K Cup Coffee Clubs

Nabisco   by jekky

Logo

The Nabisco colophon logo imprinted on an Oreo cookie

Nabisco’s colophon, a diagonal ellipse with a series of antenna-like lines protruding from the top, forms the base of its logo and can be seen imprinted on Oreo wafers in addition to Nabisco product boxes and literature. It has been claimed in company promotional material to be an early European symbol for quality; it may be derived from a medieval Italian printer’s mark that represented “the triumph of the moral and good over the evil and worldly.” Oreo cookies in Canada do not have the Nabisco Orb, as they are branded as Christie in that country. Elsewhere, the packaging is branded with the Kraft logo.

History

Company time line

1792 – Pearson & Sons Bakery opens in Massachusetts. They make a biscuit called pilot bread consumed on long sea voyages.

1801 – Josiah Bent Bakery first coined the term ‘crackers’ for a crunchy biscuit they produce.

1889 – William Moore acquires Pearson & Sons Bakery, Josiah Bent Bakery, and six other bakeries to start the New York Biscuit Company.

1890 – Adolphus Green starts the American Biscuit & Manufacturing Company after acquiring forty different bakeries.

1898 – William Moore and Adolphus Green merge to form the National Biscuit Company. Adolphus Green is president.

1901 – The name Nabisco is first used as part of a name for a sugar wafer.

1971 – Nabisco becomes the corporate name.

1981 – Nabisco merges with Standard Brands.

1985 – Nabisco Brands merges with R.J. Reynolds

1993 – Kraft General Foods acquires NABISCO ready-to-eat cold cereals from RJR Nabisco.

2000 – Philip Morris Companies, Inc. acquires Nabisco and merges it with Kraft Foods, Inc.

Origins

Nabisco dates its founding to 1898, a decade during which the bakery business underwent a major consolidation. Early in the decade, bakeries throughout the country were consolidated regionally, into companies such as Chicago’s American Biscuit and Manufacturing Company (which was formed from 40 Midwestern bakeries in 1830), the New York Biscuit Company (consisting of seven eastern bakeries), and the United States Baking Company. In 1898, the National Biscuit Company was formed from the combination of those three; the merger resulted in a company with 114 bakeries across the United States and headquartered in New York City. The “biscuit” in the name of the company is a British English and early American English term for cracker products.

Key to the founding of Nabisco was Pittsburgh baking mogul Sylvester S Marvin. Marvin arrived in Pittsburgh in 1863 and established himself in the cracker business, founding S. S. Marvin Co. Its products embraced every description of crackers, cakes and breads. Marvin was called the Edison of manufacturing for his innovations in the bakery businessy 1888 the largest in the United Statesnd the centerpiece to the organization of the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco). Marvin was also a member of the elite South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club of Johnstown Flood fame.

A Nabisco silo in Toledo, Ohio

Packaging breakthrough

After the consolidation, the president of National Biscuit Companydolphus Green of American Biscuit and Manufacturing Companysked Frank Peters to create a package to distribute fresher products. This paved its way for In-Er Seal package, whose logo is a prototype for the “Nabisco Thing.” The In-Er Seal package is a system of inter-folded wax paper and cardboard to “seal in the freshness” of the product. At the beginning of his presidency, Green decided the National Biscuit Company, often shortened to NBC, needed a new idea that grabbed the public attention. He got it when his employees created a new cracker that was flakier and lighter than any of their competitors versions.

The UNEEDA biscuit looked promising, but Green had to make sure it got to customers fresh and tasty, so it was the first to use the In-Er Seal package in 1898. Until then, crackers were sold unbranded and packed loosely in barrels. Mothers would give their sons a paper bag and ask them to run down to the store and get the bag filled with crackers. National Biscuit Company used this as part of Uneeda Biscuit advertising symbol, which depicts a boy carrying a pack of Uneeda Biscuit in the rain. In 2009 (after over 110 years), Nabisco discontinued the Uneeda biscuit out of concern that the product was not as profitable as others.

20th century

Early 20th century Uneeda Biscuit Ghost sign, Dubuque, Iowa.

The first use of “Nabisco” was in a cracker brand first produced by National Biscuit Company in 1901.[citation needed] The firm later introducedither through development or acquisition Fig Newtons, Nabisco Wafers (early 1900s, now sold in one form as Biscos, a sugar wafer originally containing a variety of flavored fillings), Anola Wafers (early 1900s, now discontinued; a chocolate wafer with chocolate filling), Barnum’s Animal Crackers (1902), Lorna Doones (1912; shortbread), Oreos (1912), and Famous Chocolate Wafers (1924; a thin wafer without filling).

In 1924, the National Biscuit Company introduced a snack in a five-cent sealed packet called the Peanut Sandwich Packet. They soon added a second, the Sorbetto Sandwich Packet. These allowed salesmen to sell to soda fountains, road stands, milk bars, lunch rooms and news stands. Sales increased, and in 1928 the company adopted and started to use the name NAB, which immediately won the approval of the public. The term Nabs today is used to generically mean any type of snack crackers, most commonly in the southern United States.

During WWII, the company manufactured K-Rations for US troops. The first use of the red triangular logo was in 1952. The name of the company was not changed to Nabisco until 1971; prior to that year, the company was often referred to as N.B.C. (unrelated to the broadcasting company; even though the logo could be said to resemble an antenna, this seems to be a coincidence).

The Nabisco unit that produces cookies and crackers was renamed the Nabisco Biscuit Company in the 1990s. That prompted advertising columnist Stuart Elliott in The New York Times to quip that since Nabisco stood for the National Biscuit Company, the unit should be known as the National Biscuit Company Biscuit Company (a modified RAS syndrome).

Acquisitions

N.B.C. acquired the Shredded Wheat Company (maker of Triscuits and Shredded Wheat cereal) and Christie, Brown & Company of Toronto in 1928, but all of the Nabisco products in Canada still use the name Christie. N.B.C. acquired F.H. Bennett Company (maker of Milk-Bone dog biscuits) in 1931. When Kraft bought Nabisco, it included Christie.

In 1981, Nabisco merged with Standard Brands, maker of Planters Nuts, Baby Ruth and Butterfinger candy bars, Royal gelatin, Fleischmann’s and Blue Bonnet margarines, and many more. The company was then renamed Nabisco Brands, Inc. At that time, it also acquired the Life Savers brand from the E.R. Squibb Company.

R.J. Reynolds merger

Main article: RJR Nabisco

In 1985, Nabisco was bought by R.J. Reynolds, forming RJR Nabisco. After three years of mixed results, the company became one of the hotspots in the ’80s leveraged buyout mania. The company was in auction with two bidders: F. Ross Johnson, the company’s president and CEO, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, a private equity partnership.

The company eventually was sold to KKR in what was then the biggest leveraged buyout in history, described in the book Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, and a subsequent film.

Subsequent divestitures

In 1988, RJR sold its Chun King division, and also Del Monte Corporation’s fresh produce division, which later became Fresh Del Monte Produce. In 1989, RJR sold the North and South American Del Monte processed food operations.

In 1990, RJR sold the Curtiss Candy division, which owned the Baby Ruth and Butterfinger brands, to Nestle. RJR also sold LU, Belin and other European biscuit brands to Groupe Danone, only reunited in 2007 after Nabisco’s present parent, Kraft Foods, bought Danone’s biscuit operations for EUR 5.3 billion.

In 1994, RJR sold its breakfast cereal business (primarily the Shredded Wheat franchise) to Kraft Foods and the international licenses to General Mills, which later on became a part of the Cereal Partners Worldwide joint venture with Nestle. In 1994 also RJR acquired KNOX Gelatin. The Shredded Wheat franchise would subsequently be integrated into the Post Foods portfolio, with Post continuing to sell the product today.

In 1995, RJR sold Ortega Mexican-style foods, and acquired Kraft Foods’ tablespreads operations, which includes Parkay, Touch of Butter and Chiffon brands.

In 1997, RJR sold Egg Beaters egg substitutes, and Parkay, Touch of Butter, Chiffon, Fleischmann’s, Move Over Butter and Blue Bonnet tablespreads to ConAgra, its College Inn broth business to Del Monte Foods and also its Venezuelan Del Monte operations.

In 2000 Philip Morris Companies (now called the Altria Group) acquired Nabisco; that acquisition was approved by the Federal Trade Commission subject to the divestiture of products in five areas: three Jell-O and Royal brands types of products (dry-mix gelatin dessert, dry-mix pudding, no-bake desserts), intense mints (such as Altoids), and baking powder. Kraft Foods, at the time also a subsidiary of Altria Group, eventually merged with Nabisco; in 2007, Kraft Foods was spun off from Altria Group, taking its Nabisco subsidiary with it. The Royal brands were eventually sold to Jel Sert.

Nestle is licensed to make some of the ice cream and popsicle variants of Oreo, Chips Ahoy! and Kool-Aid in Canada.

In January 2008, Cream of Wheat was sold to B&G Foods.

Legal battles

In 1997, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus became concerned with an ad campaign for Planters Deluxe Mixed Nuts. The initial commercial featured a man and monkey deserted on an island. They discover a crate of Planters peanuts and rejoice in the peanuts’ positive health facts.

Nabisco made a detailed statement describing how their peanuts were healthier than most other snack products, going as far as comparing the nutritional facts of Planters peanuts to those of potato chips, Cheddar cheese chips, and popcorn. Technically, the commercials complied with United States Food and Drug Administration regulations, and they were allowed to continue. However, as requested by the NAD, Nabisco agreed to make fat content disclosure more conspicuous in future commercials.

The company’s A1 steak sauce was the subject of a legal battle against a venue called Arnie’s deli in 1991. The delicatessen was selling and using a homemade sauce called “A2 sauce.” The verdict favored Nabisco.

NASCAR sponsorship

From 20022005, Nabisco and Kraft jointly sponsored both Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and Roush Racing. Earnhardt Jr. won four races in a row at Daytona International Speedway with Nabisco sponsorship. Kraft and Nabisco sponsored a part-time Sprint Cup effort in car #81 driven by Jason Keller and John Andretti and fielded by Dale Earnhardt, Inc.

References

^ City of Chicago

^ Nabisco Australia. “How did OREO start?” [http://www.kraft.com.au.kraft-hosting.net/nabiscoFile:/products oreo how.cfm

^ FirstMatter.com: “Lexicon”

^ a b Laurie, Maxine N.; and Mappen, Marc; Encyclopedia of New Jersey: Rutgers University Press; 2004/2005. P. 555.

External links

Nabisco Website

NabiscoWorld

Adolphus Green, first head of N.B.C. from Kraft Foods website

Story of Nabisco from the Kraft Canada website

FTC summary of competitive concerns about the 2000 acquisition of Nabisco

From Oreos and Mallomars to Today’s Chelsea Market — The New York Times

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Kraft Foods Inc.’s brands

Condiments

A1 Steak Sauce  Bonox  Bull’s-Eye Barbecue Sauce  Grey Poupon  Miracle Whip  Vegemite

Nabisco and other snacks

Chicken in a Biskit  Chips Ahoy!  Claussen  Corn Nuts  Fig Newton  Filipinos  Fudgee-O  Handi-Snacks  Jell-O  LU  Lorna Doone  Mallomars  Nutter Butter  Nilla  Oreo  Peek Freans  Planters  Premium Crackers  Ritz Crackers  Social Tea  Teddy Grahams  Triscuit  Wheat Thins

Confectionery

Cadbury Products  Baker’s Chocolate  Cte d’Or  Daim  Freia  Kvikk Lunsj  Marabou  Milka  Terry’s  Toblerone

Coffee and other beverages

Caf HAG  Capri Sun  Crystal Light  General Foods International  Gevalia  Jacobs  Kenco  Kool-Aid  Maxwell House  Nabob  Sanka  Tang  Tassimo

Cheese and dairy products

Cheez Whiz  Cool Whip  Dairylea  Philadelphia  Polly-O  Velveeta

Convenience foods

Kraft Dinner  Lunchables  Oscar Mayer  Shake ‘n Bake  South Beach Living  Stove Top

Ticker: NYSE: KFT   Kraft Foods Corporate   Kraft Media Center

Categories: Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange | Nabisco | Snack companies of the United States | Companies established in 1898 | Companies based in Morris County, New JerseyHidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from July 2008

About the Author

I am Frbiz Site writer, reports some information about bulk jelly beans, bulk gummy candy.

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