[3] In 1903, Richard Hellmann (1876–1971)[4] emigrated from Vetschau, Germany, to New York City, where in August 1904 he married Margaret Vossberg, whose parents owned a delicatessen.

In mid-1905, he opened his own delicatessen at 490 Columbus Avenue, where he developed his first ready-made mayonnaise, dished out in small amounts to customers.

It became so popular that he began selling it in bulk to other stores, constantly improving the recipe to make it avoid spoilage longer.

In 1913, after continued success, he built a factory to produce his mayonnaise in even greater quantities, and began selling it on September 1 under the name Hellmann's Blue Ribbon Mayonnaise, seeing sales greatly increase after switching from hotel-size large stone jars to customer-size clear glass jars that could be reused for home canning after selling them a rubber ring for 1 penny.

In February 1916, the company was incorporated as Richard Hellmann, Inc., after which he briefly tried other products, such as horseradish and pumpernickel bread, before deciding to concentrate on mayonnaise and expand distribution outside the New York area.

In 1922, after sales of the mayonnaise were launched in Toronto, Ontario, Hellmann began building a larger (5-story) factory at 34-08 Northern Boulevard in Long Island City.

While honeymooning in San Francisco, California, Hellmann decided to open a plant there too, setting up an office and soliciting salesmen.

[citation needed] Maintaining the separation of brands in the USA poses some unique challenges.

[17] The mayonnaise and Unilever has been an advertiser as part of the Super Bowl since 2022, with Hellman's appearing more prominently than Best Foods, which is alluded to as part of the product's label design, and the ads being used more as a vehicle to advertise Unilever's involvement with the anti-hunger charity Feeding America.