Kellogg Company

Willie Keith Kellogg (1860-1951) open his company in 1906, He was a hard worker and natural business leader.

His brother Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943) invented the first flaked cereal in 1894.

John Harvey and Will Kellogg continued their experiment; before long they end up with their first flakes cereal: Granose Flakes. Granose was frost marketed in 1895, and by year’s end more than 50 tons of Granose had been manufactured and sold.

In 1898 Kellogg establishing the Sanitas Food Company, with Will Kellogg installed as president and manager.

Will Kellogg recognized the potential of corn flakes as mainstream breakfast food. Constant experimenting with various recipes led to the invention in 1902 of a cereal based on flakes of corn and flavored with barley malt. The infamous Corn Flakes were born.

In February 1906 Will Kellogg set up the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Company and the following month the company officially acquired the rights to Toasted Corn Flakes.

Under his leadership, the company posted profits, even when other consumer product companies suffered bad times or failed.

As a head of the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Company, Will Kellogg competed against forty-two cereal companies in Battle Creek and roared to the head of the pack with his innovative marketing ideas.

During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, his company helped reduce unemployment in the Battle Creek area by instituting six-hour factory shifts, thereby creating additional jobs for community residents.

Kellogg was incorporated in 1922 as the successor to Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Company.

Will Kellogg served as president of the renamed Kellogg Company until 1929. By then, the company had sold more than 50 million boxes of Corn Flakes. The company continued to produce new cereals, such as Rice Krispies, Frosted Flakes Gold, and Special K.
Kellogg Company 

Breakfast cereal in America

Ready-to-eat cereal is an American invention that grew out of the health reform moment of the late 1800s.

In 1877, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg invented a granolalike, ready to eat breakfast cereal for the Adventists who shunned the American breakfast of ham and eggs. But not until his invention of corn flakes in 1902 did cereal become a commercial success. At first, most cereals were marketed as pure, whole-grain foods.

In 1894 Kellogg created the first flaked cereal, Granose and in 1898, the corn flake.

Eventually, however, competition resulted in the addition of sugar and other food additives and in marketing campaigns directed at children, such as the inclusion of a premium or toy in the box.

Another pioneer of the breakfast cereal industry was C. W Post, who had been a patient at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Among his invention was cereal based caffeine beverage called Postum and a granular cereal called Grape-Nuts.

Post an innovator advertiser, was one of the first to used national ad campaigns, coupons, premiums and samples to make Grape-Nuts a cusses.

By late 1905, the corn flake business was booming and other cereal manufacturers had gotten into this line. In January 1906, Post Cereals introduced a new version of the corn flakes.

The establishment of the breakfast cereal industry came about the time that United States began a transition from a predominantly agricultural society to a more industrialized, urban culture.

By the 1970s and 1980s, adults were again experiencing a renewed interest in the benefits of high fiber diet and new brands entered the marketplace. Cereal previously only available in health food stores began to enter the mainstream.
Breakfast cereal in America