Happy 150th Birthday Mr Kellogg
07/04/2010

April 7^th 2010 is the 150^th anniversary of the birth of Kellogg’s founder.

It’s been a long time since Will Keith Kellogg accidentally left a pot of boiled corn to stand, turning the grains into large, thin flakes, but he certainly accomplished a lot in the years that followed.

In 1906 he founded what would become one of the most famous food companies in the world. It currently fills over 40% of the cereal aisle with over 40 different products including Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies and Frosties.

A firm family favourite, we in Britain buy more than 100 million packs of these three products combined every year alone. Only in wartime (1943) did Corn Flakes disappear from British shops due to restrictions on the import of corn. However during World War II staff from Kellogg's had rather different duties - making up a special Kellogg Unit of the home guard.

The cereal brand has given us many household names too from Tony the Tiger to Snap, Crackle & Pop - the longest-running characters in the company’s history. Even the Beatles were featured on the back of Kellogg’s cereals boxes in 1963 when fans could win the chance to see the band play live – in a tent. Seven years later a relatively unknown Jonathan Ross starred in a commercial for Rice Krispies.

And Kellogg’s really does appeal to everyone – the company is an official supplier of breakfast cereals to HM Queen Elizabeth II, who allegedly keeps the contents in Tupperware containers.

Tens of thousands of Brits have worked for the company over the years in its factories or corporate headquarters. These include Cub Scouts and volunteers who originally worked as part of the company’s sales force.

Famous and not so famous facts:

• Kellogg created Wheat Flakes and Wheat Krispies to help feed war time Britain. Made of home grown wheat because of import restrictions, both brands have now long gone
• During World War II you could only buy Kellogg's products in the North and Midlands.
• The first inserts in Kellogg's packets appeared in 1949. First to hit consumers were picture cards of famous British sportsmen
• In 1957 Kellogg's gave-away plastic toy atomic submarines. The toy was even tested at the Royal Navy's submarine base - HMS Dolphin
• The Beatles featured on the back of Kellogg’s cereals boxes in 1963 – you could win the chance to see the band play live in a tent in Manchester
• Olympic runner, Steve Cram, helped launch Kellogg's Start in January 1985
• Snap, Crackle & Pop are currently the longest-running Kellogg characters in history, celebrating their 82^nd birthday this year.
• Jonathan Ross starred in a Rice Krispies ad in 1970
• A guy called Vernon Grant designed the original Snap, Crackle and Pop characters after hearing a Rice Krispies commercial on US radio
• 29 million packets of Rice Krispies are sold in the UK each year
• There is on average 299 Rice Krispies in a Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Squares bar
• Kellogg employee Mildred Day concocted the Rice Krispies Square snack as a treat for a camp fire girls fundraiser in the early 1930s
• In 1984, the singer Tori Amos beat a (then unknown) Sarah Jessica Parker to front the Kelloggs ‘Just Right’ advertising campaign
• Kellogg’s Corn Flakes was the only cereal to be eaten aboard Apollo 11, the first lunar landing.
• Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger is one of the top ten brand icons of all time (Advertising Age)
• Kellogg’s doesn’t make cereal for anyone else.
• A staggering 128 billion bowls of Kellogg's Corn Flakes are eaten worldwide every year in countries as far afield as Guatemala, India, Japan and Argentina.
• Kellogg’s originally used Boy Scouts and volunteers as part of its sales force.
• If laid end to end, the packs of Kellogg’s cereal eaten since 1906 would stretch to the moon and back 160 times.
• 2.8 million bowls of Kellogg's Corn Flakes are eaten every day in the UK – or a billion bowls a year.
• Kellogg’s was the first company to advertise on the Times Square billboard in New York City.
• The Manchester plant where Kellogg’s Corn Flakes are made was built in 1938 and is the world’s largest cereal manufacturing plant. It employs 1,000 people, making it one of the largest employers in the city and encompasses 130,000 square feet of floor space.
• We provide 1 million breakfasts to school kids each year through our Breakfast Club scheme
• 15 million kids have learnt to swim thanks to Kellogg's support of the Amateur Swimming Association
• Tony the Tiger disappeared from Frosties packs for a while in the 50s and was replaced by a kangaroo called Katy.
• The WK Kellogg Foundation was set up in 1930 and he gave all his shares in the Kellogg Company (then worth $66 million) to the foundation as an endowment. As a result, approximately 50% of the Kellogg Company today is owned by the WK Kellogg Foundation.  This means the profit on sales of Corn Flakes here in the UK goes to making a difference across the world

 

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