About Welchs
Welch's is an iconic American grape juice company founded in Vineland, New Jersey in 1869 by teetotal dentist Thomas Bramwell Welch and his son Charles. A Methodist minister and dentist, Thomas pioneered the use of pasteurisation to prevent grape juice fermentation, originally marketing his product as "Dr. Welch's Unfermented Wine" for use in church communion services. The Welch family had relocated to Vineland, a "Temperance Town" founded in 1861 as an alcohol-free utopian society based on agriculture and progressive thinking. As the temperance movement grew, so did the popularity of grape juice - by 1913, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan was serving Welch's instead of wine at formal diplomatic functions. The product became known as Welch's Grape Juice in 1893 when the company incorporated in Westfield, New York. Since 1956, Welch Foods Inc. has been owned by the National Grape Cooperative Association, a co-op of nearly 1,500 grape growers across New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Arkansas, Missouri, and Washington. Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, this farmer-owned structure ensures quality from vine to bottle. UK shoppers can find Welch's products at Asda and Morrisons, including Grape Boost and Light Purple Grape Juice Drink variants - bringing over 150 years of American grape juice heritage to British shelves.
