Bama Company

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Bama Company (originally ANCCO, the Anc-Co Preserving Co. or, A. N. Chappell & Co., later Bama Foods division of Borden Company) was a Birmingham-based manufacturer of jams, jellies, peanut butter, mayonnaise and other products.

The company was founded in 1913 by Alex N. Chappell with his brother Sam. The company's name was derived from Alex's initials. It originally operated at 2211 5th Avenue South and distributed a number of specialty foods, including preserves, jellies and syrup from Temtor Corn & Fruit Products Co. of St Louis, Missouri.

During the time that sugar was being rationed in World War I, Chappell was approached by the owner of a soft drink bottler, who, unable to buy cane sugar had ordered several barrels of honey which, to his dismay, had crystallized before he could use them. Chappell bought the honey at a discount, boiled it and sold it in jars under his own label. Over the next several years he made plans to drop his distribution contracts and open his own preserving plant. In 1921 he experimented with a run of strawberry preserves, the success of which encouraged him to continue. The Chappell brothers took on the English-born George Skilton, a veteran of the London firm of Crosse & Blackwell, as a partner. With his help they outfitted a preservery on the third floor of their building and marketed a line of preserves under the "Ancco" name, accompanied with the mark of a red anchor emblazoned with the phrase "Made in Birmingham."

With the opening of a new full-scale plant in 1922, Ancco expanded their offerings to include peanut butter, apple vinegar, honey and marmalades. Chappell appealed for area growers to plant more fruits such as peaches, black grapes, raspberries and plums, and for a local cannery to supply the anticipated market. His ability to process fruit which was too ripe to be shipped to more distant wholesalers expanded the profitability of local fruit farms. The debut of the company's expanded line coincided with a concerted effort from area manufacturers, the League of Women Voters and The Birmingham News to promote the consumption of locally-made products.

Beginning in 1924, A. N. Chappell & Co. began marketing its products under the "Bama" brand name. It filed for a trade mark for that name in 1926. In 1928 Chappell changed the name of the company to match the successful brand.

By 1929 the company had opened a larger plant in Smithfield, and moved its offices at 616 7th Street North. The Bama Company opened a second plant in Houston, Texas in 1933, which was expanded in 1937.

In 1940 Ben Goltsman, head of the Montgomery-based Alabama Growers Association, began distributing "Bama Wine" made in Atlanta, Georgia from Chilton County-grown blackberries. The Chappells filed a trademark infringement suit, but were unsuccessful as the court ruled that the name was a common contraction for the name of the state.

By 1950 Bama was distributing products across the South, from North Carolina to New Mexico. It reported gross sales of more than $4.5 million and employed more than 120 people. In 1954 Chappell was able to brag in a release distributed by the Birmingham Committee of 100 that his Bama Company was the largest food preserving company in the South and one of the 6 largest in the country. He credited his success to the availability of plentiful raw materials, centralized locations for distribution, "fast-growing consumer demand", and "cooperative Negro women workers." Chappell died in 1955 and was succeeded as president of the company by his brother, Sam.

The Chappell's sold the business to the Borden Company of Columbus, Ohio in 1965. Borden continued to operate a Bama Foods plant at 3900 Vanderbilt Road in Birmingham's Harriman Park neighborhood (across from Inglenook). William Hanks worked as president of the division in the 1970s. Borden manufactured products sold by a variety of other distributers under various names at the Birmingham plant.

Borden sold the Bama Foods brand to the National Grape Cooperative Association of Westfield, New York, the parent of Welch's, in 1994. At the time, the Birmingham plant was reporting around $70 million in annual sales.

Welch's discontinued the Bama jelly and jam brand in 2020. The Bama Mayonnaise brand was acquired by Sauer Brands of Greenville, South Carolina.

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