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Abbott & Cobb, Inc. is a privately held global breeder, producer of vegetable seed, headquartered in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, servicing the needs of commercial growers, distributors, processors and ultimately the consumer with all natural selections. It has facilities in the United States, Mexico, Europe, Central America and South America.

History
Early 1900s

Abbott & Cobb, Inc. was established in 1917 by Arthur W. Abbott and his brother-in-law, Henry Q. Cobb. Originally located in Frankford, Philadelphia, the company primarily sold vegetable seed to local commercial growers in the Northeast Philadelphia area.

1970s and 1980s

Under the new direction of third generation-owner, Arthur C. Abbott, the family-owned business adopted a more global competitive strategy. As a result, in addition to selling seeds supplied locally, the company began to distribute the seed products of major global vegetable seed companies, e.g. Petoseed, Sakata® and Takii Seed. These relationships allowed Abbott & Cobb, Inc. to expand its product offerings and simultaneously make the Abbott & Cobb, Inc. brand more visible world-wide.

In the 1980s Abbott & Cobb, along with other seed companies, began popularizing supersweet corn. Supersweet (sh2) corn is different than traditional sweet corn in that it contains four to ten times the sugar content compared to normal sugary (su) corn types at peak harvest. The supersweet corn variety really hit big when Abbott & Cobb started a major marketing campaign targeting produce buyers for grocery stores. In 1985 Abbott & Cobb, Inc. introduced its trademarked supersweet (sh2) corn line named, Summer Sweet® (registration No. 1331161).

In the mid-1980s Abbott & Cobb, Inc. began a special program where they provided the seed and grew the plant for the customer, and then sold it to customers as a package. This became a growing part of the business and included an exclusive 'SSuperPlants' program in cooperation with Speedling Incorporated.

Sale of Watermelon and Melon Business

In June 2012 Abbott & Cobb, Inc. underwent a structure change and announced the sale of its watermelon and melon seed business to Germany's Bayer (under their brand Nunhems). The sale of the watermelon and melon business created a liquidity event for Abbott & Cobb's shareholders and would allow the company to concentrate on its non-melon business such as cucumber, pepper, pumpkin and squash, with its primary focus on its breeder program of sweet corn