Continental Can Company

Continental Can Company (CCC) was an American producer of metal containers and packaging company.

The Continental Can Company was founded by Edwin Norton. T.G. Cranwell in 1904. Continental acquired the patents of United Machinery Company, one of the few companies producing can-making machinery that had not been bought by American Can. CCC began shipping product in 1905.

In 1956, CCC acquired the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company, the third largest producer of glass containers, which led to the United States v. Continental Can Co. Supreme Court ruling in 1964.

During the company's first fifty years, CCC produced fiber drums, paper containers, and bottle tops then it acquired Hazel-Atlas (the third-largest U.S. manufacturer of glass containers). Continental then became the first company with a full line of containers in metal, paper, and glass.

It also purchased Cochrane Foil Company, a manufacturer and distributor of aluminum plates and rigid foil packages for the frozen-food industry and other food suppliers. The company also bought Robert Gair Company, a leading producer of paperboard products, that same year.

In 1976, CCC changed its name to the Continental Group, a conglomerate with operations in many countries, but kept 'Continental Can' as its packaging unit within Continental Group.

In 1987, the remnants of Continental Can became part of the United States Can Company (a subsidiary of Inter-American Packaging) and two of its executives left to form Silgan Holdings. Continental Group was dismantled in 1991. The rights to the name 'Continental Can Company' name and logo were sold and renamed to the Viatech Continental Can Company, Inc. in October 1992. In June 1998, Suiza Foods Corporation completed its acquisition of Continental Can. In July 1999, Suiza sold all of Continental Can's U.S. packaging operations in partial exchange for a minority interest in the purchaser, Consolidated Container Company. As of 2000, the only remaining business of Continental Can is Dixie Union, a small flexible film business based in Kempten, Germany.

Ref: Excerpt from Wikipedia.com