JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — At one time, huge electronic neon coffee cup signs dripping their fragrant brew rose not far from two rivers - the St. Johns in Jacksonville and the mighty Hudson in the New York metropolitan area. The iconic sign had been seen by generations of New Yorkers as they glanced across the Hudson at the Hoboken, N.J., plant of Maxwell House Coffee Co.
But thanks to a spirited competition between two cities 20 years ago, the one on Jacksonville's East Bay Street continues to glow and drip coffee, while the one in Hoboken is gone, replaced by an upscale condominium.
A third coffee cup sign that once graced a 16-story coffee roasting building at the Maxwell House plant in Houston was removed in March 2007 after the coffee company's parent, Kraft Foods, divested the plant. The company's only other U.S. plant, in San Leandro, Calif., doesn't have a coffee cup on the plant's exterior.
Maxwell House is marking the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Jacksonville plant this year.
The fragrant roast had its beginnings in 1873, when Joel Cheek, a traveling salesman for his cousin's wholesale grocery, developed his own coffee in Nashville, Tenn. In 1892, he convinced Nashville's posh Maxwell House Hotel to serve his brand; and five years later, the first Maxwell House plant opened in that city. A second one opened in Houston in 1904.
Cheek quit his job with his cousin's wholesale grocery and, with partner John Neal, formed the Nashville Coffee and Manufacturing Co., later renamed the Cheek-Neal Coffee Co. The Jacksonville plant opened under that name in 1910, employing 30 people and producing about 40,000 pounds of coffee a day. By 1992, it employed 420 people and had sales of $300 million. Today the plant employs 275 people and produces more coffee than the one in San Leandro, but for competitive reasons won't reveal the amount.
In 1928, Cheek-Neal was sold for more than $40 million to the Postum Co., soon to become General Foods. That sale enabled the founder's son Leon Cheek to commission architect Roy Benjamin to design what remains one of Jacksonville's most significant mansions, the Cheek Mansion, built at 2263 River Blvd., at a cost of $100,000 in 1928-29. Today the residence is a star of the St. Johns Quarter Historic District and owned by the family of the late Emmet Ferguson.
Maxwell House continued to be one of the more prominent corporate citizens, stabilizing the downtown area and making major contributions to Jacksonville's civic and volunteer community. During World War II when there was a shortage of metal because of the war effort, the coffee was packaged in glass jars.
Then in February 1990, the plant's very existence was threatened. Owner General Foods USA said that because of excess capacity brought on by declining coffee consumption and lost market share, it would close one of its East Coast plants - Jacksonville or Hoboken. The city fathers faced the grim possibility of the loss of 400 jobs. An economic analysis by the Florida Department of Commerce said businesses in the seven-county Northeast Florida region pulled in $555.7 million annually because of the plant. Jacksonville's economic impact was given as $81 million a year.
Fears of losing all that spurred the creation of a community-wide campaign to "Keep Max in Jax." Not only did plant workers wear T-shirts and buttons proclaiming that slogan, business executives from the community did what they could to convince the powers that be that Jacksonville was the place to be.
The plant was in a tax increment district, which meant the city could lend the plant money for expansion based on future increased property taxes. JaxPort also pitched in, for the coffee beans used in the plant represented $7.2 million of direct economic impact to the port.
In 1990, state enterprise zone benefits were included in a $4.8 million package of incentives offered to Maxwell House Coffee Co. to keep its Jacksonville plant open.
Another promise was a bridge over Hogans Creek and the extension of East Forsyth Street to provide the plant with a new entrance so that as many as 150 tractor-trailers would not have to enter the plant from East Bay Street.
Plant employees staged rallies and had a walkathon over the Main Street bridge to Friendship Fountain and back. The City Council approved tax breaks to keep the plant open.
At a big "Keep Max in Jax" community rally at Metropolitan Park, more than 700 people heard pep talks by the late U.S. Rep. Charles E. Bennett, Mayor Tommy Hazouri, the late state Sen. Bill Bankhead and several City Council members.
Local industrial leaders banded together to form the First Coast Manufacturers Association and raised thousands of dollars to help plant employees with the fight for their jobs. The Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce wooed Maxwell House executives at an evening cruise on the St. Johns River.
The competition dragged on for months. Union workers at both plants were asked for concessions and to vote on new contracts.
By early June, rumors were flying. Two New Jersey newspapers reported the Jacksonville plant would close. Tensions mounted.
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The good news
At 3 p.m. June 27, then Jacksonville plant manager James Reese met with about 150 cheering employees on the day shift to give the good news that Max would be kept in Jax. Not only that but the company would spend $35 million on an expansion project to accommodate increased production from the closed plant.
Three years after that, there was another $25 million expansion to handle mixing and packaging operations that had been performed at the General Foods International Coffees plant in Evansville, Ind.
Lad Daniels, president of the First Coast Manufacturers Association, well remembers the campaign 20 years ago.
"It helped lead to the consolidation of our organization," Daniels said. "We really did not have an organized industrial community then. We are better known now."
Maxwell House gives Jacksonville an international presence, Daniels said, with coffee beans being a major trading commodity. Employment may not be what it once was, with automation helping the workforce go from brawn to brain, he added.
A company spokeswoman said the plant has an annual impact in Jacksonville of $600 million in the form of taxes, payroll, benefits and goods and services.
"But the fact that they are still here also creates indirect employment," Daniels said. Workers for other trades such as plumbers and electricians are needed to service the production equipment.
After the 1990 Keep Max in Jax campaign, Daniels said, the state changed requirements of enterprise zones. He said the law originally was passed to create economic opportunities for people living in the zone, usually some of the poorest in the city.
"But we found out that with their continued employment at the plant, they were able to buy homes outside the zone," Daniels said. "They were paying such good salaries and benefits that their employees could afford to move and buy homes outside the enterprise zone."
Daniels said Maxwell House and its employees have traditionally been good neighbors, supporting many local nonprofit organizations.
"I'll put Keep Max in Jax right up there with the consolidated government and the Jacksonville Jaguars," Daniels said, "with milestones for Jacksonville."
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