Business: The Hungry Meatpacker

Ever since he gave up studying to be a painter and went into the meat business, Samuel Slotkin, 68, has thought of his Hygrade Food Products Corp. as a work of art. “I am not grubbing for money,” he says. “I am painting a picture as a life work. Every day I put in a brush stroke or two.” Last week Slotkin added the boldest stroke of all to his canvas. Into Hygrade (1952 sales: $137 million) he merged Indianapolis’ Kingan & Co. (sales: $214 million), thus became the fifth largest U.S. meatpacker.†

Since he founded Hygrade in 1914, with a stake of $15,000, Slotkin has made a habit of buying up rivals. He started with a simple principle: the best way to sell frankfurters was to make their contents a known quantity—pure beef—and to package them under a known brand name. This idea soon gave him a commanding hold on the New York hot-dog market. By 1929, hungry for expansion, he was ready to move into Chicago, where big Allied Packers was on the “block.

Slotkin was not at all worried that Allied’s annual sales were six times Hygrade’s $9,000,000. He bought Allied. By trimming off its fat and specializing in branded, packaged food, Hygrade weathered the Depression, soon opened plants in Europe, South America, Ireland, French Morocco, Australia and New Zealand.

Hygrade was a pioneer in selling pre-packaged meats through delicatessens. Slotkin also pushed processed, ready-to-eat meats, today the main pillar of Hygrade’s business. In his zeal to spread such time-saving benefits to every housewife, Slotkin was hampered by Hygrade’s lack of outlets west of Chicago. Thus when Kingan’s management split hopelessly over operating policies (TIME, March 3, 1952), he spotted a bargain. A year ago, Kingan’s owners were glad to take Hygrade’s offer of $6,500,000 for 94.1% of Kingan’s stock.

In buying Kingan, Slotkin had bitten off a big chunk of troubles. But last week Slotkin was sure that, by such economies as combining the two firms’ sales forces, he would soon have Kingan on a paying basis. Eventually, he estimates, the merger should mean a $500 million annual gross for Hygrade. Exuberant over this gratifying prospect, and incidentally to persuade Kingan minority stockholders to exchange their shares, Slotkin last week declared a 100% stock dividend for his Hygrade stockholders.

* First four: Swift, Armour, Wilson, Cudahy.