Dart Industries Inc. history

Earl Tupper formed his first company, the Earl S. Tupper Company, in 1938, after working in the plastics division of DuPont, a scientific research company, for one year.

By 1942 Tupper had developed a plastic that was both durable and safe for food storage.

In 1946 he founded a new company, Tupperware, and began manufacturing food storage and serving containers with Poly-T. The containers were enhanced the following year with the unique Tupperware seal, an innovation that consumers would still find useful more than 50 years later.

In 1947, Tupperware sales reached $5 million.

By 1948, Tupper had heard about Wise's success and contacted her to find out more.

Tupper hired her in 1951 to create a direct selling system for his company.

The company's rapid success can be attributed to its recruitment of almost 9,000 independent consultants by 1954, most of them women, and their enthusiastic spread of Tupperware parties.

In 1960, the Court ruled against fixing wholesale prices, a decision critical to the growth of the discounting business.

Sales exceeded the half billion dollar mark in 1976.

In 1977, elder son Robert joined his father's company and started Crown Books Corporation.

In 1979, Herbert and Robert started Trak Auto Corporation, selling auto parts and accessories such as mufflers, batteries, pressure gauges, and seat cushions for 35 to 51 percent below suggested retail prices.

In 1981, the Hafts began cutting costs at Dart Drug.

In 1983, Crown Books went public.

Sales continued to fall, slipping six percent in 1984, from $827 million to $777 million.

Tupperware finally took action, bringing in a new management team in 1985.

In 1986 Dart and Kraft reversed their ill-fated merger.

The company's new microwave cookware did very well and by 1987 had shown significant growth.

In 1990, it hired Morison Cousins, an established product designer, to make its household goods more modern and appealing to women of the 1990s.

In another management shift, Rick Goings, executive at direct sales leader Avon, took over as president of Tupperware in 1992.

Shares of Premark International rose from $48 at the beginning of 1993 to $88 at the end of the year, due in large part to Tupperware's recovery.

In May 1994, one of the other shareholders of Shoppers Food Warehouse exercised its right to reacquire one share of Shoppers Food Warehouse stock from Dart Group.

During 1995, both Crown Books and Trak Auto continued their transition to larger stores.

The shift in both chains to larger superstores should continue to pay off. For example, in January 1996, Trak Auto moved into a new territory, Pittsburgh, with the acquisition of 14 auto parts stores which will be converted to Super Trak stores or Super Trak Warehouses.

Although sales in the Far East continued to decline as the economic crisis there deepened, Tupperware hoped its expansion into India, Russia, and China in 1997 would offset the loss in sales.

Relying on independent consultants rather than employees for sales, the company generated more than $1 billion in revenues in 1998.

At the end of 2000, more than four hundred mall kiosks showcased Tupperware products, while the company and its sales associates reached millions of new buyers over the Internet.

In 2002, the company forged a deal with Target Corporation (see entry), allowing the big chain to sell Tupperware in its stores, with the help of local Tupperware demonstrators.

Dart acquired a significant real estate portfolio which included the former Courtyard Marriott Hotel, which had been closed since 2008, and the Cayman Islands Yacht Club.

• Integrated Dart production equipment into our Brazil facility (acquired in 2012) and introduced Dart products into the Brazilian marketplace.

• Dart's first international location, Cradley Heath-United Kingdom, celebrated its 25th Anniversary in November 2013.