Firm That Thrived on Dessert Topping on the Road to Bigger Profits

Bob Rich Jr. has no intention of selling Rich Products, a Buffalo-based $5.8 billion food giant founded by his father — a company you’ve probably never heard of.

Rich's range of products includes cookies sold in supermarket bakeries, cold foam offered at coffee shops, pizza dough for independent and chain pizzerias, as well as SeaPak frozen seafood and Carvel ice cream cakes. (Photo: Rich Products)

Bob Sr. invented the first non-dairy whipped topping in 1945 after being granted the rights to a soybean-based manufacturing system from Henry Ford’s George Washington Carver Laboratory, three years before the better-known dairy-based Reddi-wip hit the market, Forbes Daily reported.

Rich’s signature whipped topping is now sold in more than 100 countries.

It remains one of the top products for an expansive food conglomerate which Forbes values at over $7 billion.

Rich's range of products includes cookies sold in supermarket bakeries, cold foam offered at coffee shops, pizza dough for independent and chain pizzerias, as well as SeaPak frozen seafood and Carvel ice cream cakes.

Its longtime customers include Walmart, Kroger, Dunkin’, and Publix. Forbes estimates Rich’s fortune at $6.5 billion, based on his stake in the business and other investments.

The company expects to grow annual revenue to $10 billion by 2030. Its plan to get there includes more “breakthrough” products designed for restaurants and wholesalers to ease labor shortages, as well as reformulating some bestsellers for the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) era.