1940's Advertising- Swift'ning Traditional Cache

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Hidden : 6/20/2010
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

Elevation 215.2 m.

A series dedicated to 1940's advertising. Each cache is a look back at how the media portraid common products, some good, some bad. All of the locations will have something in common.

Swift'ning-by Swift and Company

Born June 24, 1839, in Sagamore, Mass., Gus Swift actually embarked on his journey into meat industry history at the tender age of 14. Not a fan of formal education, young Gus dropped out after eight years of schooling to seek employment. After trying a number of odd jobs, he began working full-time in his brother Noble's butcher shop at 14.



Two years later, with a $20 loan from his father, Gus started on his own business, buying his first heifer. He sold the meat to generate profits to buy more livestock and, eventually, open his own store in 1859 in Eastham, Mass.

Swift & Company was incorporated in 1885. Located in Chicago's Union Stock Yard, they became one of the largest and most innovative meat packing companies in the U.S.

He is credited with the development of the first practical ice-cooled railroad car which allowed his company to ship dressed meats to all parts of the country and even abroad, which ushered in the "era of cheap beef." Swift pioneered the use of animal by-products for the manufacture of soap, glue, fertilizer, various types of sundries, and even medical products.

Commercial refining of lard, an animal fat, was a natural path of diversification for the meat packers. It was one of many products developed to use the discarded portions of the cattle and hogs that were slaughtered for their meat.



The introduction of cottonseed oil as an ingredient in refined lard later led the meat packers into the production of shortening as well. Many meat packers produced shortenings both with and without vegetable oil.

Two of the products sold under the Swift'ning brand name were Swift's Bland Lard and Swift's Shortening.

Swift'ning Shortening, a lard-based product, was developed by Swift & Company during the 1940's. It was marketed as an all purpose shortening and contained a mixture of both animal and vegetable fats.

By the time Swift passed away in 1903, he had grown his company into a global powerhouse, employing more than 21,000 people and processing more than two million cattle, four million hogs and two million sheep annually. In addition to meatpacking, Swift sold various dairy and grocery items, including Swiftning shortening, Allsweet margerine, Brookfield butter and cheese, and Peter Pan peanut butter. Swift began selling frozen turkeys under the Butterball brand in 1954.

In the early 50s Swift held a contest to name their bland lard, which heretofore had been offered under the name Swift's Bland Lard. The winner got a trip around the world on a prop plane.

Swift began moving into other fields, including insurance and petroleum, in the 1960s, and formed a holding company, Esmark, in 1973. Two years later, Esmark bought International Playtex from Meshulam Riklis' Rapid-American Corporation.

Esmark left the petroleum business in 1980, selling Vickers Petroleum to Mobil, while Swift's fresh meat business was spun off as a separate company, Swift Independent Packing Company (SIPCO) the same year. Esmark went on to purchase Norton Simon Inc. in 1983 before being purchased by Beatrice Foods the next year. ConAgra purchased half of Swift in 1988 and the other half in 1990, the same year ConAgra bought Beatrice Foods.

On July 12, 2007 JBS S.A., the largest beef processor in South America and one of the largest worldwide beef exporters, purchased Swift & Company in a US$1.5 billion all-cash deal. The acquisition makes the newly consolidated JBS Swift Group the largest beef processor in the world. Prior to the deal JBS had market capitalization of US$4.2 billion and sales revenue of $2.1 billion, and operated in 23 plants in Brazil and 5 in Argentina.

Swiftning has not been available for years.

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