ARMOUR AND COMPANY, one of the largest of meat packing and slaughtering establishments, has its headquarters in Chicago, Ill. It prepares and distributes meats, live stock by products, and various closely related products such as butter, eggs, cheese and poultry. Founded in Chicago in 1867 by Philip D. Armour, the capacity of its original plant was 30,00o hogs per annum. Expansion was rapid and very shortly beef and lamb were added. In 1898 the first of many plants outside of Chicago was opened in Omaha, Neb. In 1900 there was a merger with the Armour Packing Company of Kansas City, Mo., a company organ ized and developed by Philip D. Armour's brothers—the new con cern carrying on under the name of Armour and Company. The business continued to grow, many more plants were established, and in 1923 the physical properties, trade-marks and goodwill of Morris and Company, another long established packing concern, were purchased. This involved the reorganization of the financial structure of Armour and Company and an increase in its capital stock to an aggregate of some $235,000,000. In 1935 Armour and Company had some thirty packing plants, half a hundred produce plants, and some 400 branch houses which distributed its products throughout all the principal consuming centres. Supplementing these was a system of so-called "car routes" whereby shipment of products was made in refrigerator cars direct to dealers on orders previously secured. The Company has plants in South America.
In 1934 the Company's capital structure was reorganized, prop erties and investments were written down, the par value of cer tain classes of stock reduced. Total assets after the reorganiza tion were $295,782,508. The Company did a volume of business amounting to a little less than half a billion dollars in 1934 but the tonnage handled was on about the same basis as in nearly a billion dollar business when prices were normal. (F. E. WH.)