Post Consumer Brands facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Post Consumer Brands, LLC

Formerly	Postum Cereal Company (1895–1929) General Foods (1929–1990) Kraft (1990–2007) Post Cereals (2007–2015)
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Food processing
Founded	1895; 130 years ago (1895) in Battle Creek, Michigan
Founder	C. W. Post
Headquarters	Lakeville, Minnesota, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Breakfast cereals, granola, pet food, peanut butter
Brands	List Bran Flakes Grape-Nuts Honey Bunches of Oats Honeycomb Kibbles N' Bits Malt-O-Meal Oreo O's Pebbles Peter Pan Peanut Butter Puffins cereal Rachael Ray Nutrish Waffle Crisp
Parent	Post Holdings

Post Consumer Brands, LLC, often called simply Post, is an American company that makes many popular food products. It is known for its breakfast cereals, but also makes pet food and peanut butter. The company's main office is in Lakeville, Minnesota.

Post was started in 1895 by C. W. Post. Over the years, it has grown to own many well-known cereal brands. These include Bran Flakes, Honey Bunches of Oats, Golden Crisp, Grape-Nuts, Honeycomb, Pebbles, and Waffle Crisp. The company also makes pet food brands like Rachael Ray Nutrish, Kibbles 'n Bits, and 9Lives. Plus, it sells Peter Pan Peanut Butter.

How Post Consumer Brands Started

C.W. Post, the founder of Post Consumer Brands

C. W. Post began his company in Battle Creek, Michigan. He had lived there since 1891. At that time, he was a patient at a special health center. This center was run by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Dr. Kellogg and his brother, W. K. Kellogg, had created a dry corn flake cereal for their patients.

Early Products

Post's first product, launched in 1895, was not a cereal. It was a roasted, grain-based drink called Postum. C. W. Post had stopped drinking coffee and wanted a healthy alternative. He even came up with the famous advertising slogan, "There's a Reason." Postum was made from wheat grain, bran, and molasses, and it had no caffeine. At first, you had to brew it like coffee. But in 1911, Post made an instant powder version.

In 1897, Post introduced his first dry cereal. It was a crunchy mix of wheat and barley called Grape Nuts. His first corn flake cereal came out in 1904. It was first named "Elijah's Manna" but was later renamed Post Toasties in 1907 because people didn't like the original name.

Business Growth and Values

C. W. Post was a very smart businessman. He believed that good advertising and strong marketing were key to success. Within 10 years, his company, Postum Cereal Company, was worth over $10 million. It spent a lot of money on advertising, which was a huge amount back then.

Post also treated his employees very well. They were the highest-paid in the industry, and their working conditions were excellent. He even built a special town where he sold homes to his workers at good prices.

A New Leader

C. W. Post passed away in 1914. He had been ill for some time. But his company was in good hands. His daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post, had grown up learning about the business. She knew almost everything about how it worked. She took over the company, which was then worth $20 million, and managed it for the next eight years. She was very good at business and at finding talented managers.

In 1922, the Postum Cereal Company became a public company. This meant people could buy shares of the company.

Growing Through Acquisitions

Starting in 1925, under the leadership of E. F. Hutton, Postum Cereal began buying other companies. This helped it become a very big food manufacturer in the U.S.

Key Purchases

• Jell-O: In 1925, Postum Cereal bought the Jell-O Company. Jell-O, a popular gelatin dessert, was first made in 1897.
• Baking and Cooking Products: In 1926, the company bought Igleheart Brothers, Inc., which made Swans Down cake flour. It also bought the Minute Tapioca Company. The "Minute" brand later became famous for Minute Rice, a type of parboiled rice introduced in 1949.
• Chocolate, Coconut, and Syrup: In 1927, Postum Cereal bought Walter Baker, a chocolate maker founded in 1765. It also acquired Franklin Baker, known for coconut products, and Log Cabin Products, which made Log Cabin Syrup.
• Mayonnaise and Coffee: The company also bought Richard Hellmann, Inc, known for Blue Ribbon mayonnaise. Later that year, Postum Cereal started selling its first coffee product, "Sanka". This was a decaffeinated coffee from Germany.
• More Brands: In 1928, more companies were added. The most important was the Cheek-Neel Coffee Company, which made Maxwell House coffee. Maxwell House soon became the top coffee brand in America. Postum also bought La France Manufacturing Company, which made laundry products, and the Calumet Baking Powder Company.

By the end of 1928, the company's sales reached $101 million.

Becoming General Foods

General Foods 1937 Stock Certificate

The biggest purchase in 1929 was the frozen-food company owned by Clarence Birdseye. Birdseye was a very important person in the food industry. He became interested in freezing food while working in Labrador between 1912 and 1916. By 1923, he had created a way to quick-freeze foods. In 1924, he started General Seafoods Company to sell frozen fish.

Marjorie Merriweather Post was very excited about frozen foods. In 1926, she tried some food that had been frozen six months earlier and was amazed at how fresh it tasted. It took her three years to convince Postum's leaders to buy Birdseye's company. In a deal she helped arrange, Postum paid $10.75 million for a 51% share. After this, Postum, Inc. changed its name to General Foods Corporation.

After buying Birdseye's company, General Foods started selling more frozen foods. They soon realized that stores needed special freezers to keep these products frozen. So, Birdseye engineers developed freezer cabinets. These cabinets first appeared in 1934. They helped make frozen foods popular because people could keep them fresh at home.

Post After General Foods

In 1985, Philip Morris Companies bought General Foods. Then, in 1988, they bought Kraft Inc. Eventually, these companies merged to become Kraft Foods Inc.. The cereal part of the business was later sold to Ralcorp in 2007.

In 2011, Ralcorp decided to make Post Foods a separate company. This happened with a special stock offering in February 2012, creating Post Holdings, Inc.

Recent Acquisitions

• In 2014, Post Holdings bought Michael Foods for $2.45 billion.
• In 2015, Post Foods bought MOM Brands (formerly Malt-O-Meal Co.). This made Post the third-largest breakfast cereal company in the U.S. At this point, Post Foods changed its name to Post Consumer Brands and moved its main office to Lakeville, Minnesota.
• In July 2017, Post Holdings bought Weetabix Limited for about £1.4 billion.
• In 2019, the company started combining some of its MOM Brands and Weetabix cereals under the Three Sisters Cereal name.
• On December 8, 2020, Post Holdings announced it was buying the Peter Pan peanut butter brand from Conagra Brands. This deal was completed in January 2021. With Peter Pan, Post created a new group called Animated Brands.
• On June 1, 2021, Post announced it was buying the ready-to-eat cereal business from TreeHouse Foods. This added more private label cereal products to Post Consumer Brands.
• In February 2023, Post Holdings announced it was buying pet food brands like 9Lives, Kibbles 'n Bits, and Gravy Train. This move helped Post enter the pet food market.

Postum Advertisements

Postum, a coffee substitute made from roasted grain, was very popular in the early 1900s. It was especially popular during World War II when coffee was rationed.

Post stopped making Postum in 2007. However, Eliza's Quest Food brought it back in 2013.

Post Consumer Brands: Cereals and Products

Discontinued Post Consumer Brands Cereals

See Also

• Marjorie Merriweather Post
• Post, Texas
• Close City, Texas