Post Consumer Brands, LLC, formerly known as Post Cereals and Postum Cereals, is also called Post. It is an American company that makes food products and is based in Lakeville, Minnesota.

The company was started in 1895 by C. W. Post. It has many cereal brands, including Bran Flakes, Honey Bunches of Oats, Golden Crisp, Grape-Nuts, Honeycomb, Pebbles, and Waffle Crisp, among others. The company also makes several pet food brands, such as Rachael Ray Nutrish, Kibbles 'n Bits, and 9Lives. It also sells Peter Pan Peanut Butter.

History

C. W. Post started his company in Battle Creek, Michigan. He had lived there since 1891, when he was a patient at a health-focused sanitarium run by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Dr. Kellogg and his brother, W. K. Kellogg, created a dry corn flake cereal for their patients' meals. Post’s first product, introduced in 1895, was not a cereal but a roasted, cereal-based drink called Postum. Post avoided coffee during his time at the sanitarium and promoted Postum as a healthy alternative. His advertising slogan, "There's a Reason," was created by him. Postum’s main ingredients were naturally caffeine-free wheat grain, bran, and molasses. At first, Postum had to be brewed like coffee, but in 1911, Post introduced a powdered, instant version. This version was made in Battle Creek until it was discontinued in 2007. By January 2013, Eliza’s Quest Food had reintroduced Postum to many grocery stores in the United States and Canada.

In 1897, Post launched his first dry cereal, a crunchy mix of wheat and barley called Grape Nuts. His first corn-flake product, named "Elijah’s Manna," was introduced in 1904. However, customers disliked the biblical reference in the name, and even Great Britain refused to register it as a trademark. The product was renamed Post Toasties in 1907.

C. W. Post was a businessman who believed advertising and marketing were vital to business success. Within ten years of starting his company, the Postum Cereal Company had over $10 million in capital and spent $400,000 each year on advertising, large amounts for that time. Employees were among the highest-paid in the industry, and working conditions were considered excellent. Post also created a factory town, offering homes to workers at favorable prices.

Postum Cereal Company lost its founder in 1914. C.W. Post had a successful appendectomy at the Mayo Clinic but died shortly after returning home from the surgery due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had struggled with illness and depression for years. Although his death was sudden, his company was not left without leadership. His daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post, had grown up in the business and knew the company’s operations well. She took over the $20-million Postum Company and managed it for eight years. She did not lead major product innovations but understood business and supported talented managers. In 1920, she married Edward F. Hutton, founder of a Wall Street brokerage firm.

Gross revenues in 1921 were $17.75 million. In 1922, Hutton took the newly formed Postum Cereal Company public by issuing 200,000 common shares. During the 1920s, common stock was considered highly speculative, so the shares paid a $5.00 annual dividend. Revenues in 1922 were similar to 1921, but by 1923, they reached $22.25 million. A stock split increased authorized shares to 400,000, and the dividend rose to $3.00 per share, a 20% increase. In 1925, with revenues at $27.4 million, the stock was split again, and the dividend increased to $4.00 per share.

Starting in 1925, under the leadership of financier E. F. Hutton (who was once the founder’s son-in-law) and president Colby M. Chester, Postum Cereal began a series of corporate acquisitions that would soon make it the leading U.S. packaged grocery products manufacturer. The first acquisition was the Jell-O Company, which had been created in 1897 by Pearle Bixby Wait, a carpenter from LeRoy, New York. Jell-O was based on a patent issued in 1845 to Peter Cooper, but Cooper never developed it commercially. Wait struggled to market Jell-O and sold the rights in 1899 for $450 to a neighbor, Orator Francis Woodward, who founded the Genesee Pure Food Company in 1897. Genesee became the Jell-O Company in 1923 and began selling D-Zerta, a sugar-free gelatin, and a powdered ice cream mix.

In 1926, Postum Cereal acquired Igleheart Brothers, Inc., makers of Swans Down cake flour, and the Minute Tapioca Company. "Tapioca Superlative" was invented in 1894 by Susan Stavers, a woman from Boston, who made it from tapioca flakes she ground in a coffee grinder. She sold the rights to John Whitman of Massachusetts, who renamed it "Minute Tapioca" and later changed his company’s name to "Minute Tapioca." The "Minute" brand later became famous for Minute Rice, a parboiled rice product introduced in 1949 by General Foods.

After acquiring Jell-O and Minute Tapioca, Postum Cereal’s revenues in 1926 rose to $46.9 million. The number of shares increased to 1.375 million, including shares from the acquisitions. The dividend was raised to $4.70 per share.

In 1927, Postum Cereal purchased two confectionery companies: Walter Baker, a chocolate maker founded in 1765, and Franklin Baker, a coconut processor that began as a flour broker in the 19th century but started making confectionery products in 1895. It also acquired Log Cabin Products, maker of Log Cabin Syrup (first produced in 1887), and Richard Hellmann, Inc., producer of Blue Ribbon mayonnaise (established in 1913). Later that year, Postum Cereal began selling its first coffee product, "Sanka," by securing U.S. marketing rights from Dr. Ludwig Roselius of Germany. Roselius had developed decaffeinated coffee in 1906 and started selling it in the U.S. in 1923.

In 1928, Postum Cereal acquired the Cheek-Neel Coffee Company, which produced Maxwell House coffee, a well-known brand in the fragmented U.S. coffee market. Maxwell House would later become the top coffee brand in America and remain so through the 1980s. Other acquisitions that year included the La France Manufacturing Company, maker of starch and laundry products (Postum’s first venture into non-food items), and the Calumet Baking Powder Company, a leading producer of baking powder.

By the end of 1928, Postum, Inc. was added to the newly revised Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 common stocks. By year-end, revenues reached $101 million, and the dividend on five million authorized shares was $5.00 per share, a 25-fold increase since 1922.

The most significant acquisition of 19

After General Foods

In 1985, Philip Morris Companies purchased General Foods. In 1988, they bought Kraft Inc. These companies were later combined as Kraft Foods Inc. In 2007, the cereal division of Kraft Foods Inc. was sold to Ralcorp.

In 2011, Ralcorp planned to separate Post Foods into a new company. In 2010, Post Foods generated about one-fourth of Ralcorp’s total sales. The separation was completed when Post Holdings, Inc. held an initial public offering (IPO) on February 7, 2012.

In 2014, Post Holdings acquired Michael Foods, which was based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, for $2.45 billion.

In 2015, Post Foods purchased MOM Brands (formerly Malt-O-Meal Co.), creating the third-largest breakfast cereal company in the United States. At this time, Post Foods changed its name to Post Consumer Brands and moved its headquarters to Lakeville, Minnesota.

In July 2017, Post Holdings bought Weetabix Limited, including its U.S. subsidiary Barbara’s, for £1.4 billion. In 2019, the company combined some of its MOM Brands and Weetabix cereal products under the name Three Sisters Cereal.

On December 8, 2020, Post Holdings announced it would purchase the Peter Pan peanut butter brand from Conagra Brands. The deal was completed on January 25, 2021. After acquiring Peter Pan, Post created a new group called Animated Brands, with Peter Pan as its first brand. Animated Brands is managed under Post Consumer Brands.

On June 1, 2021, Post announced it would buy the ready-to-eat ("RTE") cereal business of TreeHouse Foods. A similar deal two years earlier had been stopped due to antitrust concerns from the Federal Trade Commission. The TreeHouse Foods RTE cereal business was added to Post Consumer Brands’ collection of private label cereal products.

In February 2023, Post Holdings announced it would acquire pet food brands such as 9Lives, Kibbles 'n Bits, and Gravy Train. This acquisition would allow Post to enter the pet food market. After completing the purchase, Post plans to develop a new pet food category within Post Consumer Brands.

Postum, a coffee substitute made from roasted grains, was created in 1895. It was popular during the early 20th century, especially during World War II when coffee supplies were limited. Due to declining popularity, Post announced it would stop selling Postum in 2007. The product was later reintroduced by Eliza’s Quest Food in 2013.