Description
McCormick & Company is an American food company that manufactures, markets, and distributes spices, seasoning mixes, condiments, and other flavoring products to retail outlets, food manufacturers, and foodservice businesses.
Their products are available in many countries and it is the largest producer of spices and related food products worldwide, based on revenue.
A Fortune 500 company, McCormick has approximately 14,000 employees around the globe. The company headquarters moved from Sparks to Hunt Valley, Maryland in the third quarter of 2018.
History
Willoughby M. McCormick (1864–1932), started the business in Baltimore at age 25 in 1889. From one room and a cellar, he sold his initial products door-to-door which included root beer, flavoring extracts, fruit syrups and juices. Seven years later, McCormick bought the F.G. Emmett Spice Company and entered the spice industry. In 1903, Willoughby and his brother Roberdeau incorporated the company in Maine; they reincorporated in Maryland in 1915. Most of the company's assets and records were destroyed in the Great Baltimore Fire of February 1904. However, they constructed a new five-story building on the same site within 10 months in 1905.
The United States Bureau of Chemistry investigated McCormick & Company in 1916 for adulteration in its black pepper product. The court case resulted in a fine and a requirement that the company label the adulterated product as "ground black pepper containing from 10 percent to 28 percent added pepper shells".
Willoughby's nephew Charles P. McCormick (1896–1970), began working for the company in the summer of 1912, during his high school years at Baltimore City College. After graduating in 1915, he attended Johns Hopkins University, and was later elected to the company board of directors in 1925.
Downtown headquarters in 1951, with the company's iconic red and white spice tins and bottles displayed on the roof
Willoughby died on November 4, 1932, and Charles was elected president and chairman of the board at age 36. The big "Mc" became a trademark for nearly all U.S. products in 1941.
Charles P. ("Buzz") McCormick, Jr. was elected president and chief executive officer in 1987 and re-elected CEO and chairman of the board in 1988.
The company celebrated its centennial in 1989 with events primarily for employees and those responsible for its success, and arranged for the musical group Up with People to give a series of performances across the U.S. for schools, churches, hospitals and similar organizations. McCormick is a Fortune 500 company, having annual revenues of $5.6 billion in 2020.
