Monday, October 01, 2012

The history of General Foods Corporation

During 1980s, wheat was widely used in United States as an ingredient of coffee substitutes. The Postum Company, maker of Post cereals was launched in 1895 by Charles W. Post. The company was created to market Postum, a coffee substitute made out of wheat bran and molasses.

It was probably the first coffee-substitute extract to be manufactured on an industrial scale.

He called his health drink Postum. In 1897 Post marketed a breakfast cereal called Grape-Nuts, and in 1904 these was followed with corn based cereal Post Toasties.

In 1914, his daughter Marjorie Merriweather Post inherited the company. Her husband Edward F. Hutton the financier took over Postum Cereal.

During the 1920s, Postum went on buying spree, acquiring such companies as Baker’s chocolate and Jell-O. Maxwell House was added in 1928.

The following year, Hutton acquired Clarence Birdseye’s General Seafood Company and then named the new conglomerate General Food. Company management concluded that because the Postum was closely associated with cereal, the company need another name to encompass these new subsidiary. In 1929, Postum Cereal company changed its corporate name to General Foods.

For most of the 20th century, the General Foods Company was recognizable national brand along with General Mills and General Electric.

In 1985 Philip Morris acquired General Foods. With the acquisition of General Foods, Philip Morris became the largest consumer products company in the United States, with $23 billion in annual sales. In 1988 Philip Morris buys Kraft, Inc for $12.9 billion.

Four years later, General Foods was merged with Kraft, to create Kraft General Foods. In 1995, the name was shortened to Kraft Food Inc.
The history of General Foods Corporation

THE MOST POPULAR POSTS