H and H Coffee

Dedicated to the history of the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. founded 1899 in San Antonio, Texas.

3 minute read

San Antonio Light, 22 May 1949, page 55 — J. S. McNeel Jr.'s "$315 Million Output Predicted" feature with a documentary photo of about 70 H&H Coffee Co. employees demonstrating quick milling, weighing and packaging of fine coffees at the 601 Delaware Street plant, when the firm played host to the San Antonio Manufacturers Association annual dinner that week

A Sunday San Antonio Light business-page feature by J. S. McNeel Jr. projecting $315 million in 1948 industrial output for San Antonio’s 700-odd factories — and using the H&H Coffee Co. plant at 601 Delaware St. as the headline backdrop. The San Antonio Manufacturers Association’s annual dinner was held at H&H the Tuesday night before publication (17 May 1949), and the accompanying photo shows about 70 H&H workers demonstrating “quick milling, weighing and packaging of fine coffees in big quantities.” The piece is a rare postwar attestation that ties three specific facts together in one citation: Gus Menger as president of H&H in May 1949; the firm’s foundational year of 1904 (every major operation in this factory “was started back in 1904”); and an active workforce of 70 employees demonstrating the milling, weighing, and packaging lines for the assembled manufacturers. An “exotic movie of the coffee industry of Latin America” was shown — film/event ephemera that may have survived in family or company archives. C. F. Motsch (executive secretary) and O. K. Black (president) of the Manufacturers Association are named alongside Menger; Black is quoted on local employment levels.

Transcription

$315 Million Output Predicted

By J. S. McNEEL JR.

San Antonio’s 700-odd factories will produce 10 per cent more goods and services this year than during 1948, with the possibility the total industrial income will exceed $315,000,000, officials of the Manufacturers assn. estimated Saturday.

The association counted 713 factories in 1946, with 31,778 employes, with $250,224,000 approximate industrial income.

INCREASE IN ‘47

A 15 per cent increase in this income was estimated for 1947.

And business volume was said to equal if not exceed 1947, during 1948.

President O. K. Black and C. F. Motsch, executive secretary, estimated that a ten per cent increase in production of local factories this year over last is expected.

Effervescent optimism was manifest among all the 300 manufacturers and their guests who attended the organization’s annual dinner, held at the H&H Coffee co. plant, 601 Delaware st. Tuesday night.

STARTED IN 1904

Every major operation in this factory — which was started back in 1904 — was demonstrated by Gus Menger, president, and many of the 70 employes.

An exotic movie of the coffee industry of Latin America was shown.

Black said:

“Production in most San Antonio plants is at a high level. Our few failures number far beneath the national average of failures — a mere fraction of the total average for the country.

“Employment has increased satisfactorily.”

MUCH EXPORTED

Notable records are being made locally in export of steel and iron products, medicines, garments, food products, trailers, insecticides and many other San Antonio-made products.

In June the San Antonio Manufacturers assn. plans to open conferences with army and other federal officials, in a long-time industrial mobilization program involving national defense in times of emergency.

Production of essential war products will be analyzed.

[Photo caption, accompanying picture of about 70 H&H Coffee employees on the production floor:]

COFFEE INDUSTRY GROWS — Many of 70 employes of H. & H Coffee co. demonstrated quick milling, weighing and packaging of fine coffees in big quantities, when firm played host this week to San Antonio Manufacturers assn.

Significance

  • Gus Menger as H&H president, May 1949. Direct attestation — supports the project timeline between the 1923-08-26 Gus R. Menger portrait and the 1959-12-20 “Dean of Southern Coffee Roasters” piece.
  • “Started back in 1904” attribution in print. Quoted to Gus Menger himself as he demonstrated the operations, this is the company’s own narrative of its origin date as told in 1949. Compare to the company-founding sequence at knowledge-base/companies/hoffmann-hayman-coffee-co.md (chartered 1912; predecessor Western Coffee Co. chartered 1907).
  • 70 employees at 601 Delaware in 1949. Workforce figure for the postwar plant — slots between earlier 1930s expansion claims and the post-1962 Continental era.
  • Latin America coffee film shown at the dinner. Documentary motion-picture ephemera owned or screened by H&H in 1949 — worth tracking if it survived.
  • Surrounding clippings on the same page: “Open House Nets McCreless Sales” (R. E. Durr, office manager, McCreless subdivision) and “Crystal City Gets Gym and Stadium” — both unrelated to H&H.

Source

You May Also Enjoy