Bemis Company 2007 Annual Report - IR Solutions

Sesquicentennia
HISTORY OF BEMIS
CELEBRATING 150 YEARS
In 1858, 25-year-old Judson Moss Bemis founded J.M. Bemis & Company in
St. Louis, Missouri to produce the nation’s first high-quality, machine-sewn
textile bags. With only $2,000 of his own savings, six sewing machines,
two printing presses, and some wooden type, Bemis grew his small business
into the largest bag manufacturing company in the United States. In the business’
early days, Bemis educated himself about the bag manufacturing trade by wandering the
St. Louis levee and examining the goods stacked there. Since millers of the time mistrusted
machine-sewn bags, fearing they would not be as strong as their more common, hand-sewn
counterparts, Bemis unconditionally guaranteed every bag he sold and quickly won over
skeptics with his high-quality products. The first Bemis factory was located on the second floor
of a machine shop and had only three employees, but the company’s early success soon allowed
it to move to a larger headquarters.
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2007 Annual Report
Bemis bags quickly gained popularity in St. Louis,
and the young company began to grow. In 1870,
the company expanded its business from the simple
manufacture of cotton bags to the milling of cotton
to produce the cloth used for bags by establishing
the Home Cotton Mills in St. Louis. Bemis’ growth
continued in the 1880s as Minneapolis, Minnesota eclipsed St. Louis as the center of
milling activity in the United States. Bemis opened its first branch factory in Minneapolis
in 1881. On May 18, 1885, the prosperous company incorporated as Bemis Bro. Bag
Company under Missouri state law. Advertisements and promotional materials of the
time featured Bemis’ distinctive cat-in-the-bag logo. First pictured as a black, ferocious
feline, Biddy (as the cat was called) evolved into a softer, friendlier image
by the time it was replaced as the company’s primary trademark by
the bar and oval we know today.