PEZ History

The PEZ Dispenser has been around for nearly 50 years. PEZ Candy got its start even earlier, introduced in 1927 in Vienna, Austia as the world's first ever breath mint. Edward Haas, an avid non-smoker, wanted to invent a product to rival cigarettes. His product, a small compressed sugar tablet with peppermint oil added, was sold in small pocket size tins (similar to Altoid brand mints sold today) and marketed as an alternative to smoking. His slogan was "smoking prohibited pezzing allowed!" But what is "pezzing", or better yet, PEZ? The name PEZ was dirived from the German work for peppermint, "pfefferminz" Using the first, middle, and last letters of the word, Hass came up with the name "PEZ." Twenty years after the candy was invented Oscar Uxa invented and patented a littel mechanical box for dispensing the candy in 1948. Resembling a Bic cigarette lighter, the dispenser was marketed as an upscae adult prodcut. The PEZ "box" had moderate success in Europe, and in 1952 Haas decided to try and conquer the United States market, In the span of less then 2 years, he realized that PEZ was not going to be a worthwhile venture in U.S.

Hass did not give up and decided to reinvent the product by adding fruit flavors to the candy - and a three-dimensional cartoon had to the top of the dispenser. What a success this turned out to be, combining two of kids' favorite things: candy and a toy! This marketing shift proved to a brillant move, making PEZ one of the most recognizable commercial name around. It is hard to say how many different head have graced the top of a dispenser. Different versions of the same character have been produced and, in some cases, the same version has come in multiple color variations.

PEZ, the company, is divided into two seperate entities, PEZ USA and PEZ International. PEZ USA, located in Orange, Connecticut, is responsible fro North American distribution, packaging dispensers, and making candy. PEZ International, now located in Traun, Austria, handles distribution for the rest of the world, along with packaging dispensers and making candy. Although they are seperately managed companies, they communicate with each other and sometimes share the cost of producing a new dispenser. The fact that they are two seperate companies accounts for the reason some dispensers commonly found in the United States are not found anywhere else in the world and vice versa. Depending on how you look at it, this can make collecting more fun or more of a challenge. PEZ USA is a privately owned business and will not release sales figures to the public, but they do insist that they sell more dispensers per year then there are kids in the United States. Their staff works in three shifts, 24 hours a day, producing the candy and packaging dispensers for shipment all across North America.

The dispenser itself has seen a few modest changes over the years. One of the biggest happened in the late 1980's when "feet" were added to the bottom of the dispenser base to give it more stability when standing upright. Numerous candy and fruit flavors have been produced, ranging from apple to chocolate. Some flavors were more popular then others, and some were just plain strange like chlorophyll, flower, and eculyptus. Currently the flavors available in the United States are lemon, orange, grape, strawberry and peppermint.

PEZ has done very little in the way of advertising, relying on impulse purchases and parents buying for their kids on a nostolgic whim. While this may not seem like the best marketing method, the company claims it can barely keep up the the demand. PEZ has even become a very popular licensee, with companies vying to put the PEZ name on everything from clocks to coffee mugs. Hallmark has featured these collectibles on a puzzle and matching gretting card, and has also produced two different PEZ dispenser Christmas ornaments. The popular Seinfeld televsions show even had an episode featuring a Tweety Bird PEZ dispenser.

No one can say for sure where this hobby will go, or if hte dispensers will continue to hold their value. Presently this hobby has two things in it's favor, one: demand far surpasses the supple of vintage dispensers, and two: PEZ is stoe produced today and can be found in almost any grocery or discount store, making it available to a whole new generation of collectors. With new additions added regularly, the continued success of PEZ is almost certainly assured.

 

Special thanks to: Shawn Peterson