Dutch Gold’s ‘honey bear’ takes a name – Nugget

Nancy Gamber Olcott believes her family’s company – Dutch Gold Honey of Lancaster, Pa. – holds claim to having created “the most popular and best loved” product container ever. 

The squeezable, plastic honey bear was born in 1957 at the dinner table in the home of her parents Ralph and Luella Gamber.

 

The honey bear image was given a name in 2007, when Dutch Gold Honey held a 50-year celebration of the product container. In a contest, the name chosen for the honey bear bottle was “Nugget” – gold and precious.

 

Nancy, the youngest of three Gamber children, recalls hearing some of the stories about the trial-and-error development of the packaging. “Plastic molding technology was in its early stages, and it was not uncommon for the original bears to leak from the seams at their ears,” she said.

 

Today, as the company’s president and CEO, Olcott says all is well, and customers now have full assurance that the packages are perfectly sealed.

Her father took up beekeeping as a hobby in 1946, starting with three beehives. Because the Gambers had “extra honey” to sell, they started a business and named their company Dutch Gold Honey. Eventually, the Gambers were tending more than 200 hives, but demand for the honey exceeded the supply.

The company reached a turning point, Olcott said. The Gambers chose to focus on processing and packaging honey, while relying on commercial beekeepers to provide the honey.

With honeys now coming in from various regions of the country, Dutch Gold began marketing honey by “floral source.” As examples, Orange Blossom and Tupelo honeys came from Florida, Buckwheat honey came from New York and Alfalfa honey came from Wyoming.

 

In addition to its Dutch Gold branded items, the company began to package honey for retail private label programs and to supply honey to food manufacturers.

Nancy Gamber Olcott said: “Honey is the perfect sweetener, and consumers love the wholesomeness it brings to foods. Honey delivers value and a good-for-you feeling, that other sweeteners can’t match.”

After several additions to the company’s “Honey House,” located in a Lancaster residential neighborhood, and trying to unload tractor trailers of honey and packaging materials on a city street, the Gambers bought a 20-acre farm nearby.

The original 40,000 square foot facility opened in 1974. The business is still on the same site, but the footprint is now more than 200,000 square feet.

An interesting story from the company archives mentions that the original “Honey House” was in the vicinity of the Franklin & Marshall College campus in Lancaster (named for America’s founding fathers Benjamin Franklin and John Marshall).

One of Dutch Gold Honey’s most loyal local customers was Roy Phillips, the legendary coach of F&M’s wrestling teams from 1949-67. 

Roy Phillips was a member of the F&M varsity wrestling squad himself, graduating in 1934. 

Coach Philllips would purchase a two-pound jar of honey before each wrestling match. His wrestlers would pass the jar around, sharing the sweet liquid for a quick energy boost.

 Phillips came to realize that wrestlers dipping into the same jar of honey was also a good way to share germs. So, Phillips suggested to the Gambers that they pack their honey in one-ounce “energy” packs, which he could give to his wrestlers. 

“Right away, Coach,” the Gambers replied.

When given the opportunity to contribute to the college’s Roy Phillips Endowment Fund in 1995, Dutch Gold Honey’s Gamber Foundation made the initial donation, which presented the company with the opportunity to name the wrestling room.

“In recognition of Coach Phillips’ support of Dutch Gold Honey and in honoring his love of the sport, the room was appropriately named the Roy Phillips Wrestling Room,” said Bill Gamber. son of the company founders.

Bill Gamber served as Dutch Gold Honey CEO from 1992-2002. 

After his retirement, the gavel passed to his younger sister, Nancy Gamber Olcott.

In 1997, Dave and Wanda McLure, owners of McLure’s Honey & Maple Products, from Littleton, N.H., were looking to sell their business.

This was a perfect acquisition for Dutch Gold, said Nancy Gamber Olcott, “as it added another pure and natural sweetener to the product offering. The plant in Littleton is still fully operational and packages both honey and maple syrup.”

 

 More about Franklin & Marshall College:

Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) is a private liberal arts college, founded in 1787 as Franklin College and later merged with Marshall College in 1853. 

F&M's early years were bilingual, serving the local Pennsylvania Dutch community in German and English. Built on the site of a former brewery, the college now has an on-campus enrollment of about 1,800 students.

The F&M Diplomats field sports varsity teams for men and women that compete at the Division III level, with one exception. The wrestling program is Division I. 

The college’s traditional mascots – Ben and John – are in the process of being “retired.” A “mascot working group” is seeking to replace the historical figures with one or more new mascots that are “fun, gender-neutral and full of personality” as well as “non-controversial.” The working group is composed of F&M students, faculty, staff and alumni.