When pretzel companies want to fill their pretzels with peanut butter, they find Bruce Gutterman.
The 61-year-old entrepreneur, also known as a pioneer in developing peanut butter for ice cream, owns a business called Flavors R Specialty in Kingston. Peanut butter is his business.
He has brought his peanut butter to ice cream freezers and the shelves of pretzel aisles. His peanut butter has been used in famous ice cream flavors such as Ben & Jerry's "Chubby Hubby." He has concocted peanut butter used to fill pretzels for major manufacturers.
The key to his success in the peanut butter pretzel business began in March 1983 simply by finding a set of car keys.
The day after he found keys in the trunk of a car in Kingston, he knocked on the door of the home across the street and returned them to an elderly man visiting his daughter. Two weeks later, he got a call from the man, who turned out to be Max Reisman, president of Reisman Pretzel Co.
Mr. Reisman told him he invented a machine that could fill pretzels and he was looking for something to put them in them. He asked if peanut butter might work and invited Mr. Gutterman to his facility with giant ovens for baking pretzels in Pennsauken, N.J..
As Mr. Gutterman was driving home that day through the Lehigh Valley Tunnel in Allentown, he said, "I saw the future of the entire industry."
Mr. Gutterman came up with the trademark name "Nutter Nuggets" for peanut butter pretzels. Mr. Gutterman launched his product on the West Coast and Anderson Bakeries started producing Nutter Nuggets.
Eventually, Mr. Gutterman sold the name to Nabisco. He said selling the name was the worst business decision he ever made because he should have asked for millions of dollars but received less than $20,000.
Among his success stories in the ice cream business, Friendly's found Mr. Gutterman in the early 1990s and asked him to concoct the peanut butter that was poured over the Reese's Pieces Sundae, a promotion for the movie ET.
Ben & Jerry's came to him asking if they could take his peanut butter pretzel and make it a particular shape and size and the flavor "Chubby Hubby" was born in 1996.
His first success in the peanut butter ice cream business came when, working out of a bedroom, he got an official from Baskin Robbins to call him in 1976 on a rotary phone after he mailed him a peanut butter cup wrapper.
"It was enough to catch their attention," Mr. Gutterman said. "We didn't have computers then. I had nothing but a typewriter."
Mr. Gutterman works out of a small office and likes to do business through old-fashioned methods: writing letters and using the telephone.
"I know the power of a phone," he said from his office on Market Street, an area which he calls the birthplace of peanut butter ice cream and the peanut butter pretzel.
Today, he is watching an evolution as the peanut butter pretzel business continues to grow. His business is now connected all over the country. Today, he said, peanut butter frozen desserts, ice cream and even frozen yogurts continue to be some of the most successful and profitable products to date.
"All these pretzel companies keep finding me," Mr. Gutterman said. "If there is a peanut butter pretzel that has been manufactured in the United States in the last 30 years, they came to me to put the peanut butter in place for them and to create their program for them. This has to do with a lot of luck. Fate came my way. I've been fortunate to get some big companies to find me."
Soon, he will provide almond butter packets at Jack Nicklaus' upcoming memorial golf tournament in Dublin, Ohio. He has traveled around the country marketing his products. He credits his success to persistent marketing.
"The definition of successful marketing is to be able to see something that no one else sees and then have the drive and determination to achieve and accomplish the goal," he said. "That's in a nut shell."
His next goal is to sell jars of pourable peanut butter, which he calls Peanut Butter "Pourfection," to the public worldwide.
"You could add this to smoothies or milk shakes. You could pour it over ice cream. It has endless uses," Mr. Gutterman said. "If people are interested in it, I'll make sure I launch it first in this area."
Mr. Gutterman is asking peanut butter lovers who are interested in the product to call him at 287-8642 or email Bruce.Gutterman@flavorsrspeciality.com or info@flavorsrspeciality.com.
Contact the writer: dallabaugh@citizensvoice.com