The company has its origins with the sons of shipbuilder
Austin Hills (1823–1905), who was born in
Rockland, Maine, and ran a business in California building
clipper ships. His sons were
Austin Herbert Hills (1851–1933), and
Reuben Wilmarth Hills I (1856–1934). In 1898, Edward Norton, of New York, was granted a United States patent on a vacuum process for canning foods, subsequently applied to coffee. Others followed. Hills Brothers, of San Francisco, were the first to pack coffee in a vacuum, under the Norton patents, in 1900. In 1900, Hills Bros. were the first to pack roast coffee in vacuum sealed cans. They incorporated under the Hills Bros. name in 1906. In 1926 Hills Bros. moved its operations to 2 Harrison Street in San Francisco, a
Romanesque revival building on the
Embarcadero designed by
George W. Kelham that is now a city landmark. The roasting operations once made the surrounding area smell like coffee, according to a
Key System "March of Progress" style public service film from 1945. In January 2012, the building had become home to
Wharton | San Francisco, a
satellite campus of the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. A Wharton sign can be currently seen on the Embarcadero side of the building.
Google LLC and the
Mozilla Corporation also have offices on several floors of the building. A symbol of an Arab drinking coffee called "the taster", introduced in 1898, was designed by an artist named Briggs in 1906 In 1976, Hills Brothers hired American singer
Sergio Franchi as their TV spokesperson to introduce several lines of specialty flavors. Noted character actor
John Zaremba was the primary commercial spokesperson for Hills Brothers in the 1970s and early 1980s, portraying a fictional coffee bean buyer. In 1930 Hills Bros. expanded into Chicago. During
World War II, the company's metal containers were replaced with glass jars. In 1984 they purchased the name and manufacturing facilities of the
Chase & Sanborn Coffee Company. In 1985
Nestlé bought Hills Bros. and
MJB coffee companies. The San Francisco headquarters were closed in 1997, moving operations to
Nestlé's U.S. headquarters in
Glendale, California. Nestlé sold Hills Bros. to
Sara Lee in 1999.
Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA purchased the brand in 2006. Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA is headquartered at the Suffolk plant. Austin E. Hills was, formerly, chairman of the board of directors. ==See also==