Solo Cup Company is a manufacturer of consumer packaging products: disposable beverage cups, disposable plates and bowls. Solo Cup Company is located in Lake Forest, Illinois

Lake Forest, Illinois

Lake Forest is an affluent city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. The city is south of Waukegan along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest was founded around Lake Forest College and was laid out as a town in...

, and in 2006 had sales of $2.4 billion.

History

Leo Hulseman, a former employee of the Dixie Co. in the 1930s, created the "Solo Cup," a paper cone he made at his home and sold to bottled-water companies. He founded the Solo Cup Company in 1936, and came up with other products like wax-coated cups and the plastic Cozy Cup.

On 1 March 2004, Solo acquired Sweetheart Cup Co.

Sweetheart (company)

Sweetheart Cup Company was a company in North America that made paper cups, plastic cups and related products. In 2004, Sweetheart was acquired by the Solo Cup Company.-History:...

 for $917.2 million, in part with public debt. Sweetheart was founded by Joseph Shapiro and his four brothers, emigrants from Russia. It became the largest consumer packaging company in the world, and was sold several times before being acquired by Solo Cup.

Solo Cup Company closed its longstanding facility in Highland Park, Illinois

Highland Park, Illinois

Highland Park is a suburban municipality in Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. As of 2009, the population is 33,492. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located on the North Shore of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.-Overview:Highland Park was founded...

 in December 2009 and relocated to Lake Forest.

Founder

The founder and owner for many years of Solo Cup was Leo Hulseman (1898–1989), whose wife was a singer known by her stage name Dora Hall (whose records were all given away free of charge through Solo promotions).

Leo Hulseman was an active polo

Polo

Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...

 player. Hulseman was also the founder and owner of Premore Inc. Premore was a TV Production company on the Culver Studios

Culver Studios

The Culver Studios is a historic Colonial-styled movie studio located at 9336 W. Washington Blvd., in Culver City, California. It was the site of filming for Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane and other classics from Hollywood’s Golden Age...

 lot for many years in the 1970s-1980s and later moved to North Hollywood. Premore produced children's TV shows including Tony the Pony (like the later Barney & Friends

Barney & Friends

Barney and Friends, also referred to by HiT Entertainment as Barney the Friendly Dinosaur, is an independent children's television show produced in the United States, aimed at children from ages 1-8...

) and The Clifford Avenue Kids (like Our Gang

Our Gang

Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...

). Other programs produced at the Premore facilities included Greystone's The Real West and Candid Camera

Candid Camera

Candid Camera is a hidden camera/practical joke reality television series created and produced by Allen Funt, which initially began on radio as Candid Microphone June 28, 1947...

hosted by Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby

William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...

. Premore's Television studio

Television studio

A television studio is an installation in which a video productions take place, either for the recording of live television to video tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for post-production. The design of a studio is similar to, and derived from, movie studios, with a few amendments for the...

 stage, remote truck and post production was used for Dora Hall's shows and rented for TV specials and sports. Premore Inc was closed in 1993, 4 years after the death of Leo Hulseman.

Dora Hall's most notable TV show was Rose On Broadway (1979) with Frank Sinatra, Jr.

Frank Sinatra, Jr.

Franklin Wayne Sinatra , professionally known as Frank Sinatra, Jr., is an American singer, songwriter and conductor....

, Donald O'Connor

Donald O'Connor

Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule...

 and Scatman Crothers

Scatman Crothers

Benjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers was an American actor, singer, dancer and musician known for his work as Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man, and as Dick Hallorann in The Shining in 1980...

. She also had a TV special called Once Upon a Tour. Her songs were used in the "Tony the Pony" TV show. She recorded songs on the Premore and Cozy Records labels.

Subsequent management

Robert L. Hulseman, son of the founder Leo Hulseman, became CEO in 1998.

Current CEO Robert M. Korzenski took over from Robert Hulseman in Aug 2006. Korzenski had worked for Sweetheart Cups for over 10 years.

Customers

Solo Cup customers include Starbucks

Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...

, Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen, often abbreviated DQ, is a chain of soft serve and fast food restaurants owned by International Dairy Queen, Inc, who also owns Orange Julius and Karmelkorn. The name "Dairy Queen" is taken from the name of their soft serve product, which the company refers to as "Dairy Queen" or...

, Così

Così (restaurant)

Così is an American restaurant chain that primarily offers gourmet sandwiches and salads. It was founded in 1996, and there are currently over 144 locations in the continental United States. The original Così restaurant was based on a cafe in Paris, France....

, Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...

 and Whole Foods

Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods Market is a foods supermarket chain based in Austin, Texas which emphasizes "natural and organic products." The company has been ranked among the most socially responsible businesses and placed third on the U.S...

, as well as many universities.

The iconic red plastic cups are notably used in American college and university games such as beer pong

Beer pong

Beer pong, also known as Beirut, is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end. The game typically consists of two two-to-four-player teams and multiple cups set up, in triangle formation, on each side...

 and flip cup

Flip cup

Flip cup is a team-based drinking game.Two teams of an equal number of players stand on opposite sides of a table, facing one another. The players directly facing are opponents. In front of each teammate is a disposable plastic cup filled with a set amount of beer...

. This usage is referenced in Toby Keith

Toby Keith

Toby Keith Covel , best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin, plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of...

's song "Red Solo Cup

Red Solo Cup

"Red Solo Cup" is the title of a song recorded by American country music singer Toby Keith. It is the second single from his 2011 album Clancy's Tavern, from which it was released in October 2011, and is the only song on the album he did not co-write....

".

External links

• Solo Cup
• Chicago Business article about company's struggles. October 20, 2006, Chicago Business.
• Forbes Report
• CNN Money profile
• Dora Hall web site
• Culver City Studio