Hocking Glass - Anchor Hocking

© Glass Animal Covered Dishes by Jennifer Patton
Page 1
hocking glass/anchor hocking
Hocking Glass Company was started by 7 friends who purchased the old Lancaster Caron
Company in Lancaster, Ohio. With further financial help by E. B. Good, Hocking Glass
Company began operations in 1905. The Hocking River nearby was the inspiration for
the name of Isaac J. Collins' new glass company. The building had a nickname of "Black
Cat" due to previous carbon dust emissions. For the next 21 years, Hocking Glass did well
and expanded glassware productions. In 1924 "Black Cat" burned to the ground. It was a
total loss. Isaac and his associates rebuilt and this time around, the building was named
Plant 1 and was solely used for glass productions. During 1924, Hocking Glass bought
controlling interest in Lancaster Glass. This became Plant 2. They also bought
controlling interest in Standard Glass Co. with glass plants in both Canal Winchester,
Ohio and Bremen, Ohio. In 1928, Hocking glass began producing over 30 items a minute
using an automated glass pressing machine. Even smarter, during the stock market
crash, Hocking glass developed a machine capable of producing 90 pieces of blown glass
a minute which saved them during the Great Depression of 1929. The company survived
by producing glassware quickly and in turn sold more glass.
In 1931 Hocking glass bought 50% of General Glass Co. stocks and acquired Turner
Glass Co. in Indiana. In 1934, along with General Glass Co., Hocking glass developed
some of the first non returnable, one-way, beer bottles. The beer industry was the
first to switch to non-returnable containers. This was convenient because people no
longer needed to return the bottles. During World War II, because of material
shortages, bottle deposit systems were common for beer and soda bottles in the U.S.
After World War II, America's consumption patterns changed and nonreturnable
containers gained in popularity. The environment quickly became littered with
bottles. To solve this problem, recycling programs began.
In 1937 Hocking glass company merged with the Anchor Cap and Closure
Corporation to become Anchor Hocking Glass Company. From 1937-1983 the
company operated the oldest glass manufacturing facility in the United States.
In 1969 Anchor Hocking Glass Company dropped the word Glass from their name to
become Anchor Hocking.
New acquisitions, new locations and new products spanned over the course of the next
few decades until The Newell Corporation acquired the Anchor Hocking Corporation on 2
July 1987. In 2001, Newell Corporation sold several of its businesses, including Anchor
Hocking Glass Corporation, to Global Home Products. GHP specialized in turning around
poor performing brands. Despite all cost-cutting efforts, Global Home Products and
Anchor Hocking filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2006 and the Anchor
Hocking assets were sold to a unit of Monomoy Capital Partners, a New York-based
private equity firm.