Cudahy Packing Company ( ) was an American

meat packing The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is generally n ...

company established in 1887 as the Armour-Cudahy Packing Company and incorporated in

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

in 1915. The Cudahy meatpacking business was acquired by Bar-S Foods Company in 1981.

History

In 1887, Michael Cudahy, with the backing of Philip Danforth Armour, started the Armour-Cudahy packing plant in Omaha, Nebraska.Cudahy Packing Co.
Encyclopedia of Chicago Cudahy Packing Company was created in 1890 when Cudahy bought Armour's interest. The company added branches across the country, including a cleaning products plant at East Chicago, Indiana, built in 1909. In 1911, the company's headquarters were relocated from Omaha to Chicago. In 1905, Cudahy Packing Company introduced Old Dutch Cleanser. In 1955,

Purex PUREX (plutonium uranium reduction extraction) is a chemical method used to purify fuel for nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons. It is based on liquid–liquid extraction ion-exchange. PUREX is the '' de facto'' standard aqueous nuclear reproc ...

acquired Old Dutch Cleanser from Cudahy. The Greyhound Corporation acquired the consumer products business of Purex (which included Old Dutch Cleanser) in 1985 and was combined with Greyhound's Armour-Dial division, forming

The Dial Corporation Henkel Corporation, doing business as Henkel North American Consumer Goods and formerly The Dial Corporation, is an American company based in Stamford, Connecticut. It is a manufacturer of personal care and household cleaning products and is a su ...

. In December 2003, Dial was sold to Henkel for $2.9 billion. By 1922, Cudahy Packing Company was one of the largest packing houses in the United States with over $200 million in annual sales and 13,000 employees around the country with operations in South Omaha,

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

Sioux City Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Iowa. The county seat of Woodbury County, Sioux City is the primar ...

, Wichita, Memphis, East Chicago,

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, and

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, as well as distribution operations in 97 cities. The business suffered during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, but the company still employed about 1,000 Chicago-area residents during the mid-1930s. Following World War II, it moved its headquarters first to Omaha and then in 1956 to Phoenix, where it took the name Cudahy Company. In 1957, the company was one of 500 companies listed in the first

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices and in ...

. In 1957, Cudahy purchased the Seattle Packing Company which owned the Bar-S trademark and began selling various meat products under the Cudahy Bar-S name. In 1970, Cudahy was acquired by General Host which split the Cudahy company into separate business components. The meat processing operations became a division known as Cudahy Foods. In 1981, General Host sold the remnants of the Cudahy meat packing business to Tim Day, president of Cudahy foods who renamed the acquisition Bar-S Foods Company. Bar-S Foods Company was acquired by the Mexican packer

Sigma Alimentos Sigma Alimentos, S.A. de C.V., also known as Sigma or Sigma Alimentos, is a Mexican multinational food processing and distribution company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Mexico. It produces and distributes refrigerated foods, mainly ...

in 2010, which continues to produce meat products in the U.S. under the Bar-S trademark.

History

References

Further reading