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The Baker Company history
The Baker Company company history timeline
In 1953 Sherman took J. Baker in a new direction that would eventually become its main source of revenue: operating shoe departments in discount department stores.
1953: First licensing agreement with department store.
Baker's billings reached $5.7 million in 1955, when the firm's profits were $200,000.
The number of divisions had grown to ten in 1957, when there were a dozen branch offices and four foreign ones.
Michael Baker, a colleague told a Fortune reporter in 1957, "can smell engineering work like a bird dog smells game.
In 1958 J. Baker's one-year-old neighbor, Ames Department Stores Inc., licensed the company to run that chain's shoe departments, and as Ames grew, so did J. Baker.
In 1958, when Engineering News-Record ranked Baker as the largest architectural-engineering firm in the United States, the firm had 1,009 employees.
Part of National Shoes: 1968--84
By 1968, Sherman Baker was looking to expand.
In 1968, General Foods put up another desiccated coconut plant in Davao del Sur (Mindanao Island) as part of its 2-plant sourcing strategy.
Baker became a publicly owned corporation in 1968, with 60 percent of the first-issued common-stock shares, however, in Michael Baker's hands.
In 1972 the company lost $473,000 on contract income of $20.1 million.
When oil began flowing through the Alaska pipeline in 1977, however, there was little more for Baker to do, and the drawbacks of dependency on a single project immediately became obvious.
1980: National and J. Baker declare bankruptcy.
Instead, Baker workers agreed in 1984 to buy nearly 40 percent of the company's outstanding common shares, through an employee stock-ownership plan (ESOP), from Baker family members and a family trust for $8.9 million, or $9 a share.
With Baker, financier Thomas Lee, and a partnership of the Bass brothers of Fort Worth each taking a one-third equity interest, Baker created Shoecliff Corp., which acquired National and its subsidiary in 1985 through a cost merger at a price of some $31.6 million.
Early in 1985 the ESOP raised its stake in the company to 70 percent.
Sales for the company's first fiscal year, which ended February 1, 1986, were $116.7 million.
One important asset was the acquisition, at the end of 1986, of Intelcom Support Services, Inc., a Texas-based firm providing contract operations and maintenance services to military and other government installations.
Growing the Shoe Business: 1987--89
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The Baker Company competitors
Company Name  | Founded Date | Revenue | Employee Size | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Red Incorporated | 1937 | $284.9K | 5 | 31 |
| PUMP | 1996 | $1.7M | 28 | 4 |
| COPY CENTER | - | $1.2M | 30 | 19 |
| Joan Fabrics Corporation | 1932 | $170.0M | 750 | - |
| Sally Dark Rides | 1977 | $10.0M | 33 | - |
| Dekalb Farmers Market | 1977 | $110.0M | 700 | - |
| The Honey Baked Ham Company | 1957 | $330.0M | 1,252 | 422 |
| Easy Way Products | - | $45.0M | 200 | - |
| DeBrand Chocolatier | 1987 | $1.6M | 45 | - |
| IMAX Worldwide Home | 1984 | $300.8M | 673 | 28 |
The Baker Company history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of The Baker Company, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about The Baker Company. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at The Baker Company. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by The Baker Company. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of The Baker Company and its employees or that of Zippia.
The Baker Company may also be known as or be related to BAKER CO., Baker, The Baker Co., Inc., The Baker Company, The Baker Company Inc and The Baker Company, Inc.