Some time in the past day or so, someone on either Twitter or BlueSky said all of the best snack food brands are regional ones in the Midwest. One of Minnesota's best-known is Pearson's Salted Nut Rolls. Another is Old Dutch potato chips.
Just a week or so ago, I was looking at the Old Dutch website trying to find out details of the company's history. They don't have a lot online (unlike Old Home cottage cheese, for instance). So I was very pleased to see today's Star Tribune Curious Minnesota story, How did Old Dutch potato chips get started in St. Paul?
The company was founded in 1934 in the house at 1463 Grand Avenue, a few blocks east of Snelling Avenue. There's a plaque to commemorate it. The founder's name was Carl (with a C) Marx. I assume he was German, but he thought the Dutch were clean, so he named the company for them.
A few years later, he moved the company's production to downtown Minneapolis. The iconic windmill logo was designed in the late 1940s by illustrator Les Kouba (inventor of the Art-O-Graph).
Marx sold the company for $250,000 (about $3 million today) to two other men in 1951. Within half a decade, they had tripled production, and in a decade sales had grown 20-fold. They expanded into Canada, which is still a big part of the company's territory.
In 1968, the main Twin Cities plant relocated to suburban Roseville. The company is still owned by the son of one of the men who bought it from Carl Marx. That man's daughter is director of special projects. They have about 600 employees.
I like their potato chips and think they're a better value than national brands, too.
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Photo by Tom Sweeney, Star Tribune
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