History
Chiquita Brands International, Inc. is the final name in a long list of companies whose ultimate origin was the United Fruit Company, formed in 1899 by the merging of the Boston Fruit Company and various fruit exporting concerns controlled by Minor C. Keith. In 1970 it became the United Brands Company when it was purchased by Eli Black. He outbid two other conglomerates, Zapata Corporation and Textron, for a controlling interest in the company. In fact, that is a condensed version of what has actually happened to United Fruit Co., famed in the U.S. for Chiquita bananas, but known to generations of Latin Americans as "el Pulpo" (the Octopus). In 1990 the company became Chiquita Brands International.
On November 29, 2011, the North Carolina Economic Investment Committee approved $22 million in incentives for Chiquita to move its headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina. The same day, Chiquita officially announced the headquarters move. The company cited the growing airport as another reason for the move. Chiquita will take several floors in the NASCAR Plaza tower. Research and development will also move to the Charlotte area.
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“Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.”
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—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Don’t you realize that this is a new empire? Why, folks, there’s never been anything like this since creation. Creation, huh, that took six days, this was done in one. History made in an hour. Why it’s a miracle out of the Old Testament!”
—Howard Estabrook (1884–1978)