It Happens Here: Everett, Home To Teddie All Natural Peanut Butter
EVERETT (CBS) – It Happens Here, in Everett. First settled as part of Charlestown and then Malden, Everett was founded in 1870 and named after Edward Everett, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts.
The $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor Hotel and Casino opened in 2019 and became an immediate Everett landmark that can be seen from miles away. But there is another local icon not far from the casino. It's less glitzy, but everyone in Everett knows Teddie All Natural Peanut Butter.
"When we first developed peanut butter during the Depression, this is the way they made peanut butter," explained CEO Mark Hintlian. "It was all natural peanut butter."
Today, the peanut butter is made essentially the same way as when Hintlian's grandfather first started producing it back in 1925. It was Hintlian's father, who had an engineering background, who moved the business from Boston to Everett in 1960 to design his own manufacturing building. The Teddie sign has been sitting atop the building on Santilli Highway ever since.
Mark Hintlian is the CEO of the family-owned business, and he is the first to talk about his connection to the men and women working with him. Hintlian gave us a tour through the factory where he pointed out employees who had been with the business for decades. Others were relatively new, but were the second or third generation to work at Teddie. He called them family, and said Teddie would not be the successful company it is today without them.
The team here can roast 12,000 pounds of 100% U.S.-grown peanuts every hour in their huge oven. After roasting, the skins are removed and the peanuts are sent into grinders. A little salt is added, and it gets mixed and pumped into jars. The whole process only takes about 40 minutes from start to finish.
"There's a reason why Teddie is the fastest growing peanut butter company in the United States," explained Hintlian. "It's the best quality around."
He credits his father for setting up strict quality control standards the company still follows.
The success has allowed the company to give back to local Everett schools and support organizations like Best Buddies and The Greater Boston Food Bank.
"It is really important to us and we're proud of it and it inspires us to be the best that we can be," Hintlian said.
As Teddie continues to grow and the 4th generation of Hintlians joins the family business, the company is committed to its roots in Everett. Hintlian says it's Everett, Boston and the rest of New England who fist put Teddie All Natural Peanut Butter on the map.
"We have a global presence out of our home here in Everett, Massachusetts," he said. "It's pretty cool."