“Chewing Gum Firm Commences Business” – From the front page of the London Free Press Newspaper 1911.
It was announced this morning, February 23, 1911, that J. K. and D. H McDermid, who recently purchased the Somerville Paper Box Company, will commence in 10 days the manufacture of chewing gum.
The new company will be called the O-Pee-Chee Gum Company and will have its headquarters in London, Ontario Canada.
Both members of the firm have been in the gum business for some years and know the work from the bottom up.
“This company is purely Canadian capital, said Mr. McDermid, and we hope to build up a good business. We are an independent company, similar to the ones in Toronto and Peterboro.”
John McKinnon McDermid was born in 1886 on a farm at Janetville, near Lindsay, Ontario. At the age of 17, J. K. came to London with his brother Duncan Hugh, where he first worked as a clerk at Ashplant’s Shoe Store and then as a book-keeper at Elliot-Marr’s Wholesale Grocery.
In 1897, the two brothers joined the C. R. Somerville Company in London and when C. R. Somerville became ill later that year, they took over management of the company. At that time, Sommerville manufactured many items such as boxes, popcorn, novelties and chewing gum.
The Somerville firm was sold to American Chicle Company in 1908 and the gum manufacturing plant moved to Toronto. The McDermid brothers then took over the box division and later purchased it in 1910. At that time, it was known as Sommerville Paper Box Limited, with J. K. McDermid as President.
In 1911, O-Pee-Chee Gum Company was formed and the first box of Gipsy gum produced that year still exists in the hands of the present owner. The sales in the first year were $28,656.41, resulting in a profit of $1,850.90.
The name O-Pee-Chee is an Indian word meaning “the Robin” and is found in “The Song of Hiawatha” by Longfeloow. It also happened to be the name of the McDermid’s summer cottage in Grand Bend. Back in those days it was a probable that a favourite juvenile expression might have been “Oh, it’s peachy!” Hence, the name O-Pee-Chee Gum Company.
In 1921 O-Pee-Chee Gum Company was sold to a trust with the intent of incorporating the Company and changing its name to O-Pee-Chee Company Limited. Initially, it was incorporated as a public Company with five shareholders and four directors – all members of the McDermid family.
The sales for the first year of operation of O-Pee-Chee Company Limited were 177,389.84, with a profit of $4,766.92. The products manufactured were chewing gum, mints and various types of popcorn – especially Krackley Nut. In that year, there were 30 employees in the plant and the annual payroll was $31,614.38, including management salaries and bonuses.
In 1928, a manufacturing facility was built at 430 Adelaide street in London. Initially, this plant was erected primarily to supply a substantial export gum business to the United Kingdom. From 1928 until 1989, this plant housed some of the most modern gum and candy making equipment available in the world.
The 1930’s was a boom time for O-Pee-Chee as they started to issue cards within there gum to promote better sales. In 1933, a licensing agreement was signed with a Buffalo firm to manufacture and sell a line of paraffin chewing gum and novelties. This allowed OPC to sell these products in Canada as well as in Great Britain and Ireland. About this time, Frank P. Leahy joined the firm as Sales Manager and John Gordon McDermid, the son of J. K. McDermid, also became active in the business. A host of sports and non-sports cards came out of the 1930’s for OPC.
Four different gum companies joined in at the same time in 1933 with hockey cards in their product, which leads me to believe that this idea was not spun off by any single gum company but more than likely by a great salesman who brought the card idea to the gum companies and not the other way around.
The first O-Pee-Chee hockey card issue of 1933-34 is quite interesting in-that two series were issued and two different wrappers were also produced. With considering the length of the season to be relatively short, would this be enough time to market two different series? And why was the premium hockey game only advertised on the second series wrapper?
I believe that Series “A” came out in 1933-34, and series “B” came out in the following year 1934-35. Why would OPC offer a short run of a second series to promote the hockey game, which on the back has the full checklist of all the players in both series as well as offering the only known advertisement for purchasing an album to hold all 72 cards!?
Without going to far ahead, the 1937-38 OPC issue is certainly another quandary, they too have two different wrappers. My thoughts on this issue is that for two years OPC issued the same cards, just in different colours, one year was blue bordered and the other purple bordered. The wrappers also differ in these two colour variations while only was is dated , “New for 1938”. And my feelings are well known that I don’t believe that OPC was the issuer of the 1939-40 or 1940-41 large cards!
All pictures and information is in your copy of the VHC price guide.
With the arrival of World War II, accompanied by sugar and other commodity rationing, OPC Company existed mainly because of war contracts to supply dried egg powder to Europe and the United Kingdom . Employees, who worked here during the war, still recall the incident when a boat carrying a load of egg powder was sunk in the St. Lawrence River by a German submarine and the shipment had to be returned to London for repacking. During this time, the only gum product manufactured was Thrills – a product which is still being sold today.
The McDermids owned and operated both O-Pee-Chee Company Limited and Sommervilled Paper Box Limited until 1944 when they sold the Somerville business to Garfield Weston. In 1945, OPC Company Limited was changed from a public company to a private company. For many years, National Novelty Company was a subsidiary of OPC Company acting as a retail outlet selling candy goods over the counter, and also servicing gum vending machines in the area.
D. H. McDermid passed away in December 1942 and J. K. McDermid died of a heart attack in 1945 at age 79. J. K. McDermid was a member of the London Rotary Club and was an active member of the Talbot Street Baptist Church and deeded the property to the congregation where the First Baptist Church now stands in London. John Gordon McDermid became President in 1946 and ran the company until his death in 1953.
Under the able leadership of the new President, Frank P. Leahy, the Company flourished in the late 1950’s. In 1958, a licensing agreement was arranged with a manufacturer in Brooklyn, New York, Topps Chewing Gum Company, which dramatically increased the future potential of O-Pee-Chee Company. Subsequent to this, in 1961, Frank Leahy purchased the Company from the McDermid estate.
The hockey cards of 1954-55 were produced in the USA as well as the wrappers and display boxes but not issued in the US, only Canada. In 1957-58 after the official licensing agreement was signed it was clear that OPC had more of a hand in the hockey card production because the box count went from the typical Topps size of 24 count per box to the OPC standard of 36 count, although still printed on the bottom of the 1957-58 box was “Made in USA”.
In 1958 OPC had taken over the production of display boxes from Topps because of their close ties with Sommerville Paper Box Company. On the bottom of the newly found 1958-59 Topps hockey display box, it is stamped Sommerville Packaging! Why? It was probably just plain cheaper to have them made in Canada.
By 1961 with Frank Leahy at the helm, it would seem OPC had taken over all aspects of production from Topps for cards, wrappers and display boxes, however, Topps still remained as the licensee of the players and team photos.
About this time, another licensing agreement was signed with a large Candy company located in St. Louis, Missouri, (Jaw Teasers). These two licensing arrangements allowed OPC to manufacture and market the products of these two firms in Canada. Immediately, new products became available to the Canadian market which substantially increased the Company’s sales volume, allowing for more efficient manufacturing and marketing techniques.
In the early 1960’s, Beatlemania overtook North America with OPC having the rights to manufacture and market the Beatles Bubble Gum cards for the Canadian Market. Other non-sports and sports cards were also done over the years by OPC from the 1930’s up too and beyond 1990.
With hockey in full swing, card production was never better. OPC having produced hockey cards for so many years independently and by the mid 1960’s we would see Topps start to manufacture their own hockey sets and distribute in the USA.
The very first year Topps released hockey cards released to the USA market was in 1966-67 with the “Test Issue”. This was clearly an American product that was done quite quickly, with what seems to only make sense, the introduction of Bobby Orr and the immediate following of this superstar. Topps could not miss this opportunity and realized they must do something as they were planning a release of hockey any time soon…..so they released the so called “Test Issue”. Using a copy of the OPC 1966-67 cards with the French omitted on the backs and the display box had taken the same player design from the 1964-65 Tallboy issue. Also, the wrapper didn’t say NHL as OPC wrappers did, it clearly states “National Hockey League”, to educate a new product to consumers in its first release. Adding to this was the 24 count standard Topps display box the cards came in, not to mention they were issued in cello packs, a standard in the US baseball market.
Topps would not make hockey cards in 1967-68 and would come to market in 1968-69, not without a few problems. In 1968 Topps had planned to release and insert of “Funny Pennants”, similar to their 1967 Football issue but alas, proofs were designed and never quite made it to market.
OPC would release their product in January of each year since the 1950’s. Starting in the late 1960’s Topps would release their hockey product a couple of months sooner than OPC. With OPC being such grand hockey fans, they would wait for trades to happen before releasing cards too soon. Thus the different in set size and some player differences between OPC and Topps sets.
In 1968 Gary Koreen came to O-Pee-Chee and worked as production supervisor. He had married the owners, Frank Leahy’s daughter. After working at OPC for nearly fifty years Frank Leahy died suddenly in 1980. By default, Gary Koreen became owner and President of OPC and carried the legacy on into the mid 1990 when he sold the Company to Nestlé’s. Soon after that Topps had purchased the O-Pee-Chee name and still own it today.
If you would have ever toured the plant in the 1980’s, OPC would have given you one of these OPC boxes full of gum and candy as a complimentary gift.
Have a Great Christmas & Best of Health and Happiness for the New Year to all!!
Bobby
