Growth of Bloomington's Cook Group Inc.
Cook Group Inc., a family-owned global company based in Bloomington, operates five separate businesses and employs more than 12,000 people around the world.
It is Bloomington's second-largest employer, after Indiana University, according to the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce.
Cook Medical, founded in 1963 by Bill and Gayle Cook, currently manufactures and sells medical devices in 41 specialties including surgery, urology and aortic intervention. In 2004, Cook Group developed Cook Pharmica, a division of Cook Medical that works with biopharmaceutical companies to develop and manufacture drugs and drug delivery products.
The Cook Group purchased a portion of the shuttered RCA/Thomson television manufacturing complex at 1300 S. Patterson Drive and by 2005 had built Cook Pharmica, an 875,000-square-foot facility for product development and clinical and commercial cell culture manufacturing, as well filling and finishing drugs in vials and syringes. Cook Pharmica employs more than 750 people in Bloomington. Cook Pharmica is expected to reach $200 million in sales this year.
Cook Group also manages property and three resorts in French Lick and West Baden Springs, Indiana, and Canton, Illinois. CFC Properties, founded in 1973, restored the Showers complex (the former location of the Showers Brothers Furniture Factory and now home to City Hall) and Fountain Square in downtown Bloomington, among other projects. Residentially, CFC Properties has also developed several low-income and luxury condominium and apartment complexes.
In the mid-2000s, Cook invested more than $500 million into restoring the French Lick Springs Hotel and West Baden Springs Hotel in south-central Indiana. Cook also purchased several buildings in Canton, Illinois, Bill Cook's childhood home, to revitalize Canton's downtown area, construct the Canton Harvester Inn and open the Cook Polymer factory.
Cook Group is also responsible for Cook Aviation, a fixed-base operator at the Monroe County Airport, and K-Tube, the largest producer of miniature stainless steel tubing in the United States.
1963 — Bill Cook builds wire guides, needles and catheters in his home. Founds Cook Inc. in Bloomington.
1965 — Cook Inc. moves to 300 S. Swain Ave., Bloomington.
1966 — Cook Inc. moves to 925 S. Curry Pike, Bloomington.
1969 — Cook Europe is established.
1972 — Cook Inc. reaches 150 employees.
1973 — Property management and development company CFC Inc. is established. Cook expands to Canada.
1977 — Cook Urological founded to supply urethral catheters.
1982 — CFC Inc. completes restoration of Graham Plaza in downtown Bloomington.
1993 — First intravascular coronary stent.
1999 — SIS tissue repair products introduced.
2001 — Baxter buys Cook Pharmaceutical Solutions in Bloomington for $219 million.
2002 — Cook world headquarters completed on Bloomington's west side. Guidant agrees to buy Cook, but deal is scrapped a year later.
2004 — Cook Pharmica founded. The facility opened the next year in an updated building that was formerly part of the RCA/Thomson plant.
2005 — Cook grows to 5,500 employees worldwide.
2011 — Bill Cook dies at age 80.
2014 — Cook receives warning letter from FDA that prompts changes in its manufacturing processes and record keeping.
2015 — Cook has $2 billion in global sales, down slightly from 2014.
Compiled from Herald-Times news reports