Tone Brothers, Inc., is the country’s oldest spice company, as well as its second largest, behind industry leader McCormick & Company, Inc.
Still based near Des Moines, Iowa, where it was established in 1873, Tone is noted for being the first company west of the Mississippi to sell roasted coffee (in the 1880s), and for introducing clear plastic, hermetically sealed packages with flip-top lids for spices (in the 1980s).
By the late 1990s, Tone produced more than 250 varieties of seasonings and mixes. Under the ownership of Burns Philp & Company Ltd. in the mid-1990s, Tone also became the distributor of Durkee Spices, Fleischmann’s Yeast, and Spice Islands products. Tone is also the leading supplier of spices to national warehouse club chains.
Through the 1980s and 1990s Tone and its employees faced challenges as the company passed through several owners, each of whom changed the company’s focus and then quickly sold it.
In the mid-1990s, Tone became part of the American operations of parent Burns Philp; in 1997 Tone came under the auspices of the newly created Burns Philp Foodservice division.
According to tones.com; en.wikipedia. Source of photos: internet
