Western Can Company
Revision as of 18:23, 24 November 2016 by Robert Bowdidge (talk | contribs)
| Main Location |
San Francisco |
|---|
The Western Can Company was an San Francisco-based can manufacturer known for lithographed cans, and large coffee cans.According to a history of the San Francisco coffee roaster MJB, Western Can was originally called West Coast Metal Works, and was purchased by MJB in 1916 and had its name changed to Western Can at that time. The company was bought by the Continental Can Company.
The company had a can factory in the Japantown area of San Jose. The plant is now the Gordon Biersch brewery[1].
In 1954, the general manager was Eugene Mignacco[2][3][4]
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Locations
| Location | Years | Address | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 1923 | 180 Townsend St. | Office[5] |
| San Francisco | 1941[6], 1960 | 1848 17th St. at Rhode Island St.[7] | factory |
| San Jose | 357 Taylor Street |
References
- ↑ EIR for redevelopment
- ↑ Annual meeting of Red Cross. Wednesday, December 29, 1954 San Mateo Times. Mignacco is listed as general manager of Western Can.
- ↑ Family history of Eugene Mignacco, Stacey Anne Beerman Trumble."...Western Can Company made MJB's coffee cans and MJB owned Western Can Company. My father was able to become a director in the Western Can Company.... He just went right up [from the bottom] and soon he became an executive... stood up to someone and the boss was impressed, so he gave him a chance. He really worked his way up from the bottom, I want to say he was the janitor... he didn't know anything of course he could type, but he didn't know anything about short hand. My father worked during the day and took night classes to learn. He was self taught."
- ↑ John Garner, Comment on blog post about MJB advertisements. "Can’t answer your question, but I worked briefly for MJB in San Francisco the early 1970s. While there, I learned that Western Can was a “secret” subsidiary of MJB. Why? Well, the majority of Western Can’s business was making and printing coffee cans, which they sold not only to MJB, but also to Hills Brothers, Folger’s, Mannings, Safeway, S&W, and a fair number of others. MJB was afraid that their coffee roasting, grinding, and packing competitors would quit buying cans from Western Can if they knew that MJB owned Wescan. My own souvenir from then is a 20 pound MJB can — almost, if not exactly, the same size and shape as a 5 gallon kerosene can — that was scratched before it was filled. From Western Can, of course.
- ↑ Advertisement. March 1923 Western Canner and Packer.
- ↑ Community Food Preservation Centers. U.S. Department of Agriculture Bureau of Home Economics, Miscellaneous Publication No. 472, 1941.
- ↑ Jeff S. Asay, Track and Time: An Operational History of the Western Pacific Railroad Through Timetables and Maps. Feather River Rail Society, 2006. Western Can shows up in a 1960 WP training manual map identifying industry spurs.