International Multifoods Corporation

The company that would become International Multifoods Corporation began as a small flour mill in 1892 on property leased in New Prague, Minnesota. The mill was operated by F. A. Bean, Sr., a man who, with his father, had previously owned the Polar Star Milling Company of Faribault which, in 1890 or 1891, had closed with an amassed debt of over $100,000. After four years of profitable operation at the New Prague site and at a site purchased in Wells, Minnesota, Bean lost the New Prague lease due to questionable circumstances surrounding the owner's redemption of mortgages held against the property. [F.A. Bean, "Interesting Events in the Early Days of the Company," The Grist (April 1942), p.9-10.] Forced to find new facilities, Bean built a mill complete with grain storage and railroad trackage and incorporated this business as The New Prague Flouring Mill.

In 1902, ten years after its initial start-up, the New Prague Flouring Mill expanded by acquiring a mill in Wells, Minnesota. Four years later the company acquired a third operation in Davenport, Iowa. In 1908 the company purchased the Moose Jaw Milling Company in Saskatchewan, Canada and began its international operations by marketing the Robin Hood brand of flours. The company was renamed International Milling Company in 1910 and, in 1912, Bean repaid the debts owed by the Polar Star Milling Company from some 20 years previous.

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