Schneider’s pride meant cleanliness and fast delivery

Meat company will forever be linked to Courtland Avenue in Kitchener

Recently, Flash from the Past has highlighted some major local industries: John Watson’s foundry in Ayr, Dominion Buttons and Smiles’n Chuckles in Kitchener. We’re on a roll so let’s peek into another key business that made the area famous.

J.M. Schneider Limited needs no introduction. Its meats and other products carried the family’s and the city’s names across the country and overseas. During three generations of Schneiders, the firm moved from a house, to a factory, to a huge industrial complex — all situated along Kitchener’s Courtland Avenue. Ordinarily, I would retell in detail how this major company:

resulted from J.M.’s 1886 on-thejob mishap working at a button factory;

started by J.M. peddling homemade sausages from the Schneider family’s kitchen;

continued cautiously with a factory designed to be used as a house if the company failed;

began erecting a massive processing plant in 1925;

prospered through the 20th century;

was sold in 2001 to Smithfield Foods of Virginia.

Smithfield then sold to Schneider’s bitter rival, Maple Leaf Foods, in 2004 and that firm has continued the Schneider’s branding and advertising. The Schneider story is told in several places on the internet but was best recorded by Ray Stanton in his 1989 company history book, “A Legacy of Quality.”

Today the focus is on a Schneiders 1936 promotional publication. “The Inside Story of a Modern Packing Plant” is a nine-inch by 12-inch 12-page booklet clearly aimed at that era’s modern housewife and portraying the good life from a middle-class viewpoint. Crisply written with humour, pride, positivity, meat-processing details and workplace photos, “The Inside Story …” provides a 90years-ago peek inside the factory.

The booklet boasts of the firm’s commitment to modernity, proper refrigeration, top-quality animals and speedy product delivery to dealers. At this time, J.M. was still president of the company although his three sons, Frederick (general manager), Charles (shipping manager) and Norman (vice-president) had each served decades with the firm. Several images from the booklet are in this week’s column. The full booklet is available in PDF form at the email address below.

On the 1925 Schneider plant photo, note the large white arrow. Norman Schneider was instrumental in having Lexington airfield created. He also arranged that several other local factories added rooftop arrows to guide 1930s pilots to the landing ground. For that airfield’s story, go to www.therecord.com and search “Flash From the Past” Lexington.

The second plant is the only original Schneider building still standing. Schneiders underscored its state-of-the1936-art hygienic efforts by emphasizing constant temperature controls in the promotional booklet.

Sausage is what J.M. Schneider began with in 1886 and five decades later sausage remained the company’s raison d’être. The idea of a “sausage kitchen” perhaps was meant to divert the public’s attention away from the abattoir rooms.

"THE INSIDE STORY" IMAGES