A trend setting company from its beginning in 1919, Griffith leads the way in the development of innovative food ingredient products for the international food industry.
"Entrepreneurial, pioneering, progressive, prosperous." These words could be used to describe the corporate culture of any successful enterprise and industry leader. They certainly describe Griffith Laboratories today. But they have also described Griffith Laboratories from the day it opened in 1919.
Griffith's entrepreneurial and resourceful spirit began with Enoch Luther Griffith. E.L. became the head of the household when he was only nine years old and his father died in an accident on the family's Missouri farm. When E.L. was eleven, his mother sold the farm and moved the family to Kansas. Always focused on the importance of education, E.L. graduated from college in 1888. He took on a series of jobs, which included teaching and sales. A few years later, E.L. settled in Chicago where he found success selling pickles door-to-door for C.F. Claussen & Sons.
The second generation
E.L. Griffith had two sons, Carroll Ladd, "C.L.", and F. Willard, "F.W." The elder son, C.L., planned to attend the University of Illinois to study agriculture when a family friend, ready for retirement, offered him his small pharmaceutical business for free. The company made elixirs, salves, and medications for doctors to carry in their black bags as they visited patients. As a result, C.L. enrolled instead at Northwestern University School of Pharmacology.
After graduating, C.L. ran the business, which the Griffith family referred to as "The Laboratory." His father managed the business and a corn flour processing business while C.L. served in the army during World War I. When he returned from duty, his father presented his vision — to start a new company that would take science to the food industry.
Combining science and food
E.L. knew that he and his son, C.L., were a perfect team. Because of his experience in the corn flour processing business, E.L. had valuable connections in the food industry. His son had a scientific education and considerable business experience.
Griffith Laboratories was born in Chicago in 1919 on the vision of bringing science to the food industry, to make better products more quickly, less expensively and with the latest technology. Father and son understood that providing these products would improve their customers' profitability, and, as a result, profitability at Griffith Laboratories.
Initially, Griffith served the baking industry. It soon expanded its customer base to the sausage making trade, responding to sausage makers' need for better quality binders. The company's product line also included sterilizers, cleansers and germicidal agents. In 1925, the company added spices to the product line and Griffith continued to prosper.