Post Consumer Brands

Post Consumer Brands, LLC(previouslyPost CerealsandPostum Cereals; also known as simply "Post") is an American consumerpackaged goodsfood manufacturerheadquartered inLakeville, Minnesota.
The company, founded in 1895 byC. W. Post, owns a large portfolio of cereal brands that includeBran Flakes,Honey Bunches of Oats,Golden Crisp,Grape-Nuts,Honeycomb,Pebbles, andWaffle Crisp, among others. The company also produces severalpet foodbrands, includingRachael RayNutrish,Kibbles 'n Bits, and9Lives, and marketsPeter Pan Peanut Butter.
C. W. Post established his company inBattle Creek, Michigan, having lived there since 1891, when he was a patient at a holistic sanitarium operated by Dr.John Harvey Kellogg.Dr. Kellogg, with his brotherW. K. Kellogg, had developed a drycorn flakecereal that was part of their patients' diet. Post's first product, introduced in 1895, was not a cereal, however, but a roasted, cereal-based beverage,Postum. Having developed an aversion to coffee during his time in the sanitarium, Post positioned Postum as a healthy alternative. Its advertising slogan, which he coined himself, was, "There's a Reason." Postum's main ingredients were naturally caffeine-freewheat grain,bran, andmolasses. Initially, Postum had to be brewed like coffee, but in 1911, Post introduced a powdered, instant formulation. This version of the product was manufactured in Battle Creek until it was discontinued in 2007. As of January 2013, Eliza's Quest Food had succeeded in returning Postum to many grocery stores across the United States and Canada.
In 1897, Post introduced his firstdry cereal, a crunchy blend of wheat andbarley, which he calledGrape Nuts. His first corn-flake product was introduced as "Elijah'sManna" in 1904. Owing to consumer resistance to the (inaccurate) biblical referencethat was so great that even Great Britain flatly refused to register the name as atrademark, it was renamedPost Toastiesin 1907.
C. W. Post was an astute businessman who believed thatadvertisingand aggressivemarketingwere the keys to a successful enterprise. Within 10 years of its incorporation, his Postum Cereal Company had more than $10 million in capital and was spending $400,000 a year on advertising, sums which were remarkable for the period.His employees were the highest-paid in his industry and working conditions at the Post factory were exemplary. He even developed afactory townin which he sold homes to his workers at favorable rates.
Postum Cereal Company lost its founder in 1914. C.W. Post underwent an apparently successfulappendectomyat theMayo Clinic, but shortly after returning home to recuperate, he died of aself-inflicted gunshot wound. Post had for years suffered from bouts of illness and depression. While his death was without warning, his company was not left rudderless. His daughter,Marjorie Merriweather Post, had been raised in the business and was familiar with virtually every aspect of its operations.She assumed control of the now $20-million Postum Company and managed its affairs for the next eight years. While she did not oversee major product innovations, she did have a good feel for business and for promoting talented managers. In addition, her second marriage, in 1920, was toEdward F. Hutton, the founder of a brokerage firm on Wall Street.
Gross revenues in 1921 were $17.75 million.In 1922, Hutton took the newlyincorporatedPostum Cereal Company public by issuing 200,000 common shares. The 1920s was a period in whichcommon stockwas still considered highly speculative, and consequently the newly issued shares carried adividendat the rate of $5.00 per year.
Revenues in 1922 were essentially the same as in 1921, but in 1923, they were $22.25 million and astock split, in the form of a 100% stock dividend, increased the authorized shares to 400,000. These shares also earned a $3.00 annual cash dividend, representing a 20% increase over the presplit rate. In 1925, with revenues now at $27.4 million, the stock was split once again and the dividend was increased to $4.00 per new share.
Starting in 1925, under the leadership of financier (and at one point, son in-law to the founder),E. F. Huttonas chairman and Colby M. Chester as president, Postum Cereal made the first of a series of corporate acquisitions which would within a few years transform it into the dominant U.S. packaged grocery products manufacturer.
It began late that year with the purchase of theJell-OCompany. Jell-O had been first produced in 1897 byPearle Bixby Wait, a carpenter from the town of LeRoy in northern New York state. Mr. Wait's product was based upon a patent that had been issued to inventor and industrialistPeter Cooperin 1845, but which Cooper had never developed commercially. However, Wait was unsuccessful in marketing Jell-O, and in 1899, he sold the rights to it for $450 to a neighbor, Orator Francis Woodward, who had founded the Genesee Pure Food Company in 1897. Genesee became the Jell-O Company in 1923, the same year it began marketing D-Zerta, a sugar-free gelatin, and a powdered mixture for making ice cream in the kitchen.
In 1926, Postum Cereal acquired Igleheart Brothers, Inc (established in 1856), the makers of Swans Downcake flour, and followed this with the purchase of the MinuteTapiocaCompany. "Tapioca Superlative" had been invented in 1894 by a Boston woman, Susan Stavers, who made it from tapioca flakes that she ran through her coffee grinder. Later that year, she sold the rights to John Whitman, ofOrange, Massachusetts, who changed its name to "Minute Tapioca". In 1908, he changed the name of his company to that of his product. The "Minute" brand would later become better known for a General Foods innovation introduced in 1949 known asMinute Rice, a brand ofparboiled rice.
As a consequence of the Jell-O and Minute Tapioca acquisitions, Postum Cereal's revenues in 1926 jumped to $46.9 million. The number of shares stood at 1.375 million, including shares issued to acquire Jell-O and Minute Tapioca. The dividend was increased to $4.70 a year.
The acquisition spree continued in 1927 with the purchase of two similarly named confectionery companies,chocolate-maker Walter Baker(founded in 1765, making it the oldest component of the Postum constituent companies), andcoconut-processor Franklin Baker, which had begun early in the 19th century as a flour broker, but whose confectionery products dated from 1895. This was followed by the purchase of Log Cabin Products, the maker ofLog Cabin Syrup(first produced in 1887), and ofRichard Hellmann, Inc(established in 1913), the producer of Blue Ribbon mayonnaise. And late in the year, Postum Cereal began selling its first coffee product, "Sanka", by obtaining US marketing rights from DrLudwig RoseliusofBremen, Germany. Roselius had developed thedecaffeinated coffeein 1906 and began selling it in the US in 1923.
Three more acquisitions followed in 1928. The most important was that of the Cheek-Neel Coffee Company. Its product,Maxwell House, dating from 1892, was a well-known brand in what was still a fragmented US coffee market. Within a few years, however, it was to become the number one brand in America and would retain that position well into the 1980s. Also acquired during 1928 was the La France Manufacturing Company, a maker of starch and other laundry products (this being Postum's first venture into nonedibles), and theCalumet Baking Powder Company, the leading maker of this kitchen essential.
Financially, the year culminated on October 1 with the inclusion of Postum, Inc in the newly reformulatedDow Jones Industrial Averageof 30 common stocks.By year-end, revenues stood at $101 million and the dividend on the five million authorized shares was $5.00 per year, a 25-fold increase since 1922.
By far the most important acquisition of 1929 was of the frozen-food company owned byClarence Birdseye,called "General Foods Company". 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 inLabradorbetween 1912 and 1916. By 1923, he had developed a commercially viable process forquick-freezingfoods using a belt mechanism, which he patented. In 1924, with backing from three investors, he formed the General Seafoods Company, inGloucester, Massachusetts, to produce frozenhaddockfillets packed in plain cardboard boxes.
The founder's daughter,Marjorie Merriweather Post, was first to become excited about the prospects for the frozen foods business. In 1926, she had put into port at Gloucester on her yacht,Hussar (IV), and was served a luncheon meal which, she learned to her amazement, had been frozen six months before. Although she eventually became the richest woman in America because of her business genius, it took Marjorie Post three years to finally convince Postum's management to acquire the company. In a deal arranged by Marjorie, who immediately understood the value of Clarence Birdseye's patents, Postum paid $10.75 million for a 51% interest and its partner,Goldman Sachs, paid $12.5 million for the other 49%.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 offrozen 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.
The company published a cook book in 1932, theGeneral 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.
Philip Morris Companiesacquired General Foods in 1985 and Kraft Inc. in 1988, eventually merging them asKraft Foods Inc.before the cereal unit was sold to Ralcorp in 2007.
In 2011,Ralcorpannounced plans to spin off Post Foods into a separate company. About a quarter of Ralcorp's sales in 2010 were generated by its Post Foods unit.The spinoff was completed with anIPOfor Post Holdings, Inc. on February 7, 2012.
In 2014, the company acquired Michael Foods.The following year, Post Foods purchasedMOM Brands(formerly Malt-O-Meal Co.) creating the third largest breakfast cereal company in the US. At this point, Post Foods rebranded asPost Consumer Brands, and is headquartered inLakeville,Minnesota.
In July 2017,Post HoldingsboughtWeetabix Limited(including US subsidiary Barbara's) for £1.4 billion.In 2019, the company began combining some of its MOM Brands and Weetabix cereal brands under theThree Sisters Cerealname.
On December 8, 2020,Post Holdingsannounced that it was acquiring thePeter Panpeanut butter brand fromConagra Brands.The transaction was completed on January 25, 2021.With the acquisition of Peter Pan peanut butter on January 25, 2021, Post created a new group calledAnimated Brands,with thePeter Panbrand being the founding member.Animated Brandsis managed under Post Consumer Brands.
On June 1, 2021, Post announced it acquired the ready-to-eat ("RTE") cereal business of TreeHouse Foods.TheTreeHouse FoodsRTE cereal business was added to Post Consumer Brands' broad portfolio of private label cereal products.
In February 2023,Post Holdingsannounced its acquisition of pet food brands like9Lives,Kibbles 'n BitsandGravy Train. Such acquisition would enable Post's entry to the 'pet food category'. After the completion of this acquisition, Post intends to develop a new pet food category within Post Consumer Brands.
Postum, acoffee substitutemade out ofroasted grain, was created in 1895. It was popular through the early 20th century, particularly duringWorld War IIwhen coffee wasrationed.
Due to its decline in popularity, Post announced its discontinuation in 2007.It was later revived by Eliza's Quest Food in 2013.