Cereals processing technology

form as a breakfast food. He called it Grape-Nuts, still on the market 100 years
later.
The third major player in our present day cereal market was begun by
Cadwallader C. Washburn who began a flour mill in Minneapolis, MN, USA. He
entered a partnership with John Crosby, and Washburn Crosby Co. later became
General Mills. 3 In the early 1920s Washburn Crosby Company introduced a wheat
flake, which in a few years was called Wheaties. These individuals, their
inventiveness and market skills, formed the basis of the worldwide breakfast cereal
industry that we know today. True, there are many, many more smaller players who
have been around for decades, but space does not permit mention of all of them.
8.2 The industry and its structure
Breakfast cereals 159
The industry has been dominated by a relatively few key, large producers. The
worldwide leader has been, and still is, Kellogg. The number two spot is held by
General Mills. The Postum Cereal Co. evolved into the Post Division of General
Foods, now Kraft Foods, and continues as the number three cereal producer.
In 1895 Henry D. Perky, a Denver lawyer, patented wheat in shredded biscuit
form. The Shredded Wheat Co. of Niagara Falls, New York and Ontario Canada
and Welwyn Garden City, England fame was purchased and continued by
National Biscuit Co. in the 1920s. This product line, also being produced in
England, was sold in the 1990s to a combine of General Mills and Nestlé, and is
now continued by a company known as Cereal Partners Worldwide.
In England a major producer and marketer of cereals behind Kellogg is
Weetabix. This company is also an offshoot of the SDA Church, having been
formed in 1936. Their major product is a unique biscuit comprised of
compressed wheat flakes. It is a very popular cereal form. It is also produced by
Weetabix in Canada, and sold from there in the United States and to other
countries worldwide. 4
The SDA Church was also originator of Van Brode Milling Co., a cereal
producer in the USA now known as Weetabix, which produces breakfast cereal
forms used in other foods, such as, candies and confections, breads, muffins,
etc. 4
The SDA Church was also instrumental in the formation of the Sanitarium
Health Food Company in Australia. Sanitarium, likewise, is a major player
behind Kellogg, in all of South East Asia. It too produces a compressed wheat
flake biscuit as well as other popular forms of processed cereal grains. 5
Tables 8.1–8.4 list the approximate market shares of the largest companies in
various parts of the world as they were in the latter part of 1998.
8.2.1 Developments before World War II
The industry grew rapidly before World War II. The main thrusts were in the
area of advertising and marketing – making individual products into household