Families take a fresh look at Tupperware

It’s a product perhaps more associated with the 1970s and 1980s, but now sales have soared as a result of lockdown

Tupperware has seen a massive resurgence during lockdown – increasing its sales by millions of dollars and seeing the company share price rise from a dollar to more than $29.

It might be a product people associate with the 1970s or 1980s and home parties with sausages on sticks, but Tupperware has come back with a bang.

The company – invented by Earl Tupper in Massachusetts in 1946 – has recorded a £26 million surge in profits due to a home-cooking revival during lockdown and a need for containers to store leftovers.

And last Wednesday, shares in Tupperware, which no longer has a base in the UK, soared by 35%.

Party Susan

As many readers will recall, Tupperware’s Party Susan was on the coffee table at any family celebration, particularly at Hogmanay when it was continually filled with little treats to help soak up the refreshments.

While first footing, you could basically guarantee that every home you visited would have a Party Susan.

Cubes of ham, cheese, pickled onions, cocktail sausages, Bombay mix, peanuts, crisps and many other delights filled the triangular compartments, with the centrepiece ideal for holding cocktail sticks.

Small beginnings

The Party Susan was one of Tupperware’s most popular lines, but the company itself is a huge success story that is still relevant today, almost 75 years on.

Tu p p e r had his own landscaping company, but it went out of business during the Great Depression in the 1930s.

A man who liked to try to invent things in his garage, he got a job at a plastic factory and convinced the company to sell him the remnants of plastic which, back then, was in its infancy.

Waterproof and airtight

The plastic was unpopular, being brittle and smelly, and wasn’t really being used for much. Tupper managed to convert it into a mouldable substance from which he made a waterproof and airtight plastic lid for a container that would keep food fresh and was ideal for stacking up in a fridge.

However, it didn’t sell. “It fell flat on its face,” Business Week magazine reported.

And if it hadn’t been for Brownie Wise and her entrepreneurial spirit, Tupperware could have been, ironically, shelved by Mr Tupper.

Brownie Wise realised Tupper’s invention was ideal for selling at parties, and Tupperware was born. The product was removed from shops in the US and sold exclusively at parties through her company Patio Parties.

If you build the people, they will build the business... to share with friends and family, to build a career, to build a community

Mail order

Wise recruited ladies to sell for her by demonstrating the products in their homes. Women were eager to host these parties as a way of getting together with friends – and because they received free merchandise for playing their part.

“If you build the people, they will build the business,” said Wise, who took women beyond the kitchen, “To share with friends and family. To build a career. To build a community.”

The business developed further with the introduction of a mail order catalogue and Tupper eventually hired Wise as a vicepresident.

The first Tupperware party in the UK was held in 1960 at the home of Mila Pond in Weybridge.

Fast forward to 2020 and you have more than three million people in more than 70 countries sharing much more than bowls!

Eco-friendly

The business has moved with the times, selling eco-friendly goods such as the eco+ tumbler made from recycled plastic which includes straws made from the same material that can be washed and used again.

For youngsters, they now feature a range of lunchboxes with branding from Disney’s Frozen. The company briefly stopped parties in the UK in 2003, but they have made a return and many people still hold gatherings to sell the products.

Tupperware can also purchased online through company’s own website.

GuinnessWorld Records has named it as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th Century – a list that even the personal computer didn’t make.

Tupperware recorded a £26 million surge in profits due to a home-cooking revival and a need for containers to store leftovers. be the