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 no ...

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

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in 1915.The Cudahy Packing Company
First Mortgage 5% Gold Bonds March 2, 1922 The Milwaukee Sentinel page 7 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 Philip Danforth Armour Sr. (16 May 1832 – 6 January 1901) was an American meatpacking industrialist who founded the Chicago-based firm of Armour & Company. Born on an upstate New York farm, he made $8,000 in the California gold rush, 185 ...

, 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. The Ladies' home journal (1948) (14786167483)

The Ladies' home journal (1948) (14786167483)

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. PUREX is the ''de facto'' standard aqueous nuclear reprocessing method for the recovery of uranium and plutonium fr ...

acquired Old Dutch Cleanser from Cudahy.

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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 ...

. 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. and operations in

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Saint Joseph Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers of ...

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, Wichita,

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, and

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, as well as distribution operations in 97 cities. The business was hit by the Great Depression, 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

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, 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 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of D ...

. The company was acquired by

General Host General Host Corp. (formerly known as General Baking Company) was a New York-based food and food-related company. It was also the owner of Frank's Nursery & Crafts until the company's bankruptcy in 2004. History Early years and Bond Bread The ...

in 1968. The Cudahy meat packing business was sold to management in 1981 and renamed 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.

References

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History

References

Further reading