Mott's
Encyclopedia
Mott's is a company involved in producing apple
-based products, particularly juice
s and sauces. The company was founded in 1842 by Samuel R. Mott in Bouckville
, New York
, who made apple cider
and vinegar
. Mott products were exhibited at Philadelphia
's Centennial Exposition
in 1876 and Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition
in 1893. In 1900 the company merged with the W.B. Duffy Cider Company to become Duffy-Mott. In 1933 the company introduced prune juice.
Eventually, the company was acquired by American Brands (formerly American Tobacco) and became a division of that conglomerate. In 1982, Cadbury Schweppes
purchased the Duffy-Mott Company. In early 2006 all of Mott's beverage brands (Hawaiian Punch
, IBC Root Beer
, Mr and Mrs T Bloody Mary
mix, Orangina
, and Yoo-hoo
) were folded into Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages. Mott's continues to operate as a separate unit of Dr Pepper Snapple Group
(recently demerged from Cadbury Schweppes plc). Marcia Cross
is the face of Mott's.
Local 220 (RWDSU), voted to strike after Mott’s parent company, Dr Pepper Snapple Group
(DPS)-- despite healthy profits, an increase in market share and a skyrocketing stock price—proposed serious cuts to employee benefits.
The proposal from the company included a US$1.50 per hour wage cut for all employees, a pension elimination for future employees and a pension freeze for current employees, a 20 percent decrease in employer contributions to the 401(k) and increased employee contributions toward health care premiums and co-pays. DPS came under criticism for proposing cuts to worker pay at a time when not only was the local economy in turmoil, but the top three executives at DPS had doubled their pay between 2007 and 2009.
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
, in his capacity as the Democratic nominee for governor, wrote to Mott’s on June 25, 2010, urging the company to return to the bargaining table and come to a “fair and equitable solution” and that the “Upstate economy needs this plant to be working at full capacity.”
The labor dispute has been a source of anxiety among many in the region, particularly the apple growers. In a letter to Larry Young, President and CEO of Dr Pepper Snapple Group, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) expressed his concern that “with unemployment in the Rochester area nearly 10 percent, the ongoing labor shortage is not only harming the 305 workers of the RWDSU Local 200 who work in the facility, but can harm the entire Wayne County economy due to the facility's centrality to the regional and state apple market."
This sentiment was echoed by the New York Apple Association, Inc., in a statement urging Mott’s to continue negotiations:
On Monday, September 13, 2010, the strike ended after Mott's workers voted to approve the company's most recent proposal. The new agreement included a wage freeze, but not the pay cuts the company had demanded. The contract also preserved pensions for existing workers.
“Nobody wins in a strike,” said Mike LeBerth, president of the union local in Williamson. “Neither side is happy with what we got. Was it worth it? Yes, because we stood strong and the company knows we’re a force to be reckoned with.”
Larry Young, Dr Pepper Snapple’s chief executive, said, “From the beginning of our negotiations, we sought an agreement that supported our business, and we’re very pleased with this resolution.”
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
-based products, particularly juice
Juice
Juice is the liquid that is naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue.Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fruit or vegetable flesh without the application of heat or solvents. For example, orange juice is the liquid extract of the fruit of the orange tree...
s and sauces. The company was founded in 1842 by Samuel R. Mott in Bouckville
Madison (town), New York
Madison is a town in Madison County, New York, United States. The population was 2,801 at the 2000 census.The Town of Madison contains a village also named Madison. The town is on the eastern border of the county.- History :...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, who made apple cider
Apple cider
Apple cider is the name used in the United States and parts of Canada for an unfiltered, unsweetened, non-alcoholic beverage made from apples...
and vinegar
Vinegar
Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...
. Mott products were exhibited at Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
's Centennial Exposition
Centennial Exposition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. It was officially...
in 1876 and Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
in 1893. In 1900 the company merged with the W.B. Duffy Cider Company to become Duffy-Mott. In 1933 the company introduced prune juice.
Eventually, the company was acquired by American Brands (formerly American Tobacco) and became a division of that conglomerate. In 1982, Cadbury Schweppes
Cadbury Schweppes
Cadbury is a confectionery company owned by Kraft Foods and is the industry's second-largest globally after Mars, Incorporated. Headquartered in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom, the company operates in more than 50 countries worldwide....
purchased the Duffy-Mott Company. In early 2006 all of Mott's beverage brands (Hawaiian Punch
Hawaiian Punch
Hawaiian Punch is a brand of fruit punch drinks owned by Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. . It was created in 1934 by A.W. Leo, Tom Yates, Ralph Harrison as an ice cream topping in a converted garage in Fullerton, Calif.; customers later discovered that it made an appealing drink when mixed with water...
, IBC Root Beer
IBC Root Beer
The Independent Breweries Company was a syndicate founded in St. Louis, Missouri by the combination of Griesediecks' National Brewery, Columbia , the Gast brewery in Baden, A.B.C., and Wagner Brewing Company. This combination was ill fated due to high overhead with too many executives and low...
, Mr and Mrs T Bloody Mary
Bloody Mary (cocktail)
A Bloody Mary is a popular cocktail containing vodka, tomato juice, and usually other spices or flavorings such as Worcestershire sauce, Peri-Peri Sauce, Tabasco sauce, beef consomme or bouillon, horseradish, celery, olive, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and celery salt...
mix, Orangina
Orangina
Orangina is a carbonated citrus beverage made from orange, lemon, mandarin, and grapefruit juice. The concept of Orangina originated at a trade fair in France and was first marketed in Algeria by the French Algerian Léon Beton...
, and Yoo-hoo
Yoo-Hoo
Yoo-hoo is an American chocolate beverage. Technically, it is a dairy drink, but it contains very little actual milk. The stated ingredients on the label include water, high-fructose corn syrup, dairy whey, sugar, corn syrup solids, cocoa, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, sodium caseinate ,...
) were folded into Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages. Mott's continues to operate as a separate unit of Dr Pepper Snapple Group
Dr Pepper Snapple Group
Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. is an American soft drink company, based in Plano, Texas.It was spun off from Britain's Cadbury Schweppes, on May 5, 2008, with trading in its shares starting on May 7, 2008...
(recently demerged from Cadbury Schweppes plc). Marcia Cross
Marcia Cross
Marcia Anne Cross is an American actress. She is known for her television roles as Bree Van de Kamp on the ABC comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives, and as Dr...
is the face of Mott's.
Acquisitions
- 1953 - Clapp's Baby Foods
- 1960 - Pratt-Low Preserving Corporation
- 1960s - Cherry Growers Co., Inc., of Michigan
- 1966 - Lord Mott Canning Company
- 1966 - Tilghman Packaging Company
- 1966 - ClamatoClamatoClamato is a drink made of reconstituted tomato juice concentrate flavored with spices and clam broth. Made by Mott's, the name is a portmanteau of "clam" and "tomato"...
Key Dates
- 1842: Samuel R. Mott starts making and selling cider and vinegar in Bouckville, New York.
- 1900: The Mott Company merges with the W.B. Duffy Cider Company, creating Duffy-Mott.
- 1914: Duffy-Mott is incorporated in New York.
- 1929: Duffy-Mott acquires the Standard Apple Products Company.
- 1933: Duffy-Mott begins producing prune juice.
- 1938: Duffy-Mott introduces Mott's Apple Juice.
- 1958: Duffy-Mott completes its initial public offering of stock.
- 1982: Cadbury Schweppes acquires Duffy-Mott.
- 1987: The Mr. & Mrs. T brand is acquired.
- 1999: The Hawaiian Punch brand is acquired when CFO Christopher Palid takes over company.
- 2001: ReaLime and ReaLemon are acquired.
- 2002: During the previous four years, annual sales for Mott's double.
Mott’s, Williamson, New York
On May 23, 2010, 305 workers at the Mott’s plant in Williamson, New York, represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store UnionRetail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union is a labor union in the United States and Canada that is a semi-autonomous division of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Change to Win Federation...
Local 220 (RWDSU), voted to strike after Mott’s parent company, Dr Pepper Snapple Group
Dr Pepper Snapple Group
Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. is an American soft drink company, based in Plano, Texas.It was spun off from Britain's Cadbury Schweppes, on May 5, 2008, with trading in its shares starting on May 7, 2008...
(DPS)-- despite healthy profits, an increase in market share and a skyrocketing stock price—proposed serious cuts to employee benefits.
The proposal from the company included a US$1.50 per hour wage cut for all employees, a pension elimination for future employees and a pension freeze for current employees, a 20 percent decrease in employer contributions to the 401(k) and increased employee contributions toward health care premiums and co-pays. DPS came under criticism for proposing cuts to worker pay at a time when not only was the local economy in turmoil, but the top three executives at DPS had doubled their pay between 2007 and 2009.
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Mark Cuomo is the 56th and current Governor of New York, having assumed office on January 1, 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 64th New York State Attorney General, and was the 11th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development...
, in his capacity as the Democratic nominee for governor, wrote to Mott’s on June 25, 2010, urging the company to return to the bargaining table and come to a “fair and equitable solution” and that the “Upstate economy needs this plant to be working at full capacity.”
The labor dispute has been a source of anxiety among many in the region, particularly the apple growers. In a letter to Larry Young, President and CEO of Dr Pepper Snapple Group, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) expressed his concern that “with unemployment in the Rochester area nearly 10 percent, the ongoing labor shortage is not only harming the 305 workers of the RWDSU Local 200 who work in the facility, but can harm the entire Wayne County economy due to the facility's centrality to the regional and state apple market."
This sentiment was echoed by the New York Apple Association, Inc., in a statement urging Mott’s to continue negotiations:
- "The current impasse between the valued work force at the Williamson plant and management not only threatens the growers’ and workers’ future, but places more than 150 years of building brand recognition and consumer loyalty for Mott’s products at risk."
On Monday, September 13, 2010, the strike ended after Mott's workers voted to approve the company's most recent proposal. The new agreement included a wage freeze, but not the pay cuts the company had demanded. The contract also preserved pensions for existing workers.
“Nobody wins in a strike,” said Mike LeBerth, president of the union local in Williamson. “Neither side is happy with what we got. Was it worth it? Yes, because we stood strong and the company knows we’re a force to be reckoned with.”
Larry Young, Dr Pepper Snapple’s chief executive, said, “From the beginning of our negotiations, we sought an agreement that supported our business, and we’re very pleased with this resolution.”