In 1995, two dads created the “Incredible Incrustables” primarily to minimize the hassle and eliminating the normal mess associated with making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for their kids.
Four years later, the J.M. Smucker Company purchased the rights to Uncrustables for $8.5 million. By the early 2000s, Uncrustables had become a major success, particularly in schools, grocery stores, and later, sports nutrition programs.
Today the annual sales of Uncrustables is north of $800M / year and growing fast!!

Behold the peanut!

Peanut butter's origins trace back to the ancient Incas, who first ground peanuts into a paste. In the modern era, Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Canada patented peanut paste in 1884, while Dr. John Harvey Kellogg patented a process for creating peanut butter from raw peanuts in 1895. The product gained widespread attention when introduced at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Its popularity surged in the 20th century, becoming a staple in American households.

In 2024, the United States produced approximately 6.45 billion pounds of peanuts, an increase from 5.88 billion pounds in 2023. Peanut butter remains the top peanut product, with significant commercial usage of peanuts dedicated to its production. Indeed, sales have significantly increased in the last few years as consumer preferences for plant-based proteins and versatile food products have changed.

The PB&J

The peanut butter and jelly (PB&J) sandwich originated in the United States in 1901. The first published recipe for a PB&J appeared in the Boston Cooking School Magazine in 1901, calling for peanut paste and currant or crabapple jelly. In the early part of the century, the sandwich was considered a treat for the upper class!!!! But during WWII, the PB&J became popular with soldiers who demanded the product upon coming home.

The sweet and salty taste; the easy prep; the quick energy provided with an enduring sense of “fullness” made PB&J sandwiches a hit! Today it is a staple American dish, and believe it or not, Americans celebrate National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day annually on April 2nd.

The PB&J is a simple way to deliver more protein in one’s diet. It provides quick energy from the simple sugars in the jelly, and longer lasting energy from the complexity of peanut butter. That said, it has several major drawbacks as a meal:

You have to scoop a pantry product and spoon a refrigerated product onto bread - and without fail you will be sticky and have peanut butter somewhere unexpected after making one!
Kids often hate the crust of the sandwich, nagging parents to remove it or just leaving it behind on their plate.
Sticky hands are inevitable after eating due to jelly squishing out the bread boundary.
While highly portable, the PB&J sandwich becomes a soggy mess if stored and not eaten quickly.

Insight and innovation

In 1995, two dads, David Geeks and Len Kretchman, sought to solve these problems for their families. Using kids and school food service for customer insight, they sought to:

Take away the hassle of making the sandwich;
Maximize the value of convenience;
Make the PB&J a more versatile “on the go” food;
Reduce the mess;
Eliminate the stickiness; and
Deliver all the taste people desired.

The guys crafted a solution to fit these requirements and called it the “The Incredible Uncrustables.” The key to the product was ditching the bread crust, and pinching the soft bread middle to seal the edges to prevent jelly leakage. To do this, they cut out the center, pinched the edges closed. And for less mess and more availability, the sandwich discs were frozen. The new product was quick to prep, no more spoons or knives, and residue somewhere unexpected. It could be eaten anywhere, and didn’t leave you sticky from oozing jelly. The pair started selling them to local school cafeterias that could serve the “Incredible Uncrustables” - a product ready without preparation, delivering nutrition and energy

Realizing Market Potential

The product quickly gained popularity, and in 1999, The J.M. Smucker Company purchased the rights to Uncrustables for $8.5 million. Smucker’s expanded production, secured patents for the sandwich’s crimped and sealed edge—the key feature that prevents leakage and extends shelf life. By the early 2000s, Uncrustables had become a major success, particularly in schools, grocery stores, and later, sports nutrition programs. Today the annual sales of Uncrustables is north of $800m / year and closing on a billion / year!!

Unexpected Oppporunity

For much of this time, adults served Uncrustables and kids ate them. What group of adults would love ease of eating, the energy, and the no-mess?

Shockingly professional athletes!

The NFL - American professional football - teams have become notable adopters - with many news articles and testimonials circulating. The calorie dense, short and long energy bursts, provided by PB&Js made it attractive as a snack for players, and the pre-packaged - thaw and eat - format was attractive to trainers and coaches. NFL teams collectively consume between 3,600 to 4,300 Uncrustables weekly. This is among ~1,700 players - or between 2 and 3 Uncrustables each week per player. Smucker’s continues to promote to other adult markets this portable, storable, and no-mess snack.

Let’s think about this story for a moment….

What do you think attracted Smucker’s to the “Uncrustables” product when it was being made by hand in homes?

What do Uncrustables do for consumers that traditional PB&J sandwiches fail to deliver?

What did Uncrustables do for Smucker’s, a jelly and jam company, that it was not doing on its own?

Why might consumption by NFL players be interesting to Smucker’s? (Note it is NOT directly growing revenue - the NFL teams purchase maybe 80-100,000 per year. Assuming ~$1/sandwich, that is only $100,000/year - a small fraction of a $1 billion market!) So, why would Smucker’s care?

Think about the advantages of Uncrustables again? If you were tasked with growing its market an additional 5-10% - which is the market segment that you would seek to convert as loyal customers? Why?

Let’s apply our thinking to our own businesses…

Think about your own product and service… What problems does it solve for your customers? Write them down.

If people use your product or service, are they still left with part of a problem?

Where are your products/services strong compared with the competition? Where are they comparably weak?

How will you improve the competitiveness of what you are offering?

Think about other, different people who share similar problems as your core customers?

Which market segment, if they adopt your product, could significantly grow your revenue directly?
Which market segment may not be big, but would introduce or influence others to consider your product?

So, what three things should you do tomorrow morning to make new opportunities for you happen?

And Happy National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day!

Further Reading:
Epicurious. (2023, June 15). How peanut butter and jelly became America's favorite sandwich. Retrieved from https://www.epicurious.com/recipes-menus/peanut-butter-and-jelly-history

Rossen, J. (2023, June 15). How Uncrustables reinvented the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Retrieved from https://www.mentalfloss.com/uncrustables-history

Wilson, J. M. (n.d.). The curious case of Smucker's Uncrustables. Retrieved from https://www.jackmwilson.net/Entrepreneurship/Cases/Case-Smuckers-ip.pdf

The Story of the Incredible Uncrustables