Cranwell in 1904,[3] three years after the formation of its greatest rival, American Can Company.
[3] The United Steelworkers of America was the union representing hundreds of manufacturing workers at Continental Can Company.
Continental suffered a drop in its income during the Depression, although by 1932 the company had never reported a money-losing year.
Continental expanded during the following decade through acquisitions, and the company entered the fields of paper and fiber containers, bottle caps, and synthetic resins.
Continental then became the first company with a full line of containers in metal, paper, and glass.
Due to such acquisitions, Continental briefly surpassed American Can's annual sales, topping $1 billion in 1957.
In 1969 the company acquired Schmalbach-Lubeca-Werke A.G., the largest packaging producer in the European community.
In early 1991, Continental Can Company was ordered to pay $415 million to some 3,700 former employees and members of the United Steel Workers of America, when the courts found that the company had attempted to defraud the employees of pensions during the late 1970s.
[5] In June 1998 Suiza Foods Corporation completed its acquisition of Continental Can.
[5] In July 1999, Suiza sold all of Continental Can's US packaging operations in partial exchange for a minority interest in the purchaser, Consolidated Container Company.