Berwind Corporation

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Berwind Corporation
legal form Corporation
founding 1886
Seat Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
Number of employees 6,000
Branch Private equity
Website www.berwind.com

The Berwind Corporation is an American family, the end of the 19th century as Berwind-White Coal Mining Company one of the largest coal producers was the US and today mainly as the fifth generation of capital investment company ( private equity ) operates. 2007 in had Philadelphia -based company has more than 3,500 employees and an estimated annual turnover of 1.5 billion US dollars .

history

Mining company 1874–1962

Berwind-White Coal Mining Company piers in Jersey City in the late 19th century.
Edward Julius Berwind (1848-1936).

In 1874 the brothers Charles F. and Edward J. Berwind , whose parents had immigrated to the USA from Bavaria and Prussia in the 1840s , founded the mining company Berwind, White and Company , the coal mines in Pennsylvania , together with the former politician Allison White , West Virginia and Kentucky acquired. In 1886 the company was renamed the Berwind-White Coal Mining Company and by the turn of the century developed into one of the largest coal miners , processors and suppliers in the United States.

Charles F. Berwind (1846–1890) gained early experience in the hard coal business at Powelton Coal and Iron Company , where he rose from errand boy to vice president at the age of 21 and later became a partner of the coal company Berwind & Bradley and White & Lingle . His brother Edward J. Berwind (1848-1936) studied at the United States Naval Academy and served from 1869 as a naval advisor in Washington, DC under Ulysses S. Grant . After retiring from the Navy in 1872, he worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad until 1880 and then went into the coal business with his brother. Edward J. Berwind was President of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Company until 1930 when he became Chairman of the Board . Among other things, his good contacts from his time in the Navy enabled him to conclude lucrative supply contracts with railway and steamship lines as well as with the United States Navy . He also got into the transport business and worked with Thomas Fortune Ryan and Peter Widener , among others . He was also a longtime friend of JP Morgan and worked closely with JP Morgan & Company .

The Berwind-White Coal Mining Company founded numerous settlements and towns in the coal-producing areas of the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania and West Virginia at the end of the 19th century , of which Berwind and Windber (adaptation of ber-Wind ) are named after the family.

Change to a private equity company

At the beginning of the 20th century, other brothers of Edward J. Berwind worked for the company and their descendants; Edward J. had no children. In the early 1960s, Charles G. Berwind, Jr. (1928-2010) led the way to a realignment of the family business. Hard coal mining was given up and the mines were only leased and production licenses were granted for the company's own deposits, which are now bundled in the Berwind Natural Resources Corporation . The deposits comprise around 400 million tons of hard coal in the Appalachian Mountains , 150 million board feet of raw wood and 700 million cubic meters of natural gas . In addition , the company diversified through investments in modern industrial companies, the real estate industry , the chemical and pharmaceutical industry as well as health and nursing care . In 1990 the Berwind Group expanded its field of activity to include asset management by founding the Berwind Financial Group , which was sold again in 2001. The Berwind Corporation is a 100 percent shareholder in all acquired companies, but gives them great entrepreneurial autonomy and provides the necessary financial foundation for the development of long-term investments.

Holdings

Companies activity Year of purchase
BWA Water Additives Water chemicals 2011
Caplugs Plastic products 2015
Colorcon Pharmaceutical excipients 1978
CRC Industries, Inc. Chemicals (e.g. diesel additives) 1981
ECCO Safety Group hazard lights 2007
Oliver tolas Pharmaceutical packaging 2012
TASI Group Measuring device 2004
WELLpet Animal feed 2007/08
Berwind Natural Resources Corporation (BNRC) Coal and natural gas reserves, forest ownership

literature

  • Charles Graham Berwind: The History of Berwind, 1886-1993. Berwind Group, 1993.
  • Tina Grant: International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 100. St. James Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-55862-634-8 , pp. 61-64.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fact Sheet
  2. ↑ America's Largest Private Companies: # 333 Berwind. Forbes.com , March 11, 2008. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b c Tina Grant: International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 100. St. James Press, 2009, pp. 61-63.
  4. ^ John N. Ingham, Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders, Volume 1. Greenwood Publishing, Westport, Conn. 1983, ISBN 978-0313239076 , p. 69 f.
  5. ^ Mildred Allen Beik: The Miners of Windber: The Struggles of New Immigrants for Unionization, 1890s-1930s. Penn State Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0271029900 , pp. 9-17.
  6. ↑ Walter F. Nädele: Charles G. Berwind Jr., 81; headed his family's company. Philly.com, November 6, 2010. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  7. ↑ BWA Water Additives
  8. ↑ Caplugs
  9. ↑ Colorcon
  10. ↑ CRC
  11. ↑ ECCO
  12. ↑ Oliver Products
  13. ↑ TASI
  14. ↑ WellPet
  15. ^ Berwind Natural Resources Corporation