Swift & Company was founded in Massachusetts, USA, in 1865, when the 16-year-old Gustavus Swift opened a butchering operation. The company pioneered the refrigerated rail car, shipping chilled meat rather than live animals across the country. Slaughtering was centralised in Chicago, with fresh meat delivered to cities on America’s east coast, including New York and Boston. Swift & Company, corporatised in 1875, became one of the largest meat-packing companies in the world. In 1900, the company ventured beyond the USA, opening shops in London.
The cattle and sheep resources in Australia and the growing meat export trade to Britain were among the factors that attracted Swift & Company in the early 20th century. In 1910, they purchased freezing works in Melbourne. The Mackay Daily Mercury reported:
Speculation has been caused in the Meat Trade by the presence in Australia of two agents of Swift and Company, a great Chicago firm. One of the visitors, Otto G. Malcow, a responsible representative of the firm’s financial department, was here two years ago, and made exhaustive inquiries into the meat business. A few months ago he purchased for his firm the extensive La Plata freezing works owned by John Cook and Company, of Melbourne. He is now accompanied by Mr. Kauffman, one of the firm’s expert stockmen. They will make a tour of freezing stores and stock-yards. They have been through Sydney and Melbourne and are now in Queensland. It is rumoured than they have opened negotiations for the purchase of land in Brisbane.
It was the beginning of an American foray into the Australian meat market that caused considerable concern for local companies. Swift & Company and another US firm, Armour, were members of the American Meat Trust – a cartel of five companies that, at the time, dominated the USA meat industry. In Australia, the fear was that, backed by huge financial resources, these powerful companies could offer producers higher prices for their stock, freezing out local processors and increasing prices to the consumer.
In 1912, a new company, the Australian Meat Export Company, was formed. The initial subscribers were all lawyers, but the major shareholders were later revealed to be Louis, Edwards, Charles, Harold and H.G. Swift, plus two others. The Managing Director was Otto Malcow.
In 1913, the A.M.E Co. began building a giant processing works at Cannon Hill at the mouth of the Brisbane River. The Age reported in 1914 that the seven stories of freezing chambers would hold between 10,000 and 15,000 carcases of mutton and 5000 carcases of beef.
Already the local companies are beginning to feel the pinch, and as a consequence the prices in the retail market have been inflated by about 1½d. or 2d. per lb. This is due solely to the buying operations of the Swift and Armour agents. Every available beast has been bought up, even cows and calves… The retail butchers have been compelled to pay higher prices for beef and mutton and they have passed on the cost to the public.
As The Age pointed out, the Americans’ ability to dominate the export trade was even more worrying, monopolising the available space on refrigerated ships.
In 1914, Swift continued its expansion in Queensland, purchasing an abattoir just outside Townsville. The Alligator Creek meatworks had been established in 1879 and, at the time of the acquisition, was operated by the North Queensland Meat Export Company. Swift and Company imported a prefabricated meatworks to extend the site, which initially produced canned meat. The following year, after a new railway station and siding improved transport, refrigeration was installed, and the works were able to supply chilled and refrigerated meat for the first time.
In 1924, the Australian Meat Export Company changed its name to the Swift Australian Meat Company. The Queensland Government purchased its Cannon Hill facility in 1930, and four years later, Swift bought meatworks in Gladstone. Through the following decades, the company moved into consumer goods, producing a wide range of canned meats. By 1950 there was quite a range: luncheon beef, steak and kidney pudding, meatballs, Irish stew, braised steak with onions, lamb and peas, casserole steak, lamb and vegetables, corned beef with diced potatoes, Vienna sausage, beef extract, potted meat. And not forgetting the catchily-named Zem, described as “a blended mix of tender pork and choice prime beef.” In 1964, Swift expanded into pork products, acquiring Mayfair Hams.
As tastes changed, the Swift brand disappeared from supermarkets, the various canning lines ceased to operate, and the company concentrated on its red meat business, building a large, vertically integrated operation that included beef processing plants and feedlots. In 2007, the JBS meat company of Brazil acquired Swift & Company in the USA and, as a consequence, Swift’s Australian interests also became JBS subsidiaries. The JBS-owned Swift & Company Trade Group now focuses on “Finding and delivering protein solutions through international trade”, handling the procurement process, financial transactions, market access and logistic components.