HISTORY OF BAKER PERKINS INC, SAGINAW

THE IMPORTANCE OF SAGINAW

A Stroke of Luck

Background to the Purchase of Saginaw

PROGRESS BETWEEN THE WARS

WW2 BRINGS A MAJOR THREAT

PROBLEMS OF PEACE

Apprenticeships at Saginaw

THE SEVENTIES

THE EIGHTIES

Organisation Charts

Long Service Presentations

The End

Inside Saginaw

The Saginaw factory was for many years a very important part of the Baker Perkins empire serving one of its key markets. It covered some 22 acres and employed around 1,000 people. How it came to be part of the Group is an interesting story.

Saginaw is in Michigan - one of the most northerly of the States, separated only by water from Canada – it borders four of the five Great Lakes. Positioned roughly in the centre of the southern and main peninsula of Michigan, it is around 600 miles by air from New York, 90 miles north-west of Detroit and 250 miles north-east of Chicago. Saginaw - the word means "Land of the Sauks", an Indian tribe that lived there before they were annihilated by another tribe in 1520 – started life in the early 1800's. It was then that white traders and settlers, later protected by two forts on the river, moved into the area.

From 1851 to 1897, Saginaw was the lumber capital of the world as 25 billion feet of pine logs from surrounding forests were floated to mills on the banks of the Saginaw River. The population had reached 7,000 by 1869 and 20 years later two separate towns – Saginaw City and east Saginaw – were united. With the end of the lumber boom, Saginaw stagnated for around a decade before a group of business leaders decided that something had to be done to fill the vacuum left by the exhausted lumber industry. Thus the growth of modern Saginaw began.

Augustus Muir notes that - "Less than two months after the signing of the Armistice in 1918, at a time when the Baker directors were considering the future of the markets on the North American continent, they had a stroke of luck unparalleled in the annals of Baker Perkins".

In January 1919, an ex-Peterborough employee, George Hicks, who had worked at Saginaw when it had been owned by Werner & Pfleiderer, sent a letter to F.C. Ihlee to alert him that the Saginaw factory was about to be sold. Immediately Allan R. Baker was contacted at his office in Willesden, he sent E.H. Gilpin to go with Ihlee to Saginaw and buy the factory if at all possible. They started their journey by crossing to France to board a small steamer loaded with American Doughboys going home after the Armistice.

Hermann Werner had established the factory at Saginaw after successfully showing their line of equipment at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, purchasing a plot of land at a modest price from the State of Michigan anxious to attract industry to what had become a derelict area. Just before the 1914 War a start had been made on new works in Hess Street where machinery for bread, biscuits and macaroni were to be manufactured.

Allan R. Baker had hoped to develop closer ties with the Otis Elevator Company – who were manufacturing machinery for Baker customers in America during the war years – but now saw that it would be more to Baker's advantage to have their own factory in the USA (see also Baker Perkins and Werner & Pfleiderer - The European Limited Partnership).

Early views of the Saginaw factory

Elmer Baker became involved in the lengthy negotiations as adviser and the factory and its equipment was acquired for $351,000, the whole of the purchase price coming from the Irving Trust, other American banks and loyal customers. A separate company – the Baker-Perkins Manufacturing Co. Inc. – was formed to operate the business. The Joseph Baker & Sons Annual Report of 1919 stated – "The Werner & Pfleiderer Company had an extensive business in the branches of engineering in which your company specialises. The works at Saginaw are admirably placed and are capable of great development. Your subsidiary company has large orders on its books and will now be able to give better service to its customers than has been possible in the past".

Joseph Baker & Sons Ltd formed a Limited Liability Company in 1911 under Canadian Law to carry on their business in Canada and the U.S.A. In 1920 upon the amalgamation of the two English Companies (Joseph Baker & Sons and Perkins Engineers), its name was changed to Joseph Baker Sons & Perkins (Canada) Ltd and again in 1923 (following the change in the title of the English Company to Baker Perkins Ltd) to Canadian Baker Perkins Ltd.

When the United States entered the war the business carried on by Werner & Pfleiderer at Saginaw, Michigan, was seized by the Government and, after the Armistice offered for sale by the Alien Property Custodian.

The representatives of Joseph Baker & Sons Ltd (the amalgamation with Perkins Engineers Ltd not then being legally completed although the basis had been agreed upon) with the concurrence of the Board of Perkins Engineers Ltd arranged to make a bid for the business and the sale took place in 1920.

Under the U.S.A. laws governing such transactions, the majority of the stock in any Company so sold must be for a period of five years held by American citizens. This was met by the formation of the Baker Perkins Manufacturing Corporation to take over the Saginaw business with a capital of $850,000 divided into $350.000 Preferred and $500,00 Common, of the latter $400,000 were issued. The majority of the Preferred stock was held by U.S.A. citizens and the Common Stock was placed for five years under the Control of a voting Trust the members of which were U.S.A. citizens.

Subject to these arrangements the Common Stock in the Baker Perkins Manufacturing Corporation was owned by Joseph Bakers Ltd. A Company was formed under the name of Joseph Baker Sons & Perkins Coy Inc., under the laws of the State of New York which acquired the U.S.A. Assets of Joseph Bakers Ltd and the U.S.A. patents of the English Companies. The members of the voting trust were directors of Joseph Baker Sons & Perkins Coy Inc. The consideration received by Joseph Bakers Ltd for its transfer of assets was 83.4% of the Common Stock of Joseph Baker Sons & Perkins Coy Inc. It transferred these to the amalgamated English Company and was reformed as Joseph Baker Sons & Perkins (Canada) Ltd to carry on the Company’s Canadian business only.

Until the termination of the Voting Trust period there were therefore two Companies operating in the U.S.A. Baker Perkins Coy Inc. and Baker Perkins Manufacturing Corporation.

In 1925 (the voting Trust being no longer required) the two Companies were merged into one, viz. Baker Perkins Coy Inc, but two of the Trustees remained as Directors.

Elmer Baker was then thirty-five years old and with the factory in Saginaw and the sales organisation operating out of White Plains, NY, settled down to achieve his promise to his uncles and cousins at Willesden that he would earn, for the parent company, "profits of one hundred thousand pounds in the next ten years". He saw clearly that the market for equipment in the USA was very different from that in the UK with many varieties of bread demanded by the US consumer. Much of the equipment used on the Eastern Seaboard would not have provided the types of bakery foods demanded by consumers on the Pacific coast.

Carl Pletscher had worked in the drawing office at Peterborough, earning much the same reputation as Josh Booth, "both men being of uncommon driving force who could not tolerate opposition". To prevent a head-on collision it was decided that one of them should be sent to Saginaw and Pletscher was chosen. Pletscher was responsible for incorporating some novel ideas into the factory including tunnels under the floors to carry all of the services required by the many departments – steam, water, electricity, gas, compressed air. As the engineering chief, he was said to be the creator of the Saginaw factory and is still revered as one to whom Baker Perkins Inc. owes a great debt.

Despite the general depression in the USA after the War, a renewed demand for the company's equipment was seen with Saginaw fully occupied and the men on full time working. By 1921, new buildings were going up on the South side of the Saginaw site as the old West site premises were of wooden construction and considered to be of little value.

From the start, there were two separate strands to output from Saginaw – food machinery (mainly bread making equipment) and chemical machinery (mainly batch and continuous mixers for a wide range of industry sectors).

In order to facilitate a successful building up of the new American subsidiary, it was agreed that Baker Perkins Inc. would retain all profits to strengthen its finances and fund its development. The company grew so fast that profits alone did not provide sufficient working capital and there were several issues of preference stock, amounting to $1.5m, all raised by Elmer Baker in the States without drawing on the parent company.

Results continued to be good until 1924 when the cost of moving into the new shops at Saginaw and the removal of all services to the works, including the closure of the general offices in White Plains, NY, caused a temporary check. By 1928, plans were being made to extend the Works and Foundry and the Directors expected to begin the payment of dividends on the Common Stock.

At the 1929 peak of the American boom, everything seemed to be going well and BP Inc. paid its first cash dividend to the parent company. Other businesses had been acquired – Canadian Baker Perkins Ltd., with its headquarters still in Brantford, was bought and administered from Saginaw, the assets of the Century Machine Company of Cincinnati and 60% of the shares of the National Bread Wrapping Company were also acquired. However, before the end of autumn of that year the company, like the rest of American business, was feeling the effects of the Wall Street Crash.

Saginaw suffered from the general depression of the early 30's and the payment of dividends was suspended. A small profit was made in 1932 despite a very large drop in turnover and some improvement in business began to be seen during 1934 but, although this improvement continued, there was a dispute with the newly formed labour unions that suspended work for a week in 1936. The 30's ended with another severe depression in the USA.

At the beginning of WW2 there was concern that American investments like the Saginaw factory, might have to be realised at a sacrifice in accordance with the UK Government's plan to pay for munitions from America. This, fortunately, did not occur as, under the Financial Powers (USA Securities) Regulations, 1941, such investments were taken over and deposited by H.M. Government as security for a loan made to it by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.

A return to a fully loaded factory came with the beginning of WW2 and a large proportion of the factory turned to war work, with large orders for mixing equipment for smokeless powder and cordite. Early in 1941 horizontal boring-mills were being manufactured and it gave much satisfaction to the American management that many of these were shipped to Britain. In recognising that machine tools were at the root of the manufacture of war materials, Elmer Baker summed up Saginaw's task as: "The products of our factories are now fighting the battles that will engage our soldiers and airmen in 1943". Saginaw also produced foundry castings for service equipment and fabricated hull sections for destroyers.

During WW2, The Century Machine Company developed a portable field bakery - a wheeled oven and bread make-up equipment similar to that produced at Westwood (click here). The company was given the Army/Navy Award for its success in manufacturing thousands of these for all of the theatres of war where American troops were serving. This equipment was still being made at Saginaw a number of years after hostilities ceased.

A return to civil work began in 1944 but profits were restricted by the US Government's freezing of prices at 1941 levels. Over a million dollars had been spent on buildings and plant in the previous five years so Saginaw was in an advantageous position to change over to peace-time production at the end of the war and new manufacturing facilities were provided in 1946 and 1947. The Government's price restriction order was lifted at the end of 1946 and the company's business improved considerably, achieving record profits and doubling its dividend by 1947. In 1950, R. Elmer Baker, who had been President of the Company for thirty years, retired and his younger brother, Joseph Albert Baker, became president.

Known as "Brantford Joe" to avoid confusion with the English Joseph Baker, Joseph Albert Baker had joined the Canadian Air Force in the First World War and was shot down and badly injured, as a result of which he had one leg was shorter than the other. He started in the Canadian company in 1921 but joined Baker Perkins Inc in 1930, after it had become a subsidiary of the American firm. Just before WW2 he went back to the Canadian business, the headquarters of which had been transferred from Brantford to Toronto. After the War, J.A. Baker returned to Saginaw to become a director of Baker Perkins Inc. and was appointed head of the Food Division. He became a member of the Board of Management, and was elected president in 1950.

Entering the 50's, the factory felt the effects of the re-armament drive and a larger proportion of orders were, once again, for defence. 1951 saw the company's holding in Baker Perkins Inc. released by HM Treasury on repayment of the Government's loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. 1951 also saw a progressive decline in the prosperity of the baking industry with costs increasing, competition keener and profit margins narrowing. The capacity of the baking machinery industry had been built up to meet the great post-war demand and there was now the means to manufacture nearly twice the amount of equipment that the market required. Competition was fierce and it was a difficult time for all in the industry.

New and more spacious accommodation was provided for the design and development staff in 1954.

P.B. Harley

The President, J.A. Baker, died in 1955 and he was succeeded by P.B. (Phil) Harley. In the same year, severe competition, particularly in food machinery, reduced sales and caused a substantial trading loss but this heralded something of a period of see-saw activity with the achievement of a substantial profit on record turnover in the next year and another small trading loss in 1958.

Saginaw closed down the Century Machine Company in 1956. This company had been acquired in 1929 but by now, the market for its particular size of products was fast declining with the trend in the bakery industry being towards larger automated bread plants.

The severe competitive pressure resulted in the demise of some key competitors – the American Machine & Foundry Co. ceased production of custom engineered bakery equipment, the Petersen Oven Co. of Chicago was acquired and all its key personnel, designs and manufacturing moved to Saginaw and, in 1963, the Read Standard Corporation was liquidated and its stock and service obligations taken over by Baker Perkins. Baker Perkins also benefited from the infusion of new blood in the form of technical and managerial staff from these companies.

	Petersen 40 Bun Pan Oven
	Petersen Travelling Oven
	Petersen Roast-N-Bake Oven

The Saginaw foundry was closed in 1958 as the trend towards fabricated parts had greatly reduced its importance in Baker Perkins Inc's manufacturing programme. The foundry building was converted to a heavy plate shop to help cater especially for the growing heavier and bigger work on mixers for the Chemical Machinery Division.

Difficult trading conditions continued in the USA through the late 50's and early 60's and the management began to study the possibilities of broadening the base of their operations. The company's difficulties were not helped by a 5 week strike of Union employees that occurred in 1962. Further rationalisation measures and an increase in turnover to over $19m resulted in a return to profitability in 1963. It is worthy of note that nearly one-tenth of this turnover was spent, within the year, on design and development. The Parent company now held 61% of the shares of Baker Perkins Inc.

	1961 - Inside the Assembly Shop
	1961 - The Saginaw Factory
	1961 - Saginaw Office Building
	1961 - The Saginaw Drawing office

Turnover and profits continued to improve in 1964 and the company had now entered the Space business with the development of mixers for solid rocket propellant. Trading was generally satisfactory during the second half of the 60's. 1965 had seen Baker Perkins Inc. surpass all previous achievements with total sales of $25.28M and profit before tax of $3.47M. However a note of caution was sounded and 1966 sales and profits were expected to be lower.Turnover in 1967 fell to $23.67M and profits declined a further 19%, reflecting the burgeoning cost increases in the heavy machinery industry. Pre-tax profit fell again in 1968 but unexecuted orders at the end of the year reached record levels leading to another record year in 1969 as sales increased 17.9% and profits rose by 33.6%.


L. Yablonski, K.A. Mack, F. Giordiano, W.D. Chapman, D.B Todd	C.R. Skarin, P.H. Valentyne, J.B. Garrett, E.V. Waack	E.G. Cox, R.A. Baker

During this period, efforts were made to develop the chemical machinery side of the business. This included the purchase of the Podbielniak centrifuge operations in 1967. from Dresser Industries Inc, Dallas, Texas. The Podbielniak Contactor (the "Pod") was used in liquid-liquid extractions and separations and complemented the solid-liquid centrifugal equipment already marketed by the Saginaw chemical division. (For more details see History of Baker Perkins in the Chemical Business). A further penetration of the centrifuge business came in 1973 with the acquisition of the United States Centrifuge Co., manufacturers of solid bowl centrifuges. The product line was assimilated into Saginaw and the United States Centrifuger Co. factory was closed in 1976.


Customer Research and Demonstration Centre	Inside one of the test cells

Marco Company Inc. was a US-based pump company that was purchased by Baker Perkins, sometime in the late 1960's or early 1970's. Not many pumps were made from their designs, but the one product that came with the company of which many were manufactured were the Rotofeeds - a machine having a conical screw and used to deairate materials that became an important part of the Saginaw chemical process product line. Most Rotofeeds were used to deaerate or devolatilize materials.

Plans for a $3m expansion of the factory were announced. This included:

A modern research centre for the Chemical Machinery Division, including customer demonstration facilities.
A 24,000 sq. ft. shipping and marshalling building as an addition to the plate shop.
A 28,000 sq. ft., four floor extension to the main office building to house technical, marketing and administrative staffs, a relocated computer centre and a cafeteria.

The early 1960s had seen an increasing emphasis within Baker Perkins Inc.on its opportunities in the chemical industry, although the senior management continued to be heavily dominated by the bakery interests. Manufacturing and sales licences for basic designs of newer products were sought with various European firms to extend the company's product range, Saginaw then developing the designs to suit the fast expanding North American market.The growing contribution from the chemical machinery business and a fairly high level of bakery work combined to give Baker Perkins Inc a trading profit/capital employed return averaging 18% in the late 1960s.

It is clear that the business environment – and not least Saginaw’s location within the Detroit automobile manufacturing region – meant that a “Westwood-style” apprenticeship system was totally inappropriate.

Bob Sievert, who retired after 46 plus years with Baker Perkins, began as a co-op student in 1943 at the age of 16, together with Bob Zwingman (later a Sales Coordinator), Irv Waack (later, VP of Sales), Jack Thorsby (Salesman and VP), They attended night school for two years, 3 days a week, at Saginaw High, with a high school teacher who had to have extra schooling to teach them. After school and during the summer, they worked at Baker Perkins in engineering (the drawing office). When the time came for them to get experience in the workshops, a shortage of draughtsmen meant that they were unable to go. Later, Bob went into the services, followed by veteran’s schooling. In order to stay with Baker Perkins he had to go through their schooling programme, this did not allow him to go away to college.

Bob recalls – “It said on my diploma that I worked through the shop for so many hours, engineering so many hours, and through-out the company, but we didn’t run the machinery in the shop or work in the electrical shop or paint shop—although we were trained in these areas by the people who worked in them. Bob Zwingman and I went into working as draftsmen in the sales department. Irv Waack and Jack Thorsby went into engineering to work. I still have the diploma.”

Bob Wells and Ken Dietzel also went through the engineering co-op program for 2 years. They would work 15 weeks and went to school 15 weeks. While working, they were moved to different departments so they learned the functions of each department, but finally decided to stay in the Sales Layout Department.

Sue Waack remembers – “They had apprentices out in the shop- electricians, machinists. General Motors snapped them up as soon as they were fully trained. Some stayed that wanted to work in a small shop but we lost a lot of them to General Motors. I don't remember that we ever had a system in engineering (the drawing office) for apprenticeship, at least not formally, but a lot of young kids came in and were trained to work in a certain field like ovens and mixers"

John Baker, who was employed at Saginaw from 1966 until 1980, recalls:

“I understand that before I started working at Saginaw in 1966, there was a formal apprenticeship system for ‘tool & die makers’ but that was phased-out when it became obvious that the vast majority of the ‘graduates’ were being hired away by General Motors (the largest employer in the area at the time). General Motors had abandoned their apprenticeship programme in favour of enticing qualified people away from the other manufacturing companies by offering higher wages and better benefits.

The Saginaw engineering office generally recruited from the various local community colleges (2 year curriculum often along vocational lines) for draughtsmen and designers, and from the state’s 4-year universities for engineers and other professional posts (accounting, personnel, etc.). I was an engineering student attending Michigan Technological University and started at Baker Perkins as a summer hire (sometimes referred to as a co-op if your intentions were to continue to come back each summer until you graduated) working as a draughtsman. I continued to alternate work and going to school until I finally graduated in 1971 with a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering and at which time the company offered me a full-time position in the Food Machinery Division as Design Engineer. There were several members of our engineering office that had also graduated from Michigan Tech (while I was there that number grew to at least 7 that I can recall) as the then Chief Engineer, and eventual Director of Engineering, William Swartz was also a former graduate and he tended to hire from there – possibly out of a feeling of loyalty. We had engineers from other universities and schools, as well as a certain number who just worked their way into those positions over a long period of experience and in-house training, however the single largest contingent were those of us from Michigan Tech and, in all honesty, it did take on the characteristics of a clique, but since I was an ‘insider’ I never considered it a bad situation, although in retrospect it wasn’t fair to some other people since while we tended to get the hardest and worst jobs. We also got the better promotions and bigger opportunities to learn new skills and technologies such as in 1977 when Baker Perkins invested in CAD/CAM. Our boss, Bill Swartz had to send 2 engineers to be trained in the use of the software and he asked me and another Tech graduate to go, Thus changing at least the direction of my professional career”.

Baker Perkins de Mexico S.A. was formed in 1970 as a subsidiary of Baker Perkins Inc. in Estado de Mexico, on the outskirts of Mexico City, to handle sales of group products in Mexico and to manufacture bakery equipment locally. This manufacturing operation was short-lived as it was closed in 1976 as business prospects no longer justified local manufacture. The bakery machinery concerned was then supplied from the group’s factory in Saginaw, Michigan.

The unpredictability of the USA market continued through the early 70's and this was reflected in the company's results. The Company's 1970 Annual Report celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Saginaw facility and the President's Letter to the Stockholders stated – "1970 was a year of recession in the USA with real gross national product down for the first time since 1958. Although your Company was able to maintain its sales volume, we were unsuccessful in overcoming the effects of inflation on costs of materials and labour. Furthermore, it was not considered prudent to cut back immediately, any more than was absolutely necessary, our highly trained organisation when long term prospects, which are so dependent on it, continue to appear bright". The 1970 results showed a slight increase in sales but wage and cost increases reduced profits by 35%. Ominously, orders from the chemical process industry fell sharply for the first time in many years. The parent company now owned 69.6% of Baker Perkins Inc. and this had risen to 70.6% by 1972.

It is worthy of note that, until 1972, Baker Perkins Inc's turnover was divided in the ratio of 60% food to 40% chemical machinery. In 1973, chemical machinery volume overtook that of food machinery and the ratio continued at around 45% food to 55% chemical.

J.M. Peake

The concentration on development of the chemical machinery business was taken a step further in 1973 by placing the responsibility for exploiting world markets with Saginaw but fortunes were mixed through the mid-70's. The Canadian Baker Perkins factory in Brampton was closed in 1975 and its production transferred to Saginaw. P.B. Harley retired in 1975 as President and was succeeded by John Peake.

The 1974/75 period was characterised by very low activity in the food machinery business and, on the chemical side, by delays in completing manufacture and by poor margins on certain fixed price contracts. A 3-week strike in May 1974 prior to completion of the satisfactory negotiation of a new three year labour contract added to the problems and Baker Perkins Inc. made a loss of approximately £1.4M.

During this period, Saginaw’s Chemical Machinery Division were marketing a full range of batch and continuous mixers for the production of such diversified products as high strength colour pigments, anode and cathode paste for aluminium reduction, solid rocket propellant and the compounding of plastics. Pusher type centrifuges and liquid-liquid contactors/separators were also offered to the Chemical industry. It is of some interest that over 90% of the free world’s penicillin was being produced using Baker Perkins contactors.

The Food Machinery Division marketed a complete line of high speed bakers’ machinery throughout the Western Hemisphere, Western Europe and parts of the Far East. Capable of producing up to 15,000 loaves of bread per hour, the equipment was aimed, primarily, at the major chain and wholesale bakeries. The Division also offered equipment for the large scale production of sweet goods, rolls, pies, cakes, biscuits and crackers.

In December 1975, Saginaw employed 706 people. The hourly paid employees were all members of the factory-based trade union and every three years a new labour contract was negotiated with strike disruption as a possibility. Wages were high by USA standards due to the high wage structure of the automobile industry.

The Saginaw plant was also engaged in sub-contract work for several leading tool manufacturers – horizontal boring mills, various types of engine lathes, grinders and large automatic punch presses. Saginaw had produced for several years large oil drilling equipment such as rotary tables and 650 ton capacity hook blocks.

Saginaw's fortunes took a distinct turn for the better in 1975/76 when the previous year's loss was turned into a £300,000 profit, notwithstanding the continuing depressed trading conditions.

R.F. Kelley

In November 1976, Baker Perkins North America Inc. was formed and acquired the group interest in Baker Perkins Inc. In March 1977 Baker Perkins North America Inc. Made a successful offer to the minority stockholders of Baker Perkins Inc., thereby increasing the group holding from 72.4% to 100% at a cost of $4m.and in September of that year R.F. (Bob) Kelley was appointed President on J.M. Peake's return to the UK. (John Peake, who had become Chairman of the Baker Perkins Inc. Board of Directors on the appointment of Bob Kelley as President and Chief Executive, resigned from this position in 1980 on being appointed Group Managing Director and the position was dissolved).

Another strike took place at Saginaw in 1978, this time of three weeks duration. At the end of the 70's, chemical machinery was still seen as a major growth opportunity, and in March 1978 Baker Perkins Holdings acquired the business (less the land and buildings) of Malaxeurs Guittard of Paris, France, a manufacturer of a high-quality line of universal and screw discharge batch mixers. The name was changed to Baker Perkins Guittard and operating control turned over to Baker Perkins Inc. However, the volatile nature of the US market continued to have a dampening effect on the company's results.

On the bakery side of the business, the late 1970s saw Saginaw attempt to take on Lanham Machinery Co's. dominance of the 'Proof and Bake' conveyorised automatic bread and roll plant. The story of this can be found in History of Baker Perkins in the Bakery Business. Unfortunately, it was not one of Saginaw's most successful developments.

In July 1977, what was basically a duplicate of the Unigraphics CAD/CAM system installed at Baker Perkins Ltd's Westwood Works four months earlier, was installed at Saginaw. Since this was replacing a 2 year old UNIAPT system, a non-graphical Dasher station was included to support NC Programming.

A 1978 appraisal of the factory premises determined:

"The factory is located on a 22-acre site, 2.5 miles southwest of the central area of Saginaw. Buildings include 380,000 square feet of production space and 85,000 square feet of offices and demonstration laboratories. The manufacturing area is divided nearly equally between food and chemical operations. The main production buildings range in age from 34 to 60 years but are generally in good condition. Manufacturing activity ranges from light fabrication for bakery products to heavy plate work, machining and assembly for chemical products. The factory has an extensive machine shop which includes 12 numerically-controlled machines".

Some sense of the size of the problem alluded to below in R.F. Kelley's report to the parent company board can be judged by the fact that the appraisal estimated a replacement cost of $13.2M and a market value of $1.8M - the large gap being a reflection of the very poor market for general industrial property in an area dominated by the high wage structure of the automobile industry.

It should be noted that Saginaw's Food Machinery Division had, for many years, done a small amount of business in ovens for biscuit manufacture (see History of Baker Perkins in the Biscuit Business), but the available range of associated machinery was very limited and machinery manufactured at Baker Perkins Ltd's factory in Peterborough was used in most applications. In addition, Saginaw held the North American sales agency for the chocolate and confectionery products of Baker Perkins Ltd and Confectionery Developments Ltd. (See also History of Baker Perkins in the C&C Business).

In late 1978, Bob Kelley reported to the parent company board the worsening business climate in the Saginaw/Michigan area:

"The Michigan business climate is ranked 48th of the 50 states in desirability measured in terms of taxes, worker benefits, and other regulatory constraints. Saginaw itself ranks 5th nation-wide in personal disposable income - $26,000 per family - and at the present rate of increase, will rank 3rd by 1980 at roughly $30,000. Looking at our direct cost differential, including wage rate and fringe benefit costs, we are working under a handicap of over $3 per hour relative to our major competition. Of the 190 labour cost areas in the US, Saginaw ranks number one".

As a result, plans were announced in 1981 for a new $8m.factory for food machinery in Goldsboro NC. The existing food machinery business was to be transferred from Saginaw, leaving it free to concentrate on chemical machinery. The consequent pressures on Saginaw from under-capacity working were obvious.

The management organisation as existed at Saginaw in April 1980. (The management organisation of the Saginaw subsidiaries - Baker Perkins Chemical Ltd., Stoke; the mixer manufacturer Guittard, Paris and Baker Perkins Canada, can be found by clicking on the blue links)

Saginaw's Chemical Division was restructured in December 1982 into two divisions – the Plastics Equipment Division, under C.R.A. (Bob) Senior , comprising the former Plastics business including Baker Perkins Chemical Machinery, Stoke-on-Trent, and the Process Equipment Division, under B.H. (Bernie) Liberman, made up of the former industrial and centrifugal business including Baker Perkins Guittard, Chelles. With the retirement of Bob Senior in July 1983, D.K. (Dan) Pearce became vice-president and general manager of the Plastics division.

Also in 1982, Saginaw introduced a radically new approach to palletising plastics that combined their expertise in both plastics extrusion and centrifuge technology. The G-Force pelletiser utilised a spinning die to both extrude molten plastic and to cut the emerging strands into uniform pellets, using half the energy required by competitive palletising equipment. (For more details see - History of Baker Perkins in the Chemical Business).

A combination of a strong dollar, low demand from customers who were themselves operating at very low levels of capacity and Saginaw's newly inbuilt capacity problem meant that the business remained under severe pressure throughout the early 80's. Inevitably, alongside the questions being asked about Saginaw's future, the potential for Saginaw's range of chemical machinery was being re-examined. The market for centrifuges was under pressure from European manufactrurers; major changes were forseen in the type of mixers used for solid rocket propellants; and worries existed regarding the potential of the centrifugal pelletiser to transform the Group's plastics machinery business. Saginaw's capacity began to be cut back in 1985.

J. Gallagher

R.F. Kelley retired as President of BP Inc. in October 1985 and John Gallagher took over as President of the newly formed chemical and plastics machinery business in Saginaw. Further cut-backs in staff at Saginaw were made in 1986.

The acquisition of Sterling Extruder Corporation in 1986, presented a partial solution to the Saginaw cost problem. The polymer machinery division and the sub-group management were relocated from Saginaw to the Sterling Extruder facility at South Plainfield, New Jersey. In October 1986 J.T. Gallagher and his staff moved from Saginaw to premises in Parsippany, New Jersey. These were to be known as the Corporate Office.

Following the merger of Baker Perkins Holdings and APV in 1987 there was an increased concentration on the food and drink machinery activities of the new business with chemical machinery assuming somewhat less importance. The April 1987 issue of the "APV Baker Gazette" announced that - "The loss making factory of Baker Perkins Inc. at Saginaw has been closed". Product manufacturing was transferred to the APV facility at Lake Mills, Wisconsin but engineering administration and customer demonstration remained in Saginaw.

In 1987, Baker Perkins Inc's Chemical sub-group employed approximately 700, with full-service companies located at Saginaw, Michigan; South Plainfield, New Jersey; Edison, New Jersey; Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme, UK; and Paris, France. Marketing companies were maintained in Milan, Italy and Hanover, West Germany. The sub-group marketed its products to the rest of the world through local agents, many of whom were APV group companies.

APV plc announced in September 1990 that it wanted to dispose of the Plastics machinery business and it was consolidated at the Edison facility. When, in December 1990, it was sold to Crompton & Knowles Corporation for $7.3m, APV was able to raise further funds from the sale of the freehold factory and offices at South Plainfield.

The engineering administration facility that remained on the Saginaw site, introduced a new continuous mixer for energetics in 1990. The company had by then been supplying machinery for explosives for 80 years and had developed a very wide range of explosives, pyrotechnics and propellants manufacturing equipment. Many hundreds of Baker Perkins machines were in service in leading chemical, aerospace and research facilities all over the world.

Rewards for long service at Saginaw took a slightly different form than at other group companies (See Long Service Presentations). Rather than recognise 25 years' service as at the UK companies, Saginaw gave a pin for every five years of continuous service. The pins incorporated a ruby for every five years. After one accumulated twenty five years the rubies were replaced with a diamond chip. Typical pins are illustrated below:

Baker Perkins Chemical Machinery Ltd’s operations were moved from the original factory in Cooper Street, Stoke-on-Trent to the Parkhouse, Newcastle-under-Lyme facility in 1991. The manufacture and assembly of twin-screw extruders was re-located from Stoke-on-Trent to Peterborough in 1994, to take advantage of the state-of-the-art design and manufacturing facilities available at APV Baker’s headquarters.

Following the APV/Baker Perkins merger in 1987, Baker Perkins Guittard was renamed APV Chimie Equipement SA. It was sold to a company formed by its management in 1991 for one French Franc.

The 1995 APV Group Annual Report states that the business of APV Chemical Inc was sold in April 1995 for £1.6m. This business still exists, working out of the original works/offices in Hess Street, Saginaw and producing the same chemical product line - Centrifugals, Continuous Mixers, Batch Mixers, Vertical Energetics, etc., under the name of B & P Process Equipment.

Machining a mixer blade

Working on a chemical mixer gearbox

Production of twin-screw mixers

Podbielniak Contactors being readied for despatch

Machining a pusher centrifuge basket

Inside the Saginaw Drawing Office

Saginaw-built bread dough mixer

252 ft. pre-assembled biscuit oven