| Durkee | |
| Currentowner: | B&G Foods |
Durkee is an American brand of spices, marinades, and powdered sauce mixes owned by B&G Foods.[1] Durkee Famous Foods was established by Eugene R. Durkee in 1851.
Durkee's was established by Eugene R. Durkee, the founder of E. R. Durkee & Co. Spice dealers in Buffalo, New York, in 1857. By 1917, the company had built a four-story industrial structure in Elmhurst, Queens.[2] [3] As of 2021, the company has a major production facility in Ankeny, Iowa. Which is the actual home of what was Tone Brothers Spices (Owned by Rykoff Sexton at that time) Currently owned by B&G Foods who own Durkee brand. [4]
Durkee became the largest factory and employer in Elmhurst, with over 300 employees, primarily women. E.R. Durkee died in 1926, leaving everything to his daughters.[5] Since the 1980s the company has had a series of owners,[6] and in 2016 it was sold by ACH Food Companies, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods, to B&G Foods.[7]
Glidden Co. purchased the firm in 1929, and it became Durkee's Famous Foods, a division of Glidden Co. Glidden merged with SCM Corp (formerly Smith-Corona company) in 1967, and Durkee became the Glidden-Durkee Division of SCM.
The Company was sold in 1986 and was subsequently absorbed into a larger-food processing conglomerate. In 2007, the building was renovated and became the Elmhurst Educational Campus, which hosts three separate high schools.[8]
The company's Durkee Sauce is sold at Court Street Grocers in Brooklyn and served on their Turkey + Durkee sandwich in the "mustardy, vinegary, mayonnaise-based" sauce concoction.[1]