Tupperware's rise and fall: Once an American kitchen icon, the struggling company is now filing for bankruptcy
Alex Bitter
9 min read
Tupperware was a mainstay of kitchens in the US. Now, the company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.Science & Society Picture Library/SSPL/Getty Images
Tupperware filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday in the latest sign of trouble for the brand.
It made plastic bowls part of American kitchens and multilevel marketing part of American business.
Here's a history of Tupperware, from a Depression-era plastics manufacturer to its modern troubles.
Tupperware was developed by Earl Tupper, who founded a plastics manufacturing company in Leominster, Massachusetts, during the Great Depression.
Earl Tupper.Tupperware
Tupper was born in New Hampshire in 1907. While he wasn't a great student, he spent a lot of his early life sketching out inventions in a notebook, such as a comb with a belt clip and a fish-powered boat, according to PBS's "American Experience."
His inventions didn't lead to financial success, so Tupper started a landscaping business to support himself and, later, his wife and children, per "American Experience." Then, during the Great Depression, he started working in the plastics industry and eventually founded his own company in Leominster, which was a manufacturing hub at the time.
Tupper started out making plastic holders for soap and cigarettes, but his big break came after World War II.
US Army reinforcements in June 1944.AP Photo/US Army Signal Corps
After the war, chemical company Dupont was trying to increase sales of a new substance called polyethylene, according to PBS.
Polyethylene was a popular component of radar equipment during the war. It was "the resin that helped win World War II," Plastics News reported in 2007.
Afterward, Dupont, the company that made it, turned it into the most widely used kind of plastic, promoting its use for packaging, toys, and other consumer goods.
By 1946, Tupper had refined the plastic to make kitchenware.
A set of bowls.Smithsonian Museum of American History
It took some experimentation, but Tupper used polyethylene to make the first-ever set of Tupperware.
Tupper's "wonder bowl" sealed, allowing users to keep its contents from spilling. They could also push air out before sealing to keep food fresh ā a process the company called "burping," according to PBS.
Tupper sold his kitchenware in department stores and a showroom in Manhattan, but sales were slow.
Meanwhile, in Florida, a woman named Brownie Wise was running a company called Patio Parties.
Brownie Wise.Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Wise had worked as an advice columnist before she started selling Tupperware. Her company's premise: Tupperware was so new that most people didn't understand how it worked if they saw it on a store shelf.
Instead, Wise sold Tupperware by demonstrating how it worked at parties. The events targeted stay-at-home women, who bought the kitchenware after seeing its merits over glass and ceramic alternatives, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Importantly, Wise also recruited some of those women to host parties of their own, which got Tupperware in front of new potential customers. Tupperware was one of many multilevel marketing companies at the time, alongside cosmetics maker Avon.
Wise's strategy worked. One woman she recruited sold 56 bowls in one week, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Tupperware hosts holding signs.Smithsonian Museum of American History
At the time, Wise called the events "Poly-T parties" in a nod to the plastic that the bowls were made of.
Tupper himself eventually heard about Wise's success. In 1951, he hired her to be vice president of marketing for Tupperware.
Brownie Wise.Smithsonian Museum of American History
Tupper remained focused on the manufacturing side of the business, while Wise built out Tupperware's network of dealers and most public-facing parts of the company.
Tupperware built its headquarters near Orlando in 1953.
Tupperware's headquarters in Kissimmee, Florida.John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images
Tupper bought 1,300 acres of land in Kissimmee, Florida, to the south of Orlando, in 1953. The area was a small farm town at the time, according to the company. Part of that land is still home to the company's headquarters today.
Tupperware sales reached $25 million in 1954. Tupper oversaw production, while Wise expanded the Tupperware party model across the US during the 1950s.
A Tupperware party advert.Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Wise nationalized the model she had developed in Florida.
At Tupperware parties, attendees would play games, such as tossing a sealed bowl full of grape juice around the room to demonstrate how leakproof the bowls were, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
The model was also a key source of income for the women who worked as dealers, many of whom had no income apart from what their husbands made. Wise also organized an annual "Jubilee" event that recognized top-selling dealers and awarded them prizes including a brand-new car.
But Tupper got jealous of the attention that Wise got as the public face of the brand.
A Tupperware party scene, 1960.Science & Society Picture Library/SSPL/Getty Images
In 1958, he and the company's board of directors fired her, and Tupper sold the company later that year to drugstore chain Rexall for $9 million, according to the New York Times.
Tupperware continued to grow in the 1960s and 1970s, reaching new countries such as the UK.
A Tupperware party at a home in the UK in 1963.Daily Herald Archive/SSPL/Getty Images
Tupper ended up parting ways with the company after the sale to Rexall. He divorced his wife and moved to Costa Rica in an effort to avoid paying US taxes, according to PBS.
Meanwhile, Tupperware parties continued in the US, Europe, and elsewhere. One television ad from 1961 showed the virtues of hosting a party, including free Tupperware for the host and her guests. "It's a Tupperware party, and it's really fun," the narrator says.
But in the 1980s, the patents on Tupper's products started to expire.
Filled Tupperware boxes.Amazon
That made it possible for other companies to produce cheaper versions of Tupperware's products and cut into its sales.
At the same time, more women than ever were working full-time.
Women in a commercial for Tupperware in 1980.deputay/Youtube
The share of US women in the labor force went from 34% in 1950 to 60% in 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
More women going to work outside the home was bad news for Tupperware since it meant fewer were interested in hosting parties and selling the plastic containers.
Tupperware was acquired by Kraft, the food company, in 1980.
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.REUTERS/Frank Polich
Kraft tried new products and sales strategies. It made microwave-safe Tupperware and encouraged hosts to have Tupperware parties with colleagues during lunch breaks at work, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2017.
But none of that was enough to reverse the brand's fortunes. Kraft ended up spinning off the brand in 1996, turning it into a public company.
Tupperware has tried new ways of reaching consumers, from mall kiosks to brand partnerships to online sales.
A red Tupperware container designed to hold a sandwich and fries from Tim Horton's.Tupperware
It has also continued selling through its network of party hosts.
A 2019 segment from CBS Sunday Morning featured a Tupperware dealer in Charlotte, North Carolina throwing a party. Her mother also worked for Tupperware.
Tupperware also struck partnerships with other brands, such as Loop, which makes reusable packaging for consumer brands, retailers, and restaurants.
The company experienced a bump in sales as people cooked at home early in the pandemic.
Turquoise Tupperware containers at a store in Chicago.Scott Olson/Getty Images
After years of struggling, Tupperware got a boost as people cooked more at home during the early months of the pandemic, according to its 2020 earnings reports.
Its stock reached above $35 a share, its highest price in years, in November 2020.
"We do believe the results reflect that we pivoted as a company, and now we're more confident in our ability to turn around the business," Executive Vice Chairman Richard Goudis said during a July 2020 earnings call.
But sales have slowed down since then.
The Tupperware Brands logo and name on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 2022.AP Photo/Richard Drew
Its shares lost almost half their value and closed at $1.23 on April 10, 2023, after the company warned investors that it could go out of business.
Tupperware ran afoul of New York Stock Exchange requirements when it failed to file an annual report for 2022, the company said at the time. It also hired financial advisors to help attract new investors.
In 2023, it joined other troubled companies that have attracted attention from meme stock investors.
A storefront that used to house a Tupperware store in Brussels, Belgium in early 2023.Omar Havana/Getty Images
Shares of Tupperware rose 350% over just five days in July 2023, Quartz reported at the time. Other companies targeted by the same investors include movie theater chain AMC and retailer Bed, Bath & Beyond.
In fact, it was likely just a rally in AMC stock at the end of July that caused some investors to take an interest in Tupperware's share, Quartz reported.
The same year, Tupperware warned that it would delay reporting its quarterly results.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) headquarters in Washington.AP
Tupperware said that it had "identified multiple prior period misstatements and material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting," according to a filing with the SEC in August 2023. The filing added that Tupperware wouldn't report its results for the first half of the year until September.
In September, it pushed back the timeline for filing its quarterly reports to the fourth quarter of 2023, it said in a separate filing. Tupperware did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment at the time.
Now, Tupperware has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Empty Tupperware boxes.Macy's
Tupperware filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday after issuing multiple warnings about its ability to continue doing business over the past year.
The company claimed assets of between $500,000,001 and $1 billion, as well as liabilities of between $1,000,000,001 and $10 billion, according to its bankruptcy filing.
"Over the last several years, the Company's financial position has been severely impacted by the challenging macroeconomic environment," Tupperware CEO Laurie Ann Goldman said.