Army was taking bits for a new military vehicle and settled on a design by the Willie's Overland Company that would be produced by Ford. How it got its name, The common belief is that it comes from the abbreviation of g P, which was a common term for any military vehicle. For more on how the g became America's favorite military vehicle will speak to Miranda's Summer's Low Contributor to task in per Well. First of all, it really is amazing how much the jeep is just beloved iconic, right for a piece of equipment. Um, the jeep has really remained just something that not just military personnel, but all Americans know about and and have this affection for. Definitely, they have their own special jeep wave when they when jeep owners driven by each other well, and you know it's sort of something that that people stick with, right, like once you become a jeep person. UM, just kind of incredible in that UM. In researching this, you know, to find out how many different possibilities there could have been for the cheap um kind of starting in World War One when cars and vehicles first come on the market, and you know, of course there are different groups of people that want different things. You know, do you want a big trucks that can carry a lot of things? Um, you know, do you want a small car that you know is fast, or do you want something that is kind of um, you know, all terrain and can move through a lot of things. So there's like a lot of contentions sort of going through as this gets developed, including some of my personal favorites. Like you know, there were so many cards that were being pulled by horses at that point, so you know, why not just make a cart that moves on its own and kind of looks like a lawnmower or you know, when you you go to shoot or you know, a lot of these operations, you lie down on your belly, so you know, sort of one rejected concept was nicknamed the belly flopper, and it was sort of like a motorized palette that you'd lie down on and then you know, as the soldier moved from position to position, but the whole vehicle will just move with it exactly and you know, along the way, right. So it took all these little inspirations from those things, like you said in the article, tractors and lawnmowers. This belly flopper thing, it took all of those inspirations and it kind of becoming you know, the jeep. But you know, it meant all the requirements the criteria that then the military needed at the time. Let's talk a little bit about the name jeep too, because that's a pretty fun part. As you mentioned, it almost was called the belly flopper. There's all sorts of different things to it. Uh, they called it, let's see, blitz, buggy, puddle jumper, midget, peep, and probably where it really came from, I guess you mentioned World War One, grease monkeys had a term from military vehicles g P, and that's probably where it came from. Yeah, so GP, you know, general purpose, uh kind of runs together like jeep, and that nickname seems to be around before the particular truck we talked about. UM. But one thing I learned researching this story is that term got used for a lot of other things, like aircraft, which I had I realized deepen through World War Two, some members of the Army Air Corps refused to call the jeep a jeep because they had a point that they called jeep, so they called them peeps, like the little marshmallow snack. That's pretty good. Yeah. And then in inside the military, I guess they were going back and forth on you know, which one was the right one, which with what they would call it. When they finally the military said, okay, we want to manufacture these things. I guess they said, uh, you know, we're going to give out this contract whoever can do it. There was a hundred and thirty five auto makers at that time, only two agreed to submit proposals, so right away that limited right there, and I guess they wanted seventy vehicles to be produced in just seventy five days, so that's really tough, probably why a lot of them backed out, But tell us who came through with the final design here, sure, So yeah, you gotta appreciate how quickly this came to gather that when they finally decided it was worth kind of doing. You know, a small truck that we kind of think of as being a jeep. Now, UM, two different companies put in proposal, so the Bantam Company and Lee's Overland. And at that point Willie's UM was well known to the army because they made a lot of artillery carts and carriages, but you know, wouldn't necessarily be who you would think UM would make this vehicle. But UM, once there were two prototypes, the Bantam and and the Willies, it kind of became clear that UM, even though the Willies came in proposal, came in late and uh overweight because they had put an oversized engine in it, and feel testing the oversized engine did fantastic UM and everyone was loving it. But the problem with that is Willie didn't actually have the capacity to make the number of trucks that the army was hoping for. So you know, in one of those great moments of history. There's a chance meeting in Washington, d C. Where one of the under secretaries who was working on the Under Secretaries of the Army saw edzel Ford himself and asked if he would, you know, agree to special deal where board would you know, agree to help Willie's produce this. So a lot of the original jeep have that Willie's label on it, but we're actually um made by four. Yeah, that's amazing and it carries on to this day. Right, there's still certain model trims of the jeep that go by the Willie's name. You can see them, you know, sometimes you'll see it. I'll say rubicon on the front, on the hood, but sometimes they'll say say Willie's on them too. So they're all there, and and then from then on, you know, it just kind of how do you get it funded? Part of this whole thing is there's a lot of great classic pictures that you have on the article on the website showing the jeep from you know, when it started in World War two and beyond, and the jeep driving on the Capitol steps. You know, how it plays into pop culture. There was a bunch of songs about it. Four jills and a jeep in movies. You know, it really took off after that, absolutely, And one of the funnest things I found, um when I went to you know, I saw that picture of um, you know, the army camp that actually put jeep out in front of the Capitol building and they gave members of Congress the chance to drive it up and down the Capital steps. But it was hard to pick which picture because it was just there was so many. It was obvious that even at that point before it was in mass production. Every you know, senator and congressman who got to drive this um, well he just happen to blast and got their picture takes. Yeah, I think the picture you end up putting in there was Senator Meat of New York and he's just like waving back the camera with his hand up, big smile on his face, and wed us a few service members in the back seat, and that definitely definitely looks like fun and you know, just kind of this whole trajectory, right it just uh really was being used I guess, you know, for military purposes too, but just like the service members coming back home, so did the jeep and you know, obviously has its big history now in the in the States and all, but it came back and went back to its tractor roots pulling threshers and plows and was used to be converted for like many firefighting trucks, so that you know, it got a ton of use. It's incredible to see what they were used for over time. Everything from two jeeps hooked up could pull a tank like when it was still in military youth. But then you see them showing up as you mentioned um as firefighting equipment, um in loggiate and farming. Um just really kind of incredible how versatile it is. Yeah, really fun. Look, I'm a fan of the jeep itself, but you know, just to know how the roots started and all, this is pretty fun. Miranda Summer's low contributor to Task and Purpose. Thank you very much for joining us. Thanks so much. A condiment business is hyper competitive, and one of the major players in the spice game. McCormick has been making acquisitions to take over the world of hot sauce. They bought Frank's Red Hot and Cholula Hot Sauce in deals worth millions of dollars each. The past few years had proved to be beneficial for McCormick as many people stayed in and cooked at home more, but they were not immune to supply chain issues that affected the industry. For more on the fight for hot sauce supremacy, will speak to Austin Carr, features writer at Bloomberg business Week. McCormick known for all its seasonings and spices and those red caps that you see in your your grandparents pantry, But in recent years they've really going after the sauce market and Yeah Frenches. They also owned Stubbs Barbecue, they owned Old Bay, and they also develop a lot of products for other companies. If you've ever had Cool Ranch to Rito's or bud Light Line, they were the company behind that that flavor to development. But with hot sauce, specifically in their purchase of of Frank's Red Hot and Cholula Hot sauce, that's really going after the big, huge growth in the global hot sauce market. In the last six or seven years, we've seen global hot sauce sales rise about to about five billion dollars around the planet. In the U S specifically, it's actually the hot sauce market is roughly on par as of the as of last year, with Ketchup, which is pretty shocky. One one thing Hines ketch Up those sort of major sales bigger than Hot Sauce. But hot sauce is a huge growth industry right now, and that explains why McCormick's really going deep on this, this love for for low calorie heat that that's really taken off, especially among millennial consumers. Yeah, and as you mentioned in the in the article, right, I mean, this is all the very hyper competitive business, just the sauce market in general. And uh I just like the wording right to become big hot sauce, you need to fight big catch up first, you know, referring to Hines, just because they have such a huge control over the market with Ketchup specifically. But let's talk about these acquisitions that they made because they're very interesting. I want to throw the dollar amounts out there. They first started off with Frank's Red Hot and Frenches Mustard that was kind of a combo deal, and then after that they went after Cholula. So let's start start with Frank's Red Hot, then let's get into Cholula. Yeah, the the deal with French is and and Frank's that was actually for four point two billion dollars. So in the food world, those are gigantic prices. You might hear about that, that's sort of invest been when it comes to the tech world. And so when when I when I talked about these purchases with analysts, they really can compare these things to the equivalent of you know, when Facebook bought Instagram. It's it's sort of that level of scale that we're talking in terms of the risk the bet that they're making on these brands. Then fast forward November, they decided to go after Cholula Hot Sauce for and they they spent about eight hundred million dollars and according to our sources, they outbid Hines for that. Hines, of course, you might not realize that they're known for ketchup uh and a ton you know, the Hinds sort of fifty seven brand, but they also own Gray Poupon, a one miracle whip if you like Leon Perren's Worcesters sauce. You know, they're sort of this arsenal portfolio player in the sauce market. And we're interested in hot sauce just as much as McCormick. But the McCormick's put up more money. They bought Cholula and now they control about a third of the U. S Hout sauce market between Frank's which is number one, in Cholula which is now number two, ahead of Tabasco. It's just nuts, really, and you know, the the people that were in mccormicks that we're trying to get this deal going, they say, hey, you know, we want to go big, we want to do this. They got approval for everybody. They said, go for it. And what was the deal is eight hundred million dollars was the bid that they put down. Eight million cash cash offer. So this was really a deal that was designed to stop a bidding war from happen. In other words, you don't want Hines counter offering, you know, and so by by throwing out this big offer, you're not going to see another one countering at a billion or two billion. You know, Cholula sells about a hundred million dollars of hots off a year, so already the multiple there is pretty big, at least in the food world. Um, so this was really a big deal and since then they have seen a lot of growth. McCormick has huge distribution channels with restaurants around the country with retailers like Walmarten, Amazon, and so for them to sort of go from take this Cholula, which is was owned by a private equity firm and you know it wasn't a portfolio play beforehand, and now throw it into all these restaurants, whether that's in bottles or in what called satchets. Those are those little squeeze packs you see when you tear them open, important on your your your chicken wings or fries. And you're going to see that a lot more in the coming years, especially in grocery stores. That's why I love these stories. Right, you kind of grow to love certain brands and then yeah, you start seeing it in certain restaurants and you're seeing it everywhere and you kind of don't know the history behind it and in some cases who makes who owns these properties? Right, Because for Cholula specifically, mccormicks doesn't put any of their branding on it, which is I mean, it's probably smart on their side, right, They just want to keep it in the minds of the consumers. This has always been Cholula, It comes from Mexico, all this stuff, so they don't even put their branding on there that's correct and and and that's actually it's a pretty smart branding opportunity. I mean, when you think about it, you go to the grocery store, you look at that huge shelf of condiments and sauces and dressings, and you're really choosing not just the taste but also sort of the memory of that brand. That the sort of dispensing mechanism is very important, how the bottle looks, the cap. That's why with with Chula, a lot of people know it as much for the flavor that's sort of spicy sauce that sort of goes with anything flavor, but they also know it for that distinctive wooden caps, the sort of slender glass bottle. And if you look at a lot of the other big companies, you know, we think of Hellman's Mayo, you know that blue and white jar, but you might not know it's owned by Uni Lever. You know, Sir Kensington, which is sort of fancy Mayo own Ketchup, also owned by Uni Lever. And with you know, you could think of Hunt's Ketchup, Golden's Mustard wishbone dressing for Ranch. Those are all owned by ConAgra, another big food giant, So a lot of these companies out there, they realize the benefit of making these products almost seem like independent, family run bespoke brands, when there are actually these sort of giant food conglomerates. They're sort of partnering up. So when you go to a ski resort or a buffet line, you see their brands altogether at the end of the food aisle, rather than Craft or Unilever and McCormick or Nagra. They're all going after each other for those mix of flavors that they want consumers to lust after. And as you mentioned earlier, right, McCormick's had its hand in making developing other things bud Lightline and cool Ranch. Dorito's one of my favorite ones too. I had no no, no clue they had a hand in that. I did want to talk about the pandemic supply chains and COVID all that, because that's an interesting thing too. They were seeing a lot of increase in sales at US stores. Obviously, people were cooking at home, needed to stock up their pantries. They did have all these deals with restaurants and some of that dried up, but the sales for grocery stores was increasing so much, and then they ran into the supply chain issues for a lot of their stuff, tumeric which they need for the mustard. Just a ton of different things on the different angles on this front. So to tell us about that, it was a really fascinating thing. I mean, I think at the beginning of the pandemic, rewind the clock. I know, it's it's been so many years at this point, but back to that February March period when no one quite knew how big of a threat the COVID nineteen situation would be. And for McCormick, they were seeing restaurants closed, they're seeing factories closed, and this could be a really disruptive force in their industry. But then the opposite happened all of a sudden, as you know, did sales of tumeric, which a lot of people use for for health reasons or because it's what gives the yellow color to to spicy yellow mustard, and frenches broths, because people were cooking soup at home, baked goods like vanilla, all these things taking off so at at this real whiplash moment from McCormick, where they have to keep up with the demand at the same time as all these factories are closing. It was a real crazy few months going onto a year, and specifically with tumeric, the US almost ran out of mustard for a time. They were running low on their reserves for some of the ingredients like tumeric that goes into french Is, partly because ocean freight. All those ocean freighters were either not running or closed down or over capacity. So they actually had to rush an emergency air cargo shipment of tumeric and it landed inadvertently in Baltimore instead of at a French's factory in Missouri, so they had to hire all these truckers overnight to drive it a thousand miles to the french Is factory in time for a production run. Otherwise, who knows, we might not have mustard on our our hot dog. Sounds small, but for a lot of people, these are comfort foods and that was a big deal during the pandemic, especially if you're your parents with kids at home and you've got to keep them entertained with food. Yeah, I mean that sucks for you know, McCormick's, the parent company at this point for all of this, sucks for them to have to go through that. But man, I kind of love hearing that, you know, the scramble right for consumers. We don't really know what's going on. You might hear there's a shortage of this or that, but this was the scramble to get people the products that they know and love and want. So what's next for McCormick's. At least with this growth potential into hot sauces and other sauces and all these acquisitions, they're looking for what's next for them? You know, I think what's next is now that they have this massive build up of brands that are all owned by the same company but seemingly run independently. At least when it comes to grocery sales, you're going to see a lot more mash ups. You know, um Hines for example, they're doing. They're doing a lot of mash up products and it's not just catch up anymore, but they mix it with know all types of I think they have catch eli so you know, hinz ketchup, may that mayo chop, honey racha, tarch up cranch, so sort of blends of ketchup and ranch dressing and saracha and and so forth. Buff A ranch another one part of what Hinz calls their innovation agenda, And so what you might see in the coming years are perhaps some mashups between Cholula and Frenches, so you have a sort of spicier mustard or you know Old Bay, which is that popular Baltimore seafood seasoning that's mixed with hot sauce these days, very popular, and so maybe there's going to be more of that. And so the question is how far do you take that before it's sort of ruined some of the brand cach a. Do you want Cholula showing up on taco bell menus at McDonald's and so forth. On the other hand, I think a lot of people might like that stuff because you know, everyone's hungry and and these types of products they can really go on anything. Yeah, I mean those sauce mashups really can be intriguing and you know, pleasant surprise when it really works with you know, whatever you're dipping in chicken wings, whatever it can be. So, yeah, it's just a fun story. There's a lot of details about mccormicks and some of their history we couldn't get into for this, but I suggest everybody read Austin's piece on all of it. Austin Carr, Features writer at Bloomberg business Week, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you, and if your listeners have a chance, I know one product that McCormick was really proud of in terms of a mash up with French is flavored craft beer and French is flavored ice cream. And they're they're convinced it's a big flavor out there. So go try it if you're curious. All right, Thanks so much, Austin. Thank you. Don't forget to join us on social media at Daily Dive Pod on Twitter and Daily Dive Podcast on Facebook. Leave us a comment, give us a rating, and tell us the stories that you're interested in. Follow us on I Heard Radio, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this is the Daily Dive Weekend edition