McCormick & Company history

By 1894, the company had begun to export overseas.

In 1896 the company took a crucial step forward by acquiring Philadelphia-based F.G. Emmett Spice Company and firmly committing itself to the spice industry.

In 1902 the company acquired a four-story plant and unveiled the Banquet Brand for its line of spices and mustards.

Although in 1904 a great fire in Baltimore destroyed the majority of the company's assets and records, temporary quarters were quickly established, and the company eventually regained its foothold through new product introductions.

In 1910 the company was among the first in the country to introduce gauze-pouch tea bags.

Willoughby's nephew, Charles P. McCormick, joined the company as a part-time shipping clerk in 1912; years later, Charles would prove instrumental in resuscitating the business following Willoughby's death.

The United States Bureau of Chemistry investigated McCormick & Company in 1916 for adulteration in its black pepper product.

In 1921 it started construction of a new corporate headquarters: a nine-story building, replete with printing plant, analytical lab, machine shop, cafeteria, and railroad siding, overlooking the inner harbor of Baltimore.

Sales reached $5 million in 1928, prompting the company to schedule office openings in Houston and San Francisco within the next few years.

Willoughby died on November 4, 1932, and Charles was elected president and chairman of the board at age 36.

McCormick's unique views and experiences were published in book form in 1938 as Multiple Management (reprinted as The Power of People) and The McCormick System of Management.

In 1947, McCormick gained coast-to-coast distribution with the acquisition of A. Schilling & Company of San Francisco.

Other acquisitions included Baker Extract Co. in 1962, Cake Mate cake decorating in 1967, Childers Foods (later part of Golden West Foods) in 1968, and Tubed Products, an Easthampton, Massachusetts contract food packer and producer of plastic tubes, also in 1968. It acquired Ben-Hur Products, a similar California-based company, in 1953, and Canada's largest spice firm, Gorman Eckert & Co.

In 1959 it introduced its Gourmet line of spices.

Gilroy Foods of Gilroy, California became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1961.

In 1962, while searching for a 50-acre plot near Baltimore to satisfy its needs for expansion, the company learned of a much larger piece of commercial property whose developers were in financial trouble.

Charles P. McCormick retired in 1969 and was named chairman emeritus and died the following year of a heart attack.

Despite the regular introduction of new products, new slogans, new subsidiaries, and new distribution arrangements, McCormick's core industry had suffered from slowing growth almost since the time of C. P. McCormick's death in 1970.

McCormick acquired Golden West Foods, a frozen foods manufacturer and distributor in Gilroy, California, in 1973 and entered that field under the Schilling brand label.

The McCormick (east) and Schilling (west) retail units were consolidated to form a Grocery Products Division in 1975 with headquarters in Baltimore.

An immense Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical firm, Sandoz succeeded in acquiring almost five percent of McCormick's nonvoting stock in 1979 at $19 a share; it then offered to buy the remainder of the company for $37 a share.

McCormick sued Sandoz in May 1980 and by September Sandoz agreed to relinquish its efforts to purchase McCormick and sold the shares that it acquired in its attempt to purchase the company.

Setco, a plastic bottles producer in Culver City, California, and Stange, a specialty flavorings and colorings company of Chicago, became subsidiaries in 1981.

In one of its best years, 1983, it reported a strong profit of $13 million on revenues of $86 million.

The company acquired Paterson Jenks, a publicly held United Kingdom corporation, in 1984, and Schwartz, the largest British spice line.

The company unveiled a new gourmet line of spices in 1985, supported by a massive consumer education campaign and the slogan: "McCormick/Schilling Gourmet.

The spice company's modern rebirth came with the ascension of Charles P. McCormick, Jr., grandnephew of the founder, to the positions of president and CEO in 1987.

The company celebrated its centennial in 1989 with events primarily for employees and those responsible for its success, and arranged for the musical group Up with People to give a series of performances across the United States for schools, churches, hospitals and similar organizations.

In 1990, McCormick purchased an interest in the Old Bay seasoning brand, famous in the Chesapeake Bay region for its use in preparing and steaming the local seafood delicacy of blue crabs.

Three years later, a Financial World article recorded chairperson Harry Wells's plans to build the subsidiary, with operating assets of close to $300 million, into a $1 billion operation by 1991.

Assisted by then COO Bailey A. Thomas (elected chairperson and CEO in 1993), McCormick sold off the real estate and underperforming food divisions and sunk some $200 million into consumer marketing and product development.

Unfortunately, Bailey Thomas was not able to see the fruits of his labor--he died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1994 and was replaced by H. Eugene Blattman as CEO.

In 1995, the company continued its acquisition strategy in Europe, Asia, and India, but also announced a restructuring of the entire company, including staff reductions, plant and departmental consolidations, and a streamlined yet more aggressive marketing campaign.

Also sold in 1996 were Gilroy Foods and Gilroy Energy, as well as Giza National Dehydration of Cairo, Egypt.

McCormick Canada acquired the French's dry seasoning line in 1997.

The company acquired Ducros of France in 2000, later renamed McCormick France.

In 2003, McCormick was added to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index; acquired UniqSauces of the UK and Zatarain's of Louisiana; and sold its packaging businesses, Setco and Tubed Products, as well as its Jenks brokerage business assets.

In 2007, the company started a new advertising campaign to encourage consumers to dispose of older packages of spices, by pointing out that any of their packages that list their address as "Baltimore, MD 21202" are over 15 years old.

In 2008, McCormick acquired Billy Bee Honey Products of Canada, and the Lawry's brand of seasonings and marinades in its largest acquisition in company history for the next ten years.

In 2011, the company acquired Kitchen Basics, an Ohio-based brand of shelf-stable liquid stock, for $38 million.

In mid-2013, the company completed its acquisition of Wuhan Asia-Pacific Condiments Co.

In June 2015, McCormick purchased Stubb's marinades, BBQ Sauce and rubs for $100 million.

Late in 2016, the company acquired Enrico Giotti SpA, a private Italian flavorings company, in a $127 million deal.

In 2017, McCormick purchased Reckitt Benckiser's Food Division ("RB Foods"). At over four billion dollars, it topped the Lawry's acquisition a decade earlier, to become the largest acquisition in the company's history.

The company brought its first AI-developed line of seasoning mixes to market in 2019, which were called "One" for making one-dish meals.