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Industry | Food |
---|---|
Predecessor | Postum Cereal Company (1895–1929) |
Founded | 1929 |
Defunct | 1990 |
Fate | Merged into Kraft Foods Inc. |
Successor | Mondelez International Kraft Heinz JDE Peet's Post Consumer Brands |
Headquarters | Rye Brook, New York, U.S. |
Products | Breakfast cereals, cereal coffee |
Brands | |
Parent | Philip Morris (1985–1990) |
General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895.
The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, after several corporate acquisitions, by Marjorie Merriweather Post after she inherited the established cereal business from her father C. W. Post. In November 1985, General Foods was acquired by Philip Morris Companies (now Altria) for $5.6 billion, the largest non-oil acquisition at the time. In December 1988, Philip Morris acquired Kraft Foods Inc., and, in 1990, combined the two food companies as Kraft General Foods. The "General Foods" name was dropped in 1995 with the corporate name being reverted back to Kraft Foods; a line of caffeinated hot beverage mixes continued to carry the General Foods International name until 2010.
General Foods background can be traced to the Post Cereal Company, founded by C. W. Post in 1895 in Battle Creek, Michigan. Post was a patient at the Battle Creek Sanitarium (run by John Harvey Kellogg, brother of Kellogg Company founder Will Keith Kellogg), and was inspired by the diet there to start his food company (and become a rival to the Kellogg brothers, who sold their own breakfast cereals). Post invested $78 in his initial equipment and supplies and set up manufacturing in a barn on what was known as the 'Old Beardsley Farm'. [1] His first product was Postum, a "cereal beverage" alternative to coffee made from wheat and molasses. The first cereal, Grape-Nuts, was developed in 1897 followed by Elijah's Manna in 1904 which was renamed Post Toasties in 1908. [2]
In 1907 Collier's Weekly published an article questioning the claim made in advertisements for Grape Nuts that it could cure appendicitis. C. W. Post responded with advertisements questioning the mental capacity of the article's author, and Collier's Weekly sued for libel. The case was heard in 1910, and Post was fined $50,000. The decision was overturned on appeal, but advertisements for Postum products stopped making such claims. [3]
C.W. Post died in 1914, and his daughter Marjorie Merriweather Post took over the company. The Postum Cereals company, which went on with some acquisitions such as Jell-O (gelatin dessert) in 1925, Walter Baker & Company (chocolate) in 1927, Maxwell House (coffee) in 1928, and other food brands.
By far the most important acquisition of 1929 was of the frozen-food company owned by Clarence Birdseye, [4] called "General Seafood Corporation". Birdseye (December 9, 1886 - October 7, 1956) was one of the most important entrepreneurs in the history of the food industry. Born in New York City, he became interested in the frozen preservation of food during the course of working as a fur trader in Labrador between 1912 and 1916. By 1923, he had developed a commercially viable process for quick-freezing foods using a belt mechanism, which he patented. In 1924, with backing from three investors, he formed the "General Seafoods Company", in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to produce frozen haddock fillets packed in plain cardboard boxes.
The founder's daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post, was the first to become excited about the prospects for the frozen foods business. In 1926, she had put into port at Gloucester on her yacht, Sea Cloud , and was served a luncheon meal which, she learned to her amazement, had been frozen six months before. Despite her enthusiasm, it took Post three years to convince Postum's management to acquire the company. Postum paid $10.75 million for a 51% interest and its partner, Goldman Sachs, paid $12.5 million for the other 49%. [5] Following this acquisition, Postum, Inc changed its name to General Foods Corporation. Goldman sold its share back to General Foods in 1932, apparently at a slight loss.
Shortly after the acquisition, General Foods began test-marketing an expanded line of frozen foods, but the company quickly realized that a packaging process alone would not be sufficient to market frozen products in stores. To be sold, the packages had to be kept frozen while on display, so Birdseye engineers began development of a freezer cabinet designed specifically to hold frozen foods. The cabinet, which first appeared in 1934, required a great deal of space and electricity, which were not readily available in most grocery stores of the period. For those stores which could accommodate them, the payback was immediate. Housewives quickly realized that keeping packages of frozen food in the icebox could mean fresher meals and fewer trips to the market. [6]
The company published a cook book in 1932, the General Foods Cook Book, dedicated "To the American homemaker". Five editions were published between 1932 and 1937. The book includes photographs (among which is "General Foods offers over twenty famous products for your well-stocked pantry shelf") and a subject index. [7]
General Foods was acquired by Philip Morris Companies (now Altria) in 1985. In 1989, Phillp Morris merged General Foods with Kraft Foods Inc., which it had acquired in 1987, to form the Kraft General Foods division. The cereal brands of Nabisco were acquired in 1993. In 1995 Kraft General Foods was reorganized and the Kraft Foods name was restored. On November 15, 2007, Kraft announced it would spin off Post Cereals and merge that business with Ralcorp Holdings. [8] That merger was completed August 4, 2008, [9] at which time the official name of the company became Post Foods, LLC.
Altria Group, Inc. is an American corporation and one of the world's largest producers and marketers of tobacco, cigarettes, and related products. It operates worldwide and is headquartered in Henrico County, Virginia, just outside the city of Richmond.
Breakfast cereal is a breakfast food made from processed cereal grains. It is traditionally eaten as part of breakfast, or a snack food, primarily in Western societies.
Marjorie Merriweather Post was an American businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist. She was the daughter of C. W. Post and the owner of General Foods Corporation. For much of Marjorie Post's life, she was known as the wealthiest woman in the United States.
Charles William Post was an American innovator, breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer and a pioneer in the prepared-food industry. He was the founder of what is now Post Consumer Brands.
Nabisco is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International.
Maxwell House is an American brand of coffee manufactured by a like-named division of Kraft Heinz in North America and JDE Peet's in the rest of the world. Introduced in 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Owsley Cheek, it was named in honor of the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, which was its first major customer. For nearly 100 years, until the late 1980s, it was the highest-selling coffee brand in the United States. The company's slogan is "Good to the last drop," which is often incorporated into its logo and is printed on its labels.
Kashi is a maker of whole grain cereals and other plant-based foods sourced from regular farming practices. Founded in San Diego in 1981, the company became a subsidiary of Kellogg's in 2000, and produces about 100 products sold in the U.S. and Canada. Its original cereal, discontinued in 2021, was identified by the tagline "Seven Whole Grains on a Mission". The name "Kashi" is a blended term derived from "kashruth", meaning kosher or pure food, and "Kushi", the last name of the founder of American macrobiotics, Michio Kushi.
Philip Morris USA is the American tobacco division of the American tobacco corporation Altria Group. It has been the leading cigarette manufacturer in the U.S. since the late 20th century. Its major brands include Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Benson & Hedges, Merit, and Parliament.
Post Consumer Brands is an American consumer packaged goods food manufacturer headquartered in Lakeville, Minnesota.
Postum is a powdered roasted grain beverage popular as a coffee substitute. The caffeine-free beverage was created by Post Cereal Company founder C. W. Post in 1895 and marketed as a healthier alternative to coffee. Post was a student of John Harvey Kellogg, who believed that caffeine was unhealthy. Post Cereal Company eventually became General Foods, then merged to Kraft Foods Inc. in 1990. Eliza's Quest Foods now owns the trademark rights and secret recipe of Postum.
Clarence Birdseye was an American inventor, entrepreneur, and naturalist, considered the founder of the modern frozen food industry. He founded the frozen food company Birds Eye. Among his inventions during his career was the double belt freezer.
Chex is an American brand of breakfast cereal currently manufactured by General Mills. It was originally known as Shredded Ralston, first produced in 1936 and owned by Ralston Purina of St. Louis, Missouri, then later renamed Chex in 1950. The Chex brand went with corporate spinoff Ralcorp in 1994 and was then sold to General Mills in 1997. Rival cereal company Kellogg's has the rights to the Chex brand in South Korea and Singapore.
Shredded wheat is a breakfast cereal made from whole wheat formed into pillow-shaped biscuits. It is commonly available in three sizes: original, bite-sized and miniature. Both smaller sizes are available in a frosted variety, which has one side coated with sugar and usually gelatin. Some manufacturers have produced "filled" versions of the bite-size cereal containing a raisin at the center, or apricot, blueberry, raspberry, cherry, cranberry or golden syrup filling.
Post Toasties was an early American breakfast cereal made by Post Foods. It was named for its originator, C. W. Post, and intended as the Post version of corn flakes.
Birds Eye is an international brand of frozen foods founded in the USA and now owned by Conagra Brands in the United States, by Nomad Foods in Europe, and Simplot in Australia.
Kraft Foods Inc. was a multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It marketed many brands in more than 170 countries. Twelve of its brands annually earned more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oreo, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, and Tang. Forty of its brands were at least a century old.
Ralcorp Holdings is a manufacturer of various food products, including breakfast cereal, cookies, crackers, chocolate, snack foods, mayonnaise, pasta, and peanut butter. The company is based in St. Louis, Missouri. The majority of the items Ralcorp makes are private-label, store-brand products. It has over 9,000 employees. Ralcorp has its headquarters in the Bank of America Plaza in downtown St. Louis.
Post Holdings, Inc. is an American consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in St Louis, Missouri with businesses operating in the center-of-the-store, refrigerated, foodservice, and food ingredient categories. Its Post Consumer Brands business manufactures, markets, and sells both branded and private label products, mainly breakfast cereals. Its Michael Foods Group business supplies value-added egg products and refrigerated potato products to the foodservice and food ingredient channels. Through its Post Refrigerated Retail business, Post offers potato, egg, sausage, and cheese refrigerated side dishes products. Post participates in the private brand food category through its investment in 8th Avenue Food & Provisions, a leading, private brand centric, consumer products holding company.
TreeHouse Foods Inc. is a multinational food processing company specializing in producing private label packaged foods headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. Created in 2005 and consisting entirely of acquisitions, in 2010 the company had sales of $2 billion and employed over 4,000 people at 20 facilities. Food Processing magazine named TreeHouse Foods their 2010 Processor of the Year, calling them "the biggest company you never heard of". In 2015, the company was the 37th-largest food and beverage company in North America. In 2018, TreeHouse Foods was ranked No. 446 on the Fortune 500 list. In 2020, it dropped to No. 552 into the Fortune 1000 list.
Terrabusi is an Argentine food brand currently owned by US conglomerate Mondelez International. The former manufacturing company had been founded by the Terrabusi brothers in 1911, and soon gained a reputation as a cookies and crackers manufacturer, commercialising its products under several brands. In 1994, Terrabusi was purchased by U.S.-based company Nabisco, which would be acquired by Philip Morris Companies, Inc. in 2000. As a result, both food companies joined.