RISE OF THE VESTEYS

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20737, 22 February 1939, Page 13

RISE OF THE VESTEYS

WORLD-WIDE MEAT WAR FIGHT AGAINST AMERICANS The Vesteys are best known for the world-wide meat war they conducted against Armour and Swift, the great Chicago firm who formerly controlled the meat markets of the globe. Great risks were taken and enormous sums spent by botii sides in a merciless strujggie for a supremacy that meant millions, and supremacy in supplying a nation’s food. At the height of the contest, Lord Vestey sat one day at his desk when a decoded cable was brought him by a secretary, it was from his Chicago oflice, and brought alarming news. ilis American rivals, finding the growing British firm becoming a serious opposition, had decided to ruin it completely by sending to England gigantic consignments of meat at lbs a quarter less than it cost them to produce it. Union Cold Storage, a younger firm, could not, they thought, possibly compete with such an effort, and it looked as if they must be smashed by their pitiless opponents. Lord Vestey read the cable calmly. Then he picked up a telephone and sent for his chief of staff. “Tell the Chicago office in code to kill no more meat at our killing stations after the date mentioned in this cable,” he said. “Then see to It that we buy every pound of meat from that date sent to England by Armour and Swift.” “Good, heavens, sir, what shall we do with it?” asked his scared listener. ‘‘Sell it in our own shops at twice the profit we ever made before,” came the swift reply. The American firm continued for several months to export their meat at a dead loss, believing they were steadily crushing Union Cold Storage out of existence. Then their spies reported what was really happening. By that time the British firm had taken vast sums straight out of their rivals’ pockets 1 When the secret leaked out on Wall Street, Armour and Swift’s shares dropped heavily. Effort to Crush Opponents A little later, Armour and Swift made a further great effort to crush their English opponents. Vesteys had chosen a fine spot in the Argentine, on a river bend, where they built a gigantic killing station. Two great roads converged at this point, and by those roads hundreds of thousands of cattle were driven in from the Pampas ranches for slaughter, to a place where meat ships could obtain good wharfage. After a time Armour and Swift built two huge killing stations each at a distance back along the artery roads, to tap the flow of cattle before it reached the junction where Vesteys waited for it.

The supply to the latter station then steadily decreased till it became insufficient to support the station.

The Vesteys, who have always claimed that their opponents have made them fortunes, waited patiently, and after a time the other side approached them suggesting that, as the original killing station was now useless, would they not sell it to Armour and Swift. Vesteys replied that it had cost them one and a quarter million pounds to erect, and they would not sell it for less. Out-Manoeuvred The price was a stiff one, but the Americans wanted to strike a decisive blow at their rivals, to show the world that Union Cold Storage could not continue the competition. So they raised the money and bought the station. With the money, the Vesteys immediately built two new stations, further back along the river and roads, at a distance beyond which it would not be profitable for anyone to build. Thus they left their American opponents with three enormously costly killing stations, almost completely useless, while they themselves tapped the whole supply of meat from the surrounding prairies.

The Vesteys came from Liverpool, two unknown young men setting out to make name and fortune. A few years ago, they gave to the new Liverpool Cathedral nearly a quarter of a million pounds to erect a tower as a memorial to their mother.