BY SUSAN ERLER, Times of Northwest Indiana
serler@nwitimes.com
General Douglas MacArthur wrote to a local manufacturer during World War II, grateful for its role in the war effort.
It wasn't steel forged in local mills but coffee sweetener, made at American Maize Products in Hammond, that elicited the letter.
"It kept the troops awake," said Jim Fritz, facility manager of what is now the Cargill plant, on the banks of Wolf Lake.
The historic letter will be among memorabilia displayed in a museum the company plans to open later this year in celebration of the plant's 100 years in business.
Built beginning in 1906, the corn milling factory kicked into gear early the following year.
By 1908, it had become American Maize Products Co.
At peak employment, nearly 850 region residents reported for work at the plant.
Fathers, mothers, sons and daughters followed grandfathers into the work force, Fritz said, and former employees still meet regularly.
"This is a facility, not unlike others in Northwest Indiana, which has a very loyal work force," Fritz said.
The size of the work force declined over the years, as, first European-based Cerestar, and then worldwide food and agricultural product manufacturer Cargill took ownership of the plant.
Operational activities were scaled back, Fritz said, to focus on what has become the plant's main product: modified food starches.
Cargill, which bought the factory in 2002 from Cerestar, employs about 260 workers there, Fritz said.
Most, about 220, work at processing corn into food starch and other corn-based products used to thicken, add texture and coat foods from baked goods to marshmallows.
Others work on product development and testing, and in sales.
Hourly workers are represented by the United Steelworkers union, a change from earlier days when workers were members of the Paper, Allied, Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union.
The plant still sits on nearly 90 acres on Hammond's northern tip. Over the years, buildings have been demolished as they aged, Fritz said.
"We continue to modernize the facility and to remove out-of-date buildings," Fritz said.
Still standing on the factory grounds is the original boiler house, its foundation laid in December 1906.
Plans were commissioned late last year for a new boiler house, the 100-year separation making for a "neat bookending" of the two buildings, Fritz said.
American Maize Products Co. had sold the plant in 1995 to Cerestar's parent, Paris-based Eridania Beghin-Say, for $430 million.
Cerestar restructured the plant and reduced the number of workers to 450, from about 600, in a reorganization meant to keep the company competitive in a global economy.
Cargill acquired the plant in 2002 after buying a majority interest in then-Cerestar parent Montedison, in an $819 million deal that included two other U.S. plants and several in Europe.
One reason Cargill bought Cerestar was for its product line, including starch products to complement Cargill's product line.
The Hammond plant is now one of two main centers of food starch production for Cargill in the United States, Cargill spokesman Bill Brady said.
Cargill employs 149,000 people in 63 countries.
Cargill Chairman and CEO Warren Staley, in the preface to a centennial book being produced for the plant, said the company is proud of the plant's long history.
"For generations the Hammond plant has been the home to new products, trend-setting operations and textbook examples of research and implementation in a highly competitive market," Staley said.
"Most important, however, has been the devotion of the employees at the Hammond plant," he said.
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