Jif (peanut butter)

Jif is an American peanut butter brand now owned by the J.M. Smucker Company. It began as Big Top, created by William T. Young in 1946 in Lexington, Kentucky; Procter and Gamble bought the brand in 1955, reformulated it using oils other than peanut oil in its hydrogenation process and adding sugar and molasses, and relaunched it as Jif in 1956 to compete with rivals such as Skippy and Peter Pan. Smucker bought Jif from Procter and Gamble in 2001; the brand became the market leader by 1981 and held that position at least through 2008, and all Jif products are made at a plant in Lexington, Kentucky, described as the largest peanut butter production facility in the world, with a smaller plant in Memphis, Tennessee.