Gustavus Franklin Swift is known for founding a meat-packing empire in the Midwest. He was in the meat industry from a young adolescent to the day he died. Swift transformed the way meat was transported and one of the first to utilize an assembly line.
Gustavus Swift began his life and occupation in Sagamore, Massachusetts. He worked for his older brother that owned a butcher shop when he was fourteen-years-old and was always wanting to find ways to innovate. Two years later his father gave him money to start his own butcher business, and Gustavus proceeded to purchase a heifer with the money, butcher it, and sell the meat out of a covered wagon and repeated the process. He soon took a four hundred dollar loan from his uncle to expand his business and later had enough money to open his own butcher …show more content…
Consumers were boycotting his meat because the idea of meat that was not local was foreign to them. To overcome this problem, Swift put up large-scale advertising and put on campaigns to win the confidence of his consumers and the people of the United States.1
Swift’s campaigns and advertisements paid off and in 1885 Swift and Company was incorporated and grew at an explosive rate. The company was one of the first to accomplish “vertical integration” in which it had departments for purchasing, production, shipping, sales, and marketing. The company was also one of the first to utilize the assembly line. Henry Ford stated in his autobiography, My Life and Work, that “It was a visit to a Chicago slaughterhouse which opened my eyes to the virtues of employing a moving conveyor system and fixed work stations in industrial applications”.
Plants were established in St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Fort Worth, and other cattle cities, and then the Swift and Company went international. He captured the British market, and exported beef by creating a refrigerated compartment on ships to hold the
Gustavus Swift began his life and occupation in Sagamore, Massachusetts. He worked for his older brother that owned a butcher shop when he was fourteen-years-old and was always wanting to find ways to innovate. Two years later his father gave him money to start his own butcher business, and Gustavus proceeded to purchase a heifer with the money, butcher it, and sell the meat out of a covered wagon and repeated the process. He soon took a four hundred dollar loan from his uncle to expand his business and later had enough money to open his own butcher …show more content…
Consumers were boycotting his meat because the idea of meat that was not local was foreign to them. To overcome this problem, Swift put up large-scale advertising and put on campaigns to win the confidence of his consumers and the people of the United States.1
Swift’s campaigns and advertisements paid off and in 1885 Swift and Company was incorporated and grew at an explosive rate. The company was one of the first to accomplish “vertical integration” in which it had departments for purchasing, production, shipping, sales, and marketing. The company was also one of the first to utilize the assembly line. Henry Ford stated in his autobiography, My Life and Work, that “It was a visit to a Chicago slaughterhouse which opened my eyes to the virtues of employing a moving conveyor system and fixed work stations in industrial applications”.
Plants were established in St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Fort Worth, and other cattle cities, and then the Swift and Company went international. He captured the British market, and exported beef by creating a refrigerated compartment on ships to hold the