Sexton Foods - John Sexton & Co Modernization

John Sexton & Co Modernization

By 1912, Sexton had out grown the Lake & Franklin location. In 1913, Sexton purchased a 1-acre (4,000 m2) parcel of land on the north side of the Chicago River on the corner of Illinois & Orleans Streets. The majority of Sexton’s customers at that time were not in Chicago. Access to the railroads was critical to growing the business. Institutional customers throughout the country would order groceries by the railcar from Sexton Quality Foods. Sexton wanted his new building to be able to receive and dispatch rail shipments directly. In 1913, construction of a 300,000-square-foot (28,000 m2), 6 story, fire sprinklered, multi-use building designed by architect Alfred S. Alschuler was started.

In 1915, Sexton moved into the new building that housed the corporate offices, sales offices, country division, dry goods warehouse, food laboratory, refrigeration plant and the Sexton Quality Foods manufacturing division, the Sunshine Kitchens, which produce private label sauces, soups and specialty products exclusively sold under the John Sexton & Co banner. The first floor was divided into railcar receiving, railcar shipping, country parcel shipping, city delivery and city receiving. The building was large enough to unload three railcars simultaneous.

By 1921, John Sexton had established distribution warehouses in San Francisco, Dallas and Omaha. Part of the reason was to improve customer service by reducing the time between order and delivery. In addition, a majority of the canned fruits, jellies and preserves were grown and packed on the west coast. Considerable freight expense could be saved by dividing the products accordingly regional demand. These warehouses would later become important branches for Sexton Quality Foods .

In 1924, John Sexton decided to modernize the company's city delivery fleet by purchasing 26 electric trucks from The Commercial Truck Company of America Philadelphia, PA. and purchasing 6 gasoline 1.5 ton 6-wheeled trucks manufactured by Diamond T of Chicago. The modernization retired 50 horses, 35 grocery wagons and saved $12,000 in the first year. Each CT Electric Truck averaged 12 miles (19 km) per delivery day, were extremely reliable, easy to drive and well adapted for city deliveries However, in cold weather, batteries were less efficient and the hard rubber tires had poor traction on snow covered streets. The result was a diminished range for the electric trucks. The CT Electric Trucks were in service until the late 1930s and were gradually phased out as the Chicago area expanded into the suburbs, the delivery route mileage increased, the roads got better and commercial truck reliability improved. The 6 Diamond T Trucks were used for suburban Chicago deliveries and averaged 180 miles (290 km) each per delivery day in 1924.

In 1897, Sexton Quality Foods began publishing a mail order catalog targeted to the rural customers that carried food and farm supplies. Orders were shipped from Chicago via rail to regional terminals where railway express would make the final delivery to the customer. Sexton Quality Foods catalog business was an important division for years. It was ultimately led by John Sexton’s second oldest son, Franklin Sexton who later led the coffee and tea division and became the company treasurer. Known as the “Country Division”, the majority of the products sold were coffee, spices, flour, canned fruits and canned vegetables. However, paint, motor oil, nails, roof tar and canvas were also sold. The Sexton Country Division flourished until automobiles became affordable. As rural automobile ownership increased, the Country Division slowed. Rural customers were more likely to drive to town to make frequent smaller purchases rather than large orders from Chicago. The last country division catalog was published in the late 1930s.