William Wrigley, Jr. biography

 William Wrigley, Jr. biography

 William Wrigley, Jr., (born Sept. 30, 1861, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died Jan. 26, 1932, Phoenix, Ariz.), American salesman and producer whose firm grew to become the biggest producer and distributor of chewing gum on the planet.

Wrigley went to work as a touring cleaning soap salesman for his father’s firm at age 13. In 1891 he went to Chicago as a cleaning soap distributor and there began providing baking powder as a premium with every field of cleaning soap. In 1892 he started promoting baking powder as a sideline, providing chewing gum as a premium. The chewing gum proved extra in style than the baking powder, so he dropped each cleaning soap and baking powder to promote solely chewing gum. He additionally gave sellers premiums, equivalent to clocks, espresso grinders, or fishing sort out, which diverse with the scale of the order.

Wrigley relied on promoting to spice up gross sales of Wrigley’s Spearmint chewing gum, which he launched in 1893. By 1908, gross sales of Wrigley’s Spearmint had been greater than $1,000,000 a yr. In 1911 Wrigley took over Zeno Manufacturing, the corporate that made his chewing gum, and established the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. His firm grew to become one of many greatest advertisers within the United States. By 1925, when Wrigley turned the corporate presidency over to his son, Philip, and have become chairman of the board, the Wrigley firm had factories within the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Wrigley was the developer of Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of southern California. From 1921 till 1951 (besides throughout the World War II years), a National League baseball membership, the Chicago Cubs, a Wrigley household curiosity, spent its spring-training classes on Catalina. Wrigley’s Chicago headquarters, the Wrigley Building, grew to become a famous architectural landmark of that metropolis.