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Chiquita Brands International history
Chiquita Brands International company history timeline
United Fruit Company was founded in 1899 when the Boston Fruit Company and various fruit exporting concerns controlled by Keith merged.
The United Fruit Company expanded into Honduras and Guatemala with the latter hiring the Company to manage their national postal service in 1901.
In 1903, United Fruit Company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became the first company to use refrigeration during open sea transport.
In 1904, Guatemalan dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera gives the United Fruit Company a "90-year concession" to build and manage the country's major rail line.
Although United's share of the banana market had been declining since 1910, the company still had a near monopoly of the market.
1916 advertisement for the United Fruit Company Steamship Service, 1916, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company#mediaviewer/File:United_Fruit_Ad_1916.jpg.
Boston: United Fruit Company, 1917.
In Winter 1928 plantation workers in the Colombian town Cienaga went on strike for better wages and working conditions.
A much later acquisition of Samuel Zemurray's Cuyamel Fruit Company in 1930 led to new management three years later under Cuyamel's largest shareholder, Zemurray himself.
By 1930, the company's fleet had grown to 95 ships.
The singer in the original 1944 recording was Patti Clayton, the first in a long line of Miss Chiquitas.
The song first hit the airwaves in 1944 when Miss Chiquita made her debut.
It was not until 1944 that the Chiquita brand name was introduced.
Born in 1944, the company's Miss Chiquita character and jingle have won friends for the company's products around the world.
In 1944, the newly-elected Guatemalan president Juan José Arévalo Bermejo tried to undo what his dictatorial predecessor, Jose Urbico, had done by giving the United Fruit Company countless perks and enormous influence.
In 1944, the company premiered the "Chiquita Banana" advertising jingle, which extolled the virtues of the fruit as well as when to eat them and how to store them.
The song, which had an infectious calypso beat, began with the words "I'm Chiquita Banana, and I've come to say." The brand name Chiquita was registered as a trademark in 1947.
But when Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, a similarly-minded leftist, became president in 1951, concern only increased.
When Guatemala’s democratically elected president Jacobo Arbenz attempted to curtail the power of United Fruit Company, it cooperated with its allies in the US government and engineered a coup in 1954.
Carl H. Lindner's American Financial Corporation, a large Ohio-based holding company founded in 1955, retains 44 percent of the voting stock of Chiquita Brands.
By 1955, United Fruit Company was processing 2.7 billion pounds (1.2 billion kilograms) of fruit a year.
In 1961 United Fruit supplied the government with ships for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
A likeness of Miss Chiquita has appeared on the distinctive Blue Stickers that identify Chiquita bananas and other products since 1963.
In 1966 AMK, originally a producer of milkbottle caps, had acquired a third of the common shares of John Morrell and Company (a meatpacker once involved with orange-trading during the early nineteenth century) and in December of the following year acquired the rest.
In 1966 United Fruit purchased the A&W product line, which included bottled soft drinks and drive-in restaurants.
In 1966, the company expanded into Europe.
In 1972 it had been forced by the government to sell its Guatemalan operations to Del Monte.
Since 1973 Lindner had been amassing stock in United.
Baskin-Robbins was sold in 1973.
In April 1974 Central American governments began levying a large export tax on their bananas.
Then, in September 1974, hurricane Fifi bit Central America, wiping out 70 percent of the company's Honduran plantations and causing losses of more than $20 million.
The sale was considered a tremendous success, but apparently it was not enough for Black, who committed suicide on February 3, 1975.
In April 1975 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged United Brands with having paid a bribe of $1.25 million and having agreed to pay another $1.25 million to a Honduran official in exchange for a reduction in export taxes.
In May 1975 Wallace Booth, a former executive at Rockwell International, succeeded the string of chairmen who had headed the company by committee-rule in the wake of Eli Black's death.
"Sorting Out the Wreckage," Fortune, June 1975.
After the suicide of Black in 1975, the company was acquired by Seymour Milstein and Paul Milstein.
Fox, John M., "How 'Chiquita' Helped United Fruit," Agribusiness Worldwide, February/March 1980.
Grigsby, Jefferson, "The Wonder Is That It Works at All," Forbes, February 18, 1980.
In 1980, Chiquita was an official sponsor of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.
Beginning in 1982 he accelerated his purchases and prepared to overtake the company two years later by buying out the company's principal shareholders: Max Fisher and the Milsteins.
The A&W restaurant chain was sold in 1982.
In fiscal 1983 … it lost $167 million on revenues of $2.4 billion." Another Fortune writer called the ailing company "a case study in corporate calamity."
Until 1984 a series of chairmen and presidents, including Paul and Seymour Milstein, managed to keep United Brands afloat, but profits slipped and net losses increased steadily.
In 1984, Cincinnati investor Carl Lindner, Jr. became the controlling investor in United Brands.
"Lindner's Buildup at United Brands," Business Week, August 26, 1985.
Chiquita Brands and Fyffes were both owned by United Fruit Company until 1986.
Miss Chiquita was depicted as a banana until 1987, when artist Oscar Grillo, the creator of the Pink Panther, transformed her into a woman.
In 1987 United Brands was acquired by Carl H. Lindner's American Financial Corp.
In 1988 Lindner, after beginning to reduce his stake in the company, quieted rumors that he was planning to either take the company private or sell it.
Piero Gleijeses, “The Agrarian Reform of Jacobo Arbenz,” Journal of Latin American Studies 21, 3 (1989): 453.
By 1990 the Chiquita name had been sufficiently rehabilitated for the company to adopt the name Chiquita Brands International, Inc.
In 1990, Lindner changed the company's name to Chiquita Brands International in an attempt to capitalize on the worldwide brand name recognition.
The company's decision to change its name in 1990 from United Brands to Chiquita Brands International reflected the importance the company attached to the worldwide recognition of the company's Chiquita brand name.
In 1990, the company renamed itself Chiquita Brands International, as it undertook major investments in Costa Rica.
However, the company began to see a decline in Honduran operations during the first half of 1990.
Mejia, John, "Chiquita, Polly Peck Deny Reports of Del Monte Sale," Supermarket News, March 4, 1991.
In 1991, Chiquita built a state-of-the-art banana processing plant in Costa Rica.
——, "Yes, They Have Too Many Bananas," New York Times, July 8, 1992.
Although an agreement between Chiquita and its growers, securing such prices, remained in effect until 1992, it did little to assuage flaring tempers or halt strikes by underpaid workers.
Entered Difficult Period Starting in 1992
After eight years of solid performance, however, the company faltered in 1992, reporting a $284 million net loss.
In 1992 Chiquita diversified once again with the acquisition of Friday Canning Corporation, a leading private label vegetable canner.
Although the emphasis has been on diversifying its product line under Lindner, Chiquita began to move out of the meat processing business in 1992.
In 1993, the company was hit by European tariffs on the import of Latin American bananas.
In 1994, The first Chiquita farms were certified by the Rainforest Alliance’s Better Banana Project.
In 1994 the company celebrated the 50th anniversary of Miss Chiquita and held a national casting call to select a Miss Chiquita.
In 1995, the company sold the John Morrell meat business that was part of the original AMK Corporation.
"chiquita buying stokely for $110 million in stock." reuters, 18 september 1997.
Other than a small profit recorded in 1997, Chiquita operated in the red throughout this period.
In 1997 bananas accounted for 60 percent of Chiquita's total sales, with other products generating the remaining 40 percent.
The company's expansion into canning operations accelerated in 1997 with the acquisition of Owatonna Canning Company and American Fine Foods.
In 1997 Chiquita won an important trade victory.
At Second Harvest's annual Hunger's Hope awards dinner in June 1998, the company was one of several United States corporations presented with a Hunger's Hope Partnership Award for their contributions of food, funds, services, technical assistance, or personal commitments.
In 1998 the Cincinnati Enquirer published a series of articles accusing Chiquita of a variety of misdeeds, including workers’ rights violations; the newspaper retracted the articles after it was learned that some of the evidence on which the stories were based had been obtained illegally.
For the first quarter of 1998, Chiquita reported net income of $41.1 million on sales of $717.2 million.
Chiquita won a face-off with its hometown newspaper in the summer of 1998.
The Stokely acquisition was formally completed in 1998.
In 1998, the world's largest banana processing facility debuted in Costa Rica.
In 2000 Chiquita Brands' financial situation worsened as it lost $94.8 million on sales of $2.25 billion.
Its financial situation deteriorating, Chiquita filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 reorganization plan in November 2001, emerging the following March with a stronger financial structure.
In November 2001, Chiquita filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to restructure the company.
In 2001, the EU dismantled their banana import policy that favored European companies.
Also in 2002, Chiquita joined the Ethical Trading Initiative and was named as a top "green stock" by The Progressive Investor. It emerged from the bankruptcy on 19 March 2002, ending Cincinnati businessman Carl H. Lindner, Jr.'s control of the company.
In 2002 the company sold two United States produce distribution companies as well as five of the cargo ships in its fleet.
The revenue figure was about $1 billion higher than that of 2002, a jump largely attributed to the acquisition of Atlanta AG.
Also in 2002, Chiquita joined the Ethical Trading Initiative and was named as a top "green stock" by The Progressive Investor.
A 2003 report from the Organization of American States stated "that a ship used by Chiquita's Colombian subsidiary may also have been used for an illicit shipment of 3,000 rifles and 2.5 million bullets for Colombian paramilitary groups." Chiquita denied any connection.
As it focused further on its core fresh produce business, the company elected in the fall of 2003 to launch a line of packaged, fresh-cut fruit products bearing the Chiquita brand.
In 2003, Chiquita acquired the German produce distribution company, Atlanta AG. It also sold its processed foods division to Seneca Foods that year.
In a signal that the company was transitioning from restructuring to growth, Freidheim retired from his positions as CEO and chairman in the early months of 2004.
In 2004, 100% of Chiquita farms were certified compliant with the SA8000 labor standard and the company earned the "Corporate Citizen of the Americas Award" from a Honduran charity.
The company got off to a rough start the following year, however, in part because of higher fuel costs and ongoing fruit shortages resulting from damage wrought in late 2005 by Hurricane Stan and Tropical Storm Gamma.
Also hurting Chiquita were new rules governing banana imports implemented in January 2006 by the European Union.
In 2007 Chiquita pleaded guilty to charges of making illegal protection payments to a right-wing militia in Colombia, for which it was fined $25 million as part of a settlement with the United States Department of Justice.
Council on Hemispheric Affairs. “Peeling Back the Truth on Guatemalan Bananas.” Council on Hemispheric Affairs, July 28, 2010. http://www.coha.org/peeling-back-the-truth-on-the-guatemalan-banana-industry/.
Image: Flickr: Winter in southern Germany – 02/2010 – Can you enjoy this? Or you want sun?…:)
Jason Colby, The Business of Empire: United Fruit, Race, and United States Expansion in Central America (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011), 119.
Former Charlotte City Council member John Lassiter, who heads the board, said the new owners would inherit Chiquita's responsibilities under a 2011 deal that brought the company to the city.
Berman, Gillian. “Next Chapter In The Global Banana Trade’s Bloody History: ‘Walmartization,’” Huffington Post, March 10, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/10/worlds-largest-banana-company-_n_4935955.html.
A$611 million takeover offer by Cutrale of Brazil and Safra group in August 2014 was rejected outright by Chiquita, with the company refusing to meet with the bidders to discuss the offer.
She completed this project in Fall 2014 as part of Doctor Clif Stratton’s inaugural Digital History Project for History 105, which included an emphasis on visual and web-based presentation.
In 2015 Chiquita launched the Just Smile! campaign as the creative platform to connect Chiquita bananas and consumers in a playful way.
She was also inducted into the 2018 Advertising Week Madison Avenue Walk of Fame in 2018, which celebrates the finest advertising icons in the industry.
And, in 2019, Miss Chiquita once more joined the Madison Avenue Walk of Fame, this time to celebrate her 75th anniversary.
Hong Kong’s election: one winner, zero opponents May 16, 2022
"Chiquita Brands International, Inc ." International Directory of Company Histories. . Retrieved June 22, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/chiquita-brands-international-inc
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