What rhymes with “orange”?
The Southern California Fruit Exchange was founded on Aug. 29, 1893. You know it today as Sunkist, a popular brand of orange-related products. From its earliest days, SoCal Fruit/Sunkist played a pivotal role in expanding the orange’s popularity in America and around the world.
California orange-growers suffered from oversupply in the first decade of the 20th century, and by 1907 the state was producing five times the oranges it had grown when Sunkist was first established. In response, the Sunkist cooperative launched the world’s first large-scale advertising campaign for perishable commodities, and this campaign also marks the genesis of “Sunkist,” a modification of “sun-kissed” that was easier to trademark than a hyphenated adjective. By 1914, American orange consumption had risen by 80% per person from pre-Sunkist levels. The following year, Sunkist began marketing lemons as well, pushing back against imports so successfully that the collective controlled 90% of the American lemon market a decade later.
Today, Sunkist licenses its trademark to many companies, most notably to soft-drink maker Dr Pepper Snapple, which makes an orange soda that’s about as far from an orange as you can get while still maintaining a semblance of fruit flavor and color. The collective celebrated its hundredth anniversary with 6,500 members. American citrus-growers produce between 8 million tons and 11 million tons of oranges each year, unless a major weather problem arises.
It was a good year
Looking back, the founding of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NASDAQ:GT) in 1898 seems especially remarkable, for the beginning was anything but auspicious. The 38-year-old founder, Frank A. Seiberling, purchased the company’s first plant with a $3,500 down payment — using money he borrowed from a brother-in-law Lucius C. Miles. The rubber and cotton that were the lifeblood of the industry had to be transported from halfway around the world, to a landlocked town that had only limited rail transportation. Even the man the company’s name memorialized, Charles Goodyear, had died penniless 30 years earlier despite his discovery of vulcanization after a long and courageous search.
Yet the timing couldn’t have been better. The bicycle craze of the 1890s was booming. The horseless carriage, some ventured to call it the automobile, was a wide-open challenge. Even the depression of 1893 was beginning to fade. So on August 29, 1898, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NASDAQ:GT) was incorporated with a capital stock of $100,000.
Production began on bicycle and carriage tires, as well as horseshoe pads and poker chips, later that year. The company’s first 13 employees drew a cumulative payroll of $217.86 after working 10-hour days for no more than a quarter per hour. But demand was brisk, and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NASDAQ:GT) grew quickly. By 1916 it became the world’s largest tire company, and by 1926 it was the world’s largest rubber company of any sort. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NASDAQ:GT) is no longer the world’s largest tire-manufacturer, but it remains the premiere American manufacturer — although its domestic competition is less diverse than it once was. Interestingly, the world’s most prolific tire-maker doesn’t supply any automakers at all: In 2011, LEGO made 381 million toy tires for its toy-building kits.
The article A Big Day in Market History originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Alex Planes.
Fool contributor Alex Planes holds no financial position in any company mentioned here. Add him on Google+ or follow him on Twitter @TMFBiggles for more insight into markets, history, and technology.The Motley Fool recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple.
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