Crown Holdings

Crown Holdings Incorporated, formerly Crown Cork & Seal Company, is an American company that makes metal beverage and food cans, metal aerosol containers, metal closures and specialty packing. Founded in 1892, it is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of December 2012, Crown employs 21,900 people at 149 plants in 41 countries. It claims to manufacture one out of every five beverage cans used in the world, and one out of every three food cans used in North America and Europe. The company is ranked No. 296 in the Fortune 500 list for 2012 and is number one in the packaging and container industry for the same list.

History

William Painter, an American of British descent, invented the crown cap for bottled carbonated beverages in 1891, and obtained patents 468,226 and 468,258 for it on February 2, 1892. He founded his own manufacturing business, the Crown Cork and Seal Company, in Baltimore and set out on a campaign to convince bottlers that his cap was the right one to use on their products. By 1898, he had created a foot-powered crowner device to sell to bottlers and retailers so that they could seal the bottles with his caps quickly and easily. This helped gain acceptance of his bottle caps. By 1906, Crown had opened manufacturing plants in Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.