Hormel was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1860. He was the third of twelve children and eldest of six sons of John Godfrey Hormel, a tanner, and Susanna (Decker) Hormel. Both parents were natives of the German province of Hesse and had been brought to America as children. His father was of Huguenot descent; both parents were devout members of the German Reformed church. In 1865 John Hormel moved the family to Toledo, Ohio, and started his own tanning firm. The business failed, however, during the panic of 1873, and twelve-year-old Hormel was forced to leave school and go to work.
Career
After a succession of unskilled jobs, he went to Chicago to work in a packinghouse market that processed meat products; the company was owned by a maternal uncle. Sensing broader opportunities elsewhere, in 1880 he became a traveling wool and hides buyer for a Kansas City company, and the next year for the Chicago firm of Oberne, Hosick and Company. In 1887 he settled in Austin, Minn. , where he and a partner established the firm of Friedrich and Hormel, "butchers and packers. " The partnership was dissolved in 1891, and Hormel set up his own packinghouse, George A. Hormel and Company.
In his early days he was known as something of a tyrant in the operation of his plant. He made a fetish of cleanliness, even establishing a laundry to wash the butcher's smocks. Initially, Hormel's sausages, hams, and beef products were sold through the Hormel Provision Market, a wholesale outlet. Salesmen also distributed the products locally by bicycle and horse carts. Austin proved an excellent location, convenient both to the source of supply of livestock and to the major market of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Under the leadership of Hormel, who continued to cut meat until 1899, the company prospered; its annual sales in 1900 were close to $1 million. The discovery in 1921 that the comptroller had embezzled more than $1 million dealt the company a severe blow, but Hormel arranged additional financing, and the company survived. At the time of his death Hormel and Company had annual sales of $126 million and employed more than 5, 000 workers.
During the early years of the twentieth century, Hormel opened distribution branches across the country. He also expanded his sales operations into the international market. His company thus became a stiff competitor to the industry's giants, Swift, Wilson, and Armour. Many of the firm's later innovations reflected the initiative of Hormel's son, Jay Catherwood Hormel (1892 - 1954) to whom the elder Hormel turned over active control in 1927. In that year Hormel and Company, employing a German process, produced the first successful canned ham in the United States; the process was later used to can chicken. Further canned products were added during the 1920's: soups, which met strong competition from the established brands of Campbell and Heinz; a more successful line of "poor man's" dishes like beef stew, corned beef and cabbage, and chili con carne; and, in 1937, a canned spiced pork shoulder loaf called "Spam. " The widespread distribution of Spam and similar products during World War II, both among servicemen and on the home front, made the name a byword.
During the depression year of 1931, in a paper submitted to a presidential commission, he supported unemployment relief and a federal pension for retired workers. To regularize salaries and stabilize employment in an industry with seasonal fluctuations, Hormel and Company in that year initiated a "straight-time" plan offering fifty-two equal pay checks a year despite the number of hours worked in a given week. The company later introduced incentive pay and profit-sharing programs, and in 1933, although advocating the open shop, yielded to a strike and agreed to accept an independent union. Hormel moved in 1927 to the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. Two years later he formally relinquished the title of president to his son and became chairman of the board, a position he held until his death.
He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Los Angeles and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Austin, Minn.
Achievements
He is remembered as the founder of Hormel Foods Corporation (then known as George A. Hormel & Co. ) in 1891. His ownership stake in the company made him one of the wealthiest Americans during his lifetime.
Religion
Hormel was a Presbyterian in religion.
Views
Although an autocratic executive, Hormel believed in treating labor fairly. He was an industry leader in the movement for shorter hours and higher wages, maintaining that the increased productivity would more than compensate for the higher wages.
Connections
On February 24, 1892, in Austin, he married Lillian Belle Gleason, a teacher. They had one child, Jay Catherwood. Hormel, who brought several of his brothers into the company, served as president until 1929.
