Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On September 19, 1912, the originator of Sterzing Potato Chips, Barney Sterzing was born. An Iowa favorite, Sertzing’s Potato Chips first hit the market in 1935 and continue to delight people worldwide today.
Sterzing first entered the snack business when he founded a candy company in Burlington in 1933. The Sterzing Candy Company struggled as the Great Depression settled over the nation. In 1935, Sterzing started making fresh potato chips daily to complement his candy offerings. The new product’s initial popularity allowed the founder to confidently focus on the salty potato chips when sugar rationing doomed his candy business during World War II.
Under Sterzing’s leadership, the company grew into an Iowa icon by the time he retired in 1959. Passing leadership to his cousin Warren Duttweiler, keeping the business in the family allowed the company’s high standards for quality to remain intact. From the 1930s through the 1980s, the company continued to focus solely on Sterzing’s original chip recipe and distribute exclusively to a 50-mile radius around Burlington.
Changes came slowly, starting with the introduction of a ruffled potato chip in the 1980s. In the 2000s, Sterzing’s Potato Chips first made their way to grocery store shelves in exotic locations such as Des Moines. Sold outside the family in 2011, the company still stands in Burlington as a beacon of an Iowa business that built a reputation for doing things the right way. #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistoryCalendar
