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 is a big American food company. It makes many popular foods you might know, like breakfast cereals, granola, pet food, and even peanut butter! The company's main office is in Lakeville, Minnesota.

This company started way back in 1895. It was founded by a man named C. W. Post. Today, Post Consumer Brands owns many famous cereal brands. These include Bran Flakes, Honey Bunches of Oats, Golden Crisp, Grape-Nuts, Honeycomb, Oreo O's, Pebbles, and Waffle Crisp. They also make pet food brands like Rachael Ray Nutrish and Kibbles 'n Bits. Plus, they sell Peter Pan Peanut Butter.

How Post Consumer Brands Started

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

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

Post's very first product, launched in 1895, wasn't a cereal. It was a drink made from roasted grains called Postum. C. W. Post didn't like coffee, so he made Postum as a healthy choice instead. He even came up with its famous advertising slogan: "There's a Reason." Postum was made from wheat grain, bran, and molasses, and it didn't have caffeine. At first, you had to brew it like coffee. But in 1911, Post made an instant powder version.

In 1897, C. W. 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 people didn't like the name because it sounded too much like a Bible reference. So, in 1907, it was renamed Post Toasties.

C. W. Post was a very smart businessman. He believed that advertising and strong marketing were key to a successful company. Just 10 years after he started, his company, Postum Cereal Company, was worth over $10 million. They spent a lot of money on advertising, which was a huge amount back then! Even though he didn't like labor unions, his employees were paid the best in the industry. The working conditions at his factory were excellent. He even built a special town where he sold homes to his workers at good prices.

C. W. Post passed away in 1914. He had been sick for a while. 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 now worth $20 million. She managed it for the next eight years. She was very good at business and at finding talented managers.

Growing the Company

Commemorative plaque at the Postum Cereal Company Factory

Starting in 1925, the Postum Cereal Company began to buy other food companies. This helped it become one of the biggest food makers in the U.S.

One of the first big purchases was the Jell-O Company. Jell-O had been around since 1897. Then, in 1926, Postum Cereal bought Igleheart Brothers, Inc., which made Swans Down cake flour. They also bought the Minute Tapioca Company. The "Minute" brand later became famous for Minute Rice, a type of rice that cooks super fast.

The company kept growing by buying more brands. In 1927, they bought Walter Baker, a chocolate maker that was founded in 1765! They also bought Franklin Baker, which processed coconut. Other purchases included Log Cabin Products, which made Log Cabin Syrup, and Richard Hellmann, Inc., known for its mayonnaise. Later that year, Postum Cereal started selling its first coffee product, "Sanka." This was a special decaffeinated coffee from Germany.

In 1928, they bought three more companies. The most important was Cheek-Neel Coffee Company, which made Maxwell House coffee. Maxwell House soon became the number one coffee brand in America. Postum also bought La France Manufacturing Company, which made laundry products. This was their first time selling non-food items. They also bought the Calumet Baking Powder Company, which made a very important kitchen ingredient.

By the end of 1928, the company was doing great. Its sales were $101 million!

Becoming General Foods

General Foods 1937 Specimen Stock Certificate

The biggest purchase happened in 1929. Postum Cereal bought a frozen-food company owned by Clarence Birdseye. Birdseye was a very important inventor in the food world. He learned about freezing food while working in a cold place called Labrador between 1912 and 1916. By 1923, he had invented a way to quick-freeze foods. In 1924, he started his company to sell frozen haddock fish.

Marjorie Merriweather Post, the founder's daughter, 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 the company to buy Birdseye's company. In a deal she helped arrange, Postum paid a lot of money for most of the company. After this big purchase, Postum, Inc. changed its name to General Foods Corporation.

After buying Birdseye's company, General Foods started selling more frozen foods. But they quickly realized that just freezing the food wasn't enough. Stores needed special freezers to keep the food frozen for customers. So, Birdseye's engineers created a special freezer cabinet. These freezers first appeared in stores in 1934. They were big and used a lot of electricity. But for stores that could use them, it was worth it! People loved being able to buy frozen food, which meant fresher meals and fewer trips to the grocery store.

Later Years and New Brands

In 1985, another company called Philip Morris Companies bought General Foods. Then, in 1988, they bought Kraft Inc. Eventually, these companies were combined to form Kraft Foods Inc.. But in 2007, the cereal part of Kraft was sold to a company called Ralcorp.

In 2011, Ralcorp decided to make Post Foods its own separate company. This new company, Post Holdings, Inc., became public on February 7, 2012.

In 2014, Post Holdings bought Michael Foods. The next year, Post Foods bought MOM Brands (which used to be 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. Its main office is in Lakeville, Minnesota.

In 2017, Post Holdings bought Weetabix Limited, another big cereal company. In 2019, Post 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. This deal was finished on January 25, 2021. With Peter Pan peanut butter, Post created a new group called Animated Brands. Peter Pan was the first brand in this new group, which is managed by Post Consumer Brands.

On June 1, 2021, Post bought the ready-to-eat cereal business from TreeHouse Foods. These cereals were added to Post Consumer Brands' wide range of private label cereal products.

In February 2023, Post Holdings announced it was buying popular pet food brands like 9Lives, Kibbles 'n Bits, and Gravy Train. This purchase helped Post enter the "pet food category." After this, Post plans to create a new pet food section within Post Consumer Brands.

Postum Advertisements

Postum, the coffee substitute made from roasted grain, was first created in 1895. It was very popular in the early 1900s, especially during World War II when coffee was rationed (meaning people could only buy a small amount).

Because fewer people were buying it, Post stopped making Postum in 2007. But a company called Eliza's Quest Food brought it back in 2013!

Post Consumer Brands: Cereals and Products Today

Post Consumer Brands: Cereals No Longer Made

Images for kids

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  An old advertisement for Postum, a coffee substitute.

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  Another old advertisement for Postum.

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  An advertisement for Postum from 1898.

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  A vintage Postum ad.

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  An advertisement for Postum from 1909.

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  An old advertisement for Postum.

See also

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