During the same period, its facility in Omaha, Nebraska, boomed, making the city's meatpacking industry the largest in the nation by 1959.

Armour and Plankinton dissolved their partnership in 1884 with the Milwaukee operation eventually becoming the Cudahy Packing Company.

An army inspector tested the meat two months later and found that 751 cases were rotten and had contributed to the food poisoning of thousands of soldiers.

[2] In the first decade of the 20th century, a young Dale Carnegie, representing the South Omaha sales region, became the company's highest-selling salesman, an experience he drew on in his best-selling book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Because of the popularity and strong sales of Dial brand, fueled by magazine, radio, and television advertising, Armour's consumer-products business was incorporated as Armour-Dial, Inc. in 1967.

Prior to the hostile takeover bid by General Host, the company had originally planned to merge with Gulf and Western Industries in 1968.

Armour-Dial continued to manufacture the canned meat products using the Armour Star trademark under license from ConAgra.

In 1985, Greyhound acquired the household products business of Purex Industries, Inc. in 1985[15] and combined it with Armour-Dial to form The Dial Corporation.

Under new CEO Malcolm Jozoff, a former P&G executive, the new Dial Corporation underwent major layoffs in the fall of 1996 and a series of financially disastrous acquisitions the following four years.

In 2000, Jozoff was replaced by Herbert Baum[16] with a mandate from the board of directors to find a suitable buyer for the company.

[17] In 2007 Pinnacle Foods was acquired by the Blackstone Group, a New York City-based private equity firm.

[19][20] In July 2006, ConAgra sold most of their refrigerated meats businesses, including the Armour brand, to Smithfield Foods.