Wait's product was based upon a patent that had been issued to inventor and industrialist Peter Cooper in 1845, but which Cooper had never developed commercially. Jell-O had been first produced in 1897 by Pearle Bixby Wait, a carpenter from the town of LeRoy in northern New York state. It began late that year with the purchase of the Jell-O Company. 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. Starting in 1925, under the leadership of financier (and at one point, son in-law to the founder), E. 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.Ĭommemorative placque at the Postum Cereal Company Factory, September 2014 These shares also earned a $3.00 annual cash dividend, representing a 20% increase over the presplit rate. Revenues in 1922 were essentially the same as in 1921, but in 1923, they were $22.25 million and a stock split, in the form of a 100% stock dividend, increased the authorized shares to 400,000. The 1920s was a period in which common stock was still considered highly speculative, and consequently the newly issued shares carried a dividend at the rate of $5.00 per year. In 1922, Hutton took the newly incorporated Postum Cereal Company public by issuing 200,000 common shares. Gross revenues in 1921 were $17.75 million. Hutton, the founder of a brokerage firm on Wall Street. In addition, her second marriage, in 1920, was to Edward F. While she did not oversee major product innovations, she did have a good feel for business and for promoting talented managers. She assumed control of the now $20-million Postum Company and managed its affairs for the next eight years. His daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post, had been raised in the business and was familiar with virtually every aspect of its operations. While his death was without warning, his company was not left rudderless. Post had for years suffered from bouts of illness and depression. Post underwent an apparently successful appendectomy at the Mayo Clinic, but shortly after returning home to recuperate, he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Postum Cereal Company lost its founder in 1914. He even developed a factory town in which he sold homes to his workers at favorable rates. Although he vigorously opposed labor unions, his employees were the highest-paid in his industry and working conditions at the Post factory were exemplary. 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. Post was an astute businessman who believed that advertising and aggressive marketing were the keys to a successful enterprise. Owing to consumer resistance to the (inaccurate) biblical reference that was so great that even Great Britain flatly refused to register the name as a trademark, it was renamed Post Toasties in 1907. His first corn-flake product was introduced as " Elijah's Manna" in 1904. In 1897, Post introduced his first dry cereal, a crunchy blend of wheat and barley, which he called Grape Nuts. As of January 2013, Eliza's Quest Food had succeeded in returning Postum to many grocery stores across the United States and Canada. This version of the product was manufactured in Battle Creek until it was discontinued in 2007. Initially, Postum had to be brewed like coffee, but in 1911, Post introduced a powdered, instant formulation. Its advertising slogan, which he coined himself, was, "There's a Reason." Postum's main ingredients were naturally caffeine-free wheat grain, bran, and molasses. Having developed an aversion to coffee during his time in the sanitarium, Post positioned Postum as a healthy alternative. Post's first product, introduced in 1895, was not a cereal, however, but a roasted, cereal-based beverage, Postum. Kellogg, had developed a dry corn flake cereal that was part of their patients’ diet. Post established his company in Battle Creek, Michigan, having lived there since 1891, when he was a patient at a holistic sanitarium operated by Dr.
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