Growth
The company changed its name to the Borden Condensed Milk Company in 1899, and became the Borden Company in 1919. It expanded rapidly, buying numerous dairies, ice cream manufacturers, cheese producers, and mincemeat processors. Taking advantage of its many herds of cattle, the company became involved in rendering and the manufacture of adhesives. In World War II, Borden pioneered the American manufacture of non-dairy creamer, instant coffee and powdered foods.
Borden became a holding company in 1929, but its operations were re-unified in 1936 and its subsidiaries became divisions. Borden and other dairy companies were investigated in 1938 for violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, but the charges were dropped after Borden signed a consent decree in 1940.
In the 1950s, Borden moved into the printing ink, fertilizer, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics business. By 1961, it was making 7 percent of all raw PVC in the United States. By 1968, Borden's international chemical and petroleum divisions had grown so large that Borden created the Borden Inc. International division to manage them. The company owned the Danish company Cocio from 1976 to 1999.
In 1987, Borden spun off some of its chemicals business in a public offering. Borden retained a small financial investment in the new company, known legally as Borden Chemicals & Plastics Operating Limited Partnership (BCPOLP)
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Famous quotes containing the word growth:
“But parents can be understanding and accept the more difficult stages as necessary times of growth for the child. Parents can appreciate the fact that these phases are not easy for the child to live through either; rapid growth times are hard on a child. Perhaps it’s a small comfort to know that the harder-to-live-with stages do alternate with the calmer times,so parents can count on getting periodic breaks.”
—Saf Lerman (20th century)
“There are enough fagots and waste wood of all kinds in the forests of most of our towns to support many fires, but which at present warm none, and, some think, hinder the growth of the young wood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The windy springs and the blazing summers, one after another, had enriched and mellowed that flat tableland; all the human effort that had gone into it was coming back in long, sweeping lines of fertility. The changes seemed beautiful and harmonious to me; it was like watching the growth of a great man or of a great idea. I recognized every tree and sandbank and rugged draw. I found that I remembered the conformation of the land as one remembers the modelling of human faces.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)