Blue Ribbon Meats history

In 1945, after returning from four years of decorated service overseas in World War II, he took a job with Meyers Meats in Cleveland and began his journey in the Cleveland food service scene.

Blue Ribbon sausage and bacon products have been a part of Texan gatherings since 1946 when the first Blue Ribbon sausage processing plant opened on Cullen Street in Houston, Texas.

Albert married Betty Radis in 1947 and raised twelve children in Orange Village.

In 1948, Albert and three partners went out on their own and purchased a small company, Red Ribbon Meats, located in the Northern Ohio Food Terminal.

His father, called Louis in America, was a renowned chef at the University Club for 30 years and had the first television cooking show in the country (on Channel 5 in Cleveland) during the 1950's.

IBP began in 1961 as Iowa Beef Packers, with a single beef slaughtering plant in the western Iowa town of Denison.

In 1967, IBP introduced a further refinement of the meatpacking process at its Dakota City, Nebraska, plant.

In February 1969, however, a civil antitrust suit successfully contested this acquisition on the grounds that it would threaten competition in the purchasing of cattle in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, and South Dakota.

A 1970 consent decree forbid IBP to acquire any more beef slaughtering or processing plants in those four states for 10 years, and ordered that the properties acquired from Blue Ribbon be sold.

In March 1973, IBP and Holman were indicted on charges of conspiring to bribe supermarket buyers and union officials.

IBP appealed this decision, but sold the smaller of the two plants in 1974.

In November 1975, the New York deal reared its head again when the company named Walter Bodenstein, the son-in-law of the New York meat broker who had made bribes on IBP's behalf, to a high executive position.

In May 1978, the Agriculture Department had dropped an extensive investigation into IBP's suspected attempts to drive other packers out of business after IBP agreed informally not to break the law.

In 1981, IBP was purchased by Occidental Petroleum Corporation, the giant energy conglomerate.

It operates 19 beef and pork plants, and also produces almost 350 allied products such as pharmaceuticals and hides--IBP has built four chrome hide tanneries since 1984 and is now the largest producer of chrome hides in the United States.

Yet another strike began in December 1986.

In 1987, Occidental Petroleum moved to sell off 49 percent of its stock in IBP, reaping a handsome profit.

In 1993, an Iowa jury slapped a $15 million punitive damages penalty on IBP whom it found guilty in a workers' compensation suit brought by a former employee.

In 1994 IBP built ham processing facilities at its Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Madison, Nebraska, locations; purchased Prepared Foods, Inc. from International Multifoods; and bought its first non-United States plant by acquiring beef and agribusiness firm Lakeside Farm Industries in Alberta, Canada.

Despite lower exports and a drop in net sales--brought on by tight livestock supplies, a drop in beef product prices, and an E. Coli scare in Japan--IBP's 1996 earnings were the second highest in its history.