From the press: On January 22, Pennsylvania-based Utz Quality Foods announced the decision to discontinue making Husman’s potato chips and its other snacks. Utz acquired Husman’s from Conagra in 2019 and says the brand’s sales just weren’t able to compete in the snack food market.
“While we understand the disappointment of Husman’s brand fans, we hope that they will enjoy our many other high-quality snack food brands,” the company said in a statement.
Husman’s was launched in Cincinnati in 1919 by Harry Husman, who started making the potato chips in his home on what is now Ezzard Charles Drive. The brand hasn’t had a manufacturing presence in the Queen City since its Over-the-Rhine factory shut down in 2003.
There’s really only one thing to say about Husman’s. They made big cans of potato chips.
The chips weren’t particularly good or bad, but we have a shared family memory about this can. When I was very young, someone dropped off a Husman’s can of chips at the end of our long driveway.
In it? 6 kittens, without their mother.
We fed them by hand and did our best to improve their chances. Everybody named one. Mine didn’t make it, but that little kitten lives on in the challenge questions to remember passwords.
Goodbye Husman’s and local brands that can’t compete in the avalanche of capitalism, and goodbye little kitten. You are still remembered.