Almost Like Wine

Devout Christians had been sipping sacramental wine for centuries when Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch stepped in as Communion steward of the Vineland (N.J.) Methodist Church in 1869. A stern prohibitionist, Dentist Welch determined forthwith to banish Bacchus from the altar. After reading up on Pasteur and experimenting with figs, raisins and blackberries, Dr. Welch gladdened the hearts of fellow communicants on Sunday by serving sterilized, unfermented grape juice. It tasted almost like wine.

British-born Dr. Welch not only pioneered the nonalcoholic Communion service that has become standard in U.S. Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian churches, he also founded the nation's processed fruit juice industry. This week his Welch Grape Juice Co. will again make industrial history. The company (1955 net: $37 million) will be turned over to the National Grape Cooperative Association under a unique profit-sharing plan in which the company has virtually financed its own sale (for $28 million) to the 4,265 farmers who supply it with grapes.

"Grape-Juice Navy." Since its outset, Welch's has flourished mightily at the expense of winebibbers. Though Thomas Welch at first was willing to write off grape juice as a Christian endeavor, demand from churches and teetotalers soon forced the company into bigger quarters at Westfield, N.Y., the self-anointed "grape-juice capital of the world." Founder Welch's son, square-jawed "Dr. Charles," ran the company "as much as a temperance agency as a profit-making concern," capitalized on anti-liquor sentiment with the slogan: "Get the Welch habit--it's one that won't get you." One of his most successful ads showed a ripe-lipped lass raising a bumper glass of grape juice with the invitation: "The lips that touch Welch's are all that touch mine."

In 1913 Welch's received a powerful endorsement from Woodrow Wilson's Administration, when Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan served grape juice at a state dinner in honor of retiring British Ambassador James Bryce. Next year, when Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels caused a national furor by outlawing hard liquor on naval ships and installations, outraged editorial writers and cartoonists did Welch's the favor of dubbing the U.S. fleet "the grape-juice Navy."

After 82 Years, Ferment. Sold to a group of bankers who lacked the Welch blend of virtue and hard-sell, the company made little headway after Dr. Charles' death in 1926. In mid-Depression, the ailing grape-juice industry was rescued by a Welch competitor, Jacob M. Kaplan, a self-made molasses mogul who had bought control of Hearn's department store in New York. After buying a small upstate New York winery in 1933, to supply Hearn's liquor department, quick-moving, fast-talking Jack Kaplan decided to concentrate on grape-juice production instead. He started an aggressive marketing campaign, expanded capacity and helped raise growers' prices (from $12 a ton in 1933 to $100 last year), thus assuring a steady flow of top-grade grapes.

In 1945 Kaplan bought control of Welch's. But to expand the industry he first had to expand grape acreage. Throughout the Depression Concord grape growers (average holding: ten acres) had been ripping out their slow-growing vines to make room for more profitable crops. To ensure them a stable, long-term market for grapes, Kaplan entered into a partnership agreement unparalleled in U.S. agriculture. In addition to a minimum guaranteed advance price for their grapes, he promised to return to growers, on a per-ton basis, all Welch's profits after Kaplan's slice (10% of net sales) had been deducted by the company. Since 1952 Kaplan has even turned over his own profits to the growers' fund, thus enabling the growers to raise their $15 million down payment for the company at no cost to themselves. With a stable market for their crops and a stake in the ultimate profits, the farmers have reversed the 15-year decline in grape acreage, pushed production per acre from one to 3.3 tons, and swelled membership in the cooperative fivefold in ten years. Under Kaplan's canny management, Welch's has branched into frozen grape juice, expanded sales of jellies, tomato juice and other side lines, boosted sales nearly 300%. Last week as Kaplan, now 62, planned to step aside, the lips that touch Welch's promised to drain a record $40 million worth of the company's products in 1956. One reason for the increase: after fourscore unfermented years, Welch's is now also making wine.

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