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A modest beginning as a community
proposition
See also:
Growing an American Tradition, Mt. Olive's 80th anniversary
publication
Mt. Olive Pickle
Company, Inc., located at the Corner of Cucumber & Vine in Mount Olive,
North Carolina, was originally founded for the purpose of brining
cucumbers to be sold to other pickling firms.
When this initial plan
didn't exactly work out, the young company found itself in sort of a,
well, you know.
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A scene from our
Packing Department in the late 1940s, above. Some of these
same employees appear in a retirement photo taken about 20 years
later, shown elsewhere on this page.
Photo, courtesy Kraft Historical Files. |
Fortunately, local
business people saw the promise in creating a market for local farmers.
In a rural town like Mount Olive, anything that was good for farmers was
good for the whole local economy. So,
resourcefulness prevailed, a new plan was prepared, and the
company quickly began processing and packing pickles itself. From a
modest beginning in 1926, with only a 3,600 square foot building and
$19,500 in capital, Mt. Olive has grown to be the best selling brand of
pickles in the Southeast, and the second best-selling brand of pickles in the country.
The beginning
It
all started in the mid 1920s with Shickrey Baddour, a Lebanese immigrant
from nearby Goldsboro, who saw opportunity in the wasted cucumber crop
of area farmers. Baddour came up with the idea of buying the cucumbers,
putting them in a brining tank and selling the brined cucumbers, or
brine stock, to other pickle firms. Baddour enlisted the aid of George
Moore, a sailor from Wilmington who had worked in a Castle Hayne pickle
plant. The plan didn’t work the way they had envisioned, however: they
had no buyers for their product.
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Mt. Olive Pickle
Company's. first truck, 1939. Photo, courtesy Kraft
Historical files. |
A new plan
By January, 1926, a new
plan was put into place through the efforts of a group of local business
people, who formally established the Mt. Olive Pickle Company, Inc. to
pack and sell its own pickles. Thirty-seven original shareholders put
forward the capital to get the company started in what all viewed as a
"community proposition." The board of directors
hired Moore as factory superintendent and Baddour as salesman, and it
purchased one acre of land from farmer J.A. Westbrook for $1,000. The
land is part of the current manufacturing site today. Westbrook’s
home, included in Mount Olive’s historic district, still stands across
from the plant.
Early records indicate
that all production that first year was done by hand: the cucumbers were
taken from the vats to nearby tables, where old coffee pots were used to
pour syrup into jars.
Ahead of its time
Over the years, Mt.
Olive earned a reputation as being ahead of its time. In 1943, the
company instituted a profit sharing plan for its employees, making it
one of the first 200 companies in the country to do so. (It doesn’t
break the $1 million sales mark until 1947.) Later, in 1959, it put into
place an Employee Community Fund. The program started with about $1,000.
Over the years, the fund, governed by a committee of employees, has
contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to community organizations.
Today, participating employees contribute 30 cents out of every $100 of
gross wages, which the company matches.
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Employees at their
retirement from Mt. Olive Pickle in 1969, above. Some of these
employees are also seen in a photo of the Packing Department taken
about 20 years earlier. The pickle lunch boxes they are holding
contain their profit sharing checks, which at the time were awarded
in a lump-sum payment at retirement. |
Place in history
Pickles have been
around for about 4,000 years. But researchers from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture Food Fermentation Lab at N.C. State University finally
unlocked the secret of controlled fermentation through research done at
Mt. Olive Pickle Company in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The research
paved the way for better pickles throughout the industry. In 1969, Mt.
Olive became the first food processor in the nation to use high fructose
corn syrup in its products in place of sugar. Another first
come in 2002, when the company introduced the first line of
No Sugar Added sweet pickle
products, using the no calorie sweetener Splenda.
Mt. Olive celebrated
its 80th anniversary in 2006. The company is the largest privately held
pickle company in the U.S., with continued sales growth into new
markets.
“Our
business decisions continue to be guided by basic tenets that have
served our Company well over the years: 1) provide customers with
quality products, good value and superior service, 2) earn shareholders
a fair return on investment, 3) be a progressive employer and 4) remain
a valued corporate citizen.” So writes Company President Bill Bryan to
shareholders in the 2001 annual report.
Those tenets obviously served the company well for its first 80 years, and
it’s a good bet they will hold true for the next 80, too.
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