Continental Can Company (CCC) was an American producer of metal containers and
packaging
Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a co ...
company, that was based in
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...
.
["CONTINENTAL GROUP COMPANY." ''International Directory of Company Histories''. Ed. Thomas Derdak. Vol. 1. Chicago, IL: St. James Press, 1988. ''Business Insights: Essentials''. Web. 6 Dec. 2018.]
The Continental Can Company was founded by Edwin Norton
[ T.G. Cranwell in 1904,] three years after the formation of its greatest rival, American Can Company.[ Continental acquired the patents of ]United Machinery Company
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* United (2003 film), ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* United (2011 film) ...
, one of the few companies producing can-making machinery that had not been bought by American Can. CCC began shipping product in 1905.[
During ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Continental Can Company helped the war effort by building aircraft parts and bombs in their manufacturing plants.[ The ]United Steelworkers of America
The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, commonly known as the United Steelworkers (USW), is a general trade union with members across North America. Headqua ...
was the union representing hundreds of manufacturing workers at Continental Can Company.[
In 1956, CCC acquired the ]Hazel-Atlas Glass Company
The Hazel-Atlas Glass Company was a large producer of machine-molded glass containers headquartered in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was founded in 1902 in Washington, Pennsylvania, as the merger of four companies:
*Hazel Glass and Metals Company ...
, the third largest producer of glass containers, which led to the '' United States v. Continental Can Co.'' Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
ruling in 1964.
History
The company bought the Standard Tin Plate Company Standard may refer to:
Symbols
* Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs
* Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification
Norms, conventions or requirements
* Standard (metrology), an object th ...
in 1909 to ensure that they would have a steady supply of tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
. Continental's original business consisted only of packers' cans for fruits and vegetables. Given the seasonal nature of this work, the company expanded into general canning
Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although u ...
in 1912. By 1913 the company had acquired all of the interests of a New Jersey corporation also called Continental Can Co., as well as the Export & Domestic Can Co. and the Standard Tin Plate Co. The same year, Continental was incorporated in the state of New York.[
During the 1920s Continental expanded rapidly, purchasing almost 20 competing companies. It opened its first West Coast plant in 1926. In 1928 Continental acquired the third-largest can company in the country, the ]United States Can Company
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...
. By 1934 Continental and its rival, American Can, were producing approximately two-thirds of the 10 million cans made annually in the US. At this time, the company was operating 38 plants in the US and Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
. Continental suffered a drop in its income during the Depression, although by 1932 the company had never reported a money-losing year.[
By the mid-1930s, with 38 plants nationwide, the company employed about 1,800 men and 1,200 women around the Chicago area.][Continental Can Co.]
Encyclopedia of Chicago, Chicago Historical Society, 2004-5
Continental recovered from the Depression years, and by 1940 its operating revenue had increased to $120.7 million from $80.9 million in 1935. In 1940 the company built plants in Canada. Continental expanded during the following decade through acquisitions, and the company entered the fields of paper and fiber containers, bottle caps, and synthetic resins. By the end of the 1940s, the company had 65 plants, including eight plants producing fiber and paper containers, four plants producing crown caps, and one plant producing plastics. By 1954 the company's gross sales reached $616 million, and its net income was approximately $21 million. At that time, Continental was operating 81 plants.[
During the company's first 50 years, it had purchased and absorbed 28 independent can companies, as well as other concerns producing ]fiber drum
A drum (also called a barrel) is a cylindrical shipping container used for shipping bulk cargo. Drums can be made of steel, dense paperboard (commonly called a fiber drum), or plastic, and are generally used for the transportation and storage of ...
s, paper containers, and bottle top
A bottle cap or bottle top is a Closure (container), closure for the top opening of a bottle. A cap is sometimes colourfully decorated with the logo of the brand of contents. Plastic caps are used for plastic bottles, while metal with plastic ba ...
s. In 1956 Continental acquired Hazel-Atlas Glass Co.
The Hazel-Atlas Glass Company was a large producer of machine-molded glass containers headquartered in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was founded in 1902 in Washington, Pennsylvania, as the merger of four companies:
*Hazel Glass and Metals Company ...
, the third-largest US manufacturer of glass containers. Continental then became the first company with a full line of containers in metal, paper, and glass
Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...
. It also purchased Cochrane Foil Company, a manufacturer and distributor of aluminum plates and rigid foil packages for the frozen-food industry and other food suppliers. The company also bought Robert Gair
Robert Gair was a Scottish printer and paper bag maker who invented the folding carton in 1879.
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1839 he came to the United States at age 14. Gair invented the paperboard folding carton by accident when a metal ruler ...
Company, a leading producer of paperboard products. Due to such acquisitions, Continental briefly surpassed American Can's annual sales, topping $1 billion in 1957. By 1960 the company operated 155 plant facilities.[
The introduction of the easy-to-open metal can top in 1963 led to an increase in the use of metal cans rather than glass bottles for beverages. By the end of 1966 over 45% of US beer and over 15% of US soft drinks were packaged in metal cans. That same year Continental introduced the first commercially-practical welded can. In 1969 the company acquired Schmalbach-Lubeca-Werke A.G., the largest packaging producer in the European community. By that time, Continental had 228 manufacturing plants.][
By 1973 the metal can industry was in a crisis due to oversupply and tough competition. Both Continental and American Can were said to have made the wrong decisions in the previous decade by adding capacity for both tin plate and tin-free steel production while the aluminum can was gaining popularity. Another problem was growing public opposition to disposable cans. Continental's profits from domestic can making dropped from $115 million in 1969 to $52 million in 1973. The company closed many old-style integrated manufacturing plants in favor of large automated metal-processing centers and separate can-assembly operations situated near its customers' plants. In 1973 the company developed a system for the ultraviolet curing of inks and coatings on metal plate, and installed a number of such systems.][
]
Continental Group
In 1976, CCC changed its name to the Continental Group
Continental may refer to:
Places
* Continent, the major landmasses of Earth
* Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US
* Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US
Arts and entertainment
* Continental (album), ...
, a conglomerate with operations in many countries,[ but kept "Continental Can" as its packaging unit within Continental Group.][Viatech Continental Can Company, Inc.]
''International Directory of Company Histories'', Vol. 25. St. James Press
Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007.
The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale G ...
, 1999, (at FundingUniverse, retrieved 23 July 2010) In 1987,[United States Can Company, Petitioner, Cross-respondent, v. National Labor Relations Board, Respondent, Cross-petitioner.united Steelworkers of America, Afl-cio-clc, Intervening respondent, Cross-petitioner, United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit. 984 F.2d 864, argued Oct. 21, 1992, decided Jan. 28, 1993]
(retrieved from Justia.com 24 July 2010) the remnants of Continental Can became part of the United States Can Company[ (a subsidiary of Inter-American Packaging)][ and two of its executives left to form ]Silgan Holdings
Silgan Holdings is a Connecticut-based American manufacturing company that produces consumer goods packaging. The company was founded in 1987 by two former executives of Continental Can, Phil Silver and Greg Horrigan – their names contribut ...
. Continental Group was dismantled in 1991. In early 1991, Continental Can Company was ordered to pay $415 million to some 3,700 former employees and members of the United Steel Workers of America, when the courts found that the company had attempted to defraud the employees of pensions during the late 1970s.[ The rights to the name "Continental Can Company" name and logo were sold in 1991 and renamed to the Viatech Continental Can Company, Inc. in October 1992.][ In June 1998 ]Suiza Foods Corporation
Dean Foods was an American food and beverage company and the largest dairy company in the United States. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the company maintained plants and distributors in the United States. Dean Foods had 66 manufacturing faciliti ...
completed its acquisition of Continental Can.[ In July 1999, Suiza sold all of Continental Can's US packaging operations in partial exchange for a minority interest in the purchaser, ]Consolidated Container Company
Consolidated may refer to:
*Consolidated (band)
**''¡Consolidated!'', a 1989 extended play
*Consolidated Aircraft (later Convair), an aircraft manufacturer
*Consolidated city-county
*Consolidated Communications
* Consolidated school district
*Con ...
.["Suiza Foods Corporation Announces Investment in Spanish Dairy Processor Leche Celta and the Sale of Its European Metal Packaging Operations"]
'' Business Wire'', 2000 (retrieved 24 July 2010 from HighBeam Research
HighBeam Research was a paid search engine and full text online archive owned by Gale, a subsidiary of Cengage, for thousands of newspapers, magazines, academic journals, newswires, trade magazines, and encyclopedias in English. It was headquar ...
) As of 2000, the only remaining business of Continental Can is Dixie Union, a small flexible film business based in Kempten, Germany.[
]
Deals
(source[)
* 1945 Continental Can Company, Inc.: 150,000 shares of $3.75 cumulative preferred stock
* 1951 Continental Can Company, Inc.: 104,533 shares $4.25 cumulative second preferred stock (without par value) $15,000,000 3¼% debentures due October 15, 1976
* 1960 Continental Can Company, Inc.: $30,000,000 4⅝% debentures due October 1, 1985
* 1970 Continental Can Company, Inc.: $60,000,000 principal amount 8½% sinking fund debentures due August 1, 1990
* 1974 Continental Can Company, Inc.: 8.85% sinking fund debentures due May 15, 2004
]
Facilities
*Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...
(Headquarters)
*Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
*Itasca, Illinois
Itasca is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 9,543. Located approximately 25 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, Itasca is close to O'Hare International Airport, major expressways and ra ...
* Coffeyville, Kansas
* Roanoke, Virginia
* Dayton, OH
* St. Louis, MO
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which ...
* Syracuse, New York
Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...
* Elkhart, Indiana
* Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
* Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
(cans: Plant 13, machinery: Plant 31)
* Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
* Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...
* Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region.
European ...
* Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...
* North Collins, New York
North Collins is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 3,523 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from its parent town, Collins.
The town of North Collins is in the southern part of the county and is one of the "So ...
* Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
* Paterson, NJ
Paterson ( ) is the largest city in and the county seat of Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.[Passaic, NJ
Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69,781 ...]
(factory on corner of Main Ave. and Brook Ave. along railroad line)
* West Mifflin, PA
* Houston, TX Fiber Drums
* Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
Purchased Hankins Container Company Late 1950s
* Toronto, Ontario
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
Plants 54, 483, 639
* Montreal, Quebec Plant 59
* Winnipeg, Manitoba
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
* Edmonton, Alberta
* Vancouver, British Columbia
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
* Malden, Massachusetts
Malden is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 66,263 people.
History
Malden, a hilly woodland area north of the Mystic River, was settled by Puritans in 1640 on la ...
Plant 57 (closed 1984)
* Weirton, West Virginia
Chairmen
* Lucius D. Clay
General Lucius Dubignon Clay (April 23, 1898 – April 16, 1978) was a senior officer of the United States Army who was known for his administration of occupied Germany after World War II. He served as the deputy to General of the Army Dwight D ...
from 1950 to 1962 "The Papers of Lucius DuBignon Clay - Biographical and Subject Summary"
George C. Marchall Research Foundation[Kisatsky, Deborah: The United States and the European Right, 1945–1955.]
p.11 Ohio State University Press, 2005
* Donald J. Bainton from 1989 to 199
References
{{Reflist, 26em
Packaging companies of the United States
Manufacturing companies established in 1904
American companies established in 1904
1999 disestablishments in the United States
Companies based in Stamford, Connecticut
Defunct manufacturing companies based in Connecticut