Kellogg Co. - Specimen Stock Certificate

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The Kellogg Company, doing business as Kellogg's, is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg's produces cereal and convenience foods, including crackers and toaster pastries and markets their products by several well known brands including Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, Pringles, Eggo, and Cheez-It. Kellogg's mission statement is "Nourishing families so they can flourish and thrive."

Kellogg's products are manufactured and marketed in over 180 countries. Kellogg's largest factory is at Trafford Park in Trafford, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom, which is also the location of its UK headquarters. Other corporate office locations outside of Battle Creek include Chicago, Dublin (European Headquarters), Shanghai, and Querétaro City. Kellogg's holds a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales.

In 1876, John Harvey Kellogg became the superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium (originally the Western Health Reform Institute founded by Ellen White) and his brother, W. K. Kellogg, worked as the bookkeeper. This is where corn flakes were accidentally created and led to the eventual formation of the Kellogg Company.

For years, W. K. Kellogg assisted his brother in research aimed at improving the vegetarian diet of the Battle Creek Sanitarium's patients, especially in the search for wheat-based granola. In 1894 at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, a combination hospital and health spa for the elite and famous, W.K. Kellogg and his brother, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg were in the process of cooking some wheat for a type of granola when they were called away. When they returned, the wheat had become stale. They decided to force the tempered grain through the rollers anyway, and surprisingly, the grain did not come out in long sheets of dough. Instead, each wheat berry was flattened and came out as a thin flake.

W. K. Kellogg persuaded his brother to serve the food in flake form. Soon the flaked wheat was being packaged to meet hundreds of mail-order requests from guests after they left the Sanitarium. However, Dr. John Harvey forbade his brother Will from distributing cereal beyond his consumers. As a result, the brothers fell out, and W. K. launched the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company on February 19, 1906. Convincing his brother to relinquish rights to the product, Will's company produced and marketed the hugely successful Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes and was renamed the Kellogg Toasted Corn Flake Company in 1909, taking on the current name of the Kellogg Company in 1922.

In 1931, the Kellogg Company announced that most of its factories would shift towards 30-hour work weeks, from the usual 40. W.K. Kellogg stated that he did this so that an additional shift of workers would be employed in an effort to support people through the depression era. This practice remained until World War II, and continued briefly after the war, although some departments and factories remained locked into 30-hour work weeks until 1980.

From 1969 to 1970, the slogan “Kellogg’s puts more into your day� was used on Sunday morning TV shows. From 1969 to 1977, Kellogg's acquired various small businesses including Salada Foods, Fearn International, Mrs. Smith's Pies, Eggo, and Pure Packed Foods; however, it was later criticized for not diversifying further like General Mills and Quaker Oats were. After underspending its competition in marketing and product development, Kellogg's U.S. market share hit a low 36.7% in 1983. A prominent Wall Street analyst called it "a fine company that's past its prime" and the cereal market was being regarded as "mature". Such comments stimulated Kellogg chairman William E. LaMothe to improve, which primarily involved approaching the demographic of 80 million baby boomers rather than marketing children-oriented cereals. In emphasizing cereal's convenience and nutritional value, Kellogg's helped persuade U.S. consumers age 25 to 49 to eat 26% more cereal than people of that age ate five years prior. The U.S. ready-to-eat cereal market, worth $3.7 billion at retail in 1983, totaled $5.4 billion by 1988 and had expanded three times as fast as the average grocery category. Kellogg's also introduced new products including Crispix, Raisin Squares, and Nutri-Grain Biscuits and reached out internationally with Just Right aimed at Australians and Genmai Flakes for Japan. During this time, the company maintained success over its top competitors: General Mills, which largely marketed children's cereals, and Post, which had difficulty in the adult cereal market.

In 2001, Kellogg's acquired the Keebler Company for $3.87 billion. Over the years, it has also gone on to acquire Morningstar Farms and Kashi divisions or subsidiaries. Kellogg's also owns the Bear Naked, Natural Touch, Cheez-It, Murray, Austin cookies and crackers, Famous Amos, Gardenburger (acquired 2007), and Plantation brands. Presently, Kellogg's is a member of the World Cocoa Foundation.

In 2012, Kellogg's became the world's second-largest snack food company (after PepsiCo) by acquiring the potato crisps brand Pringles from Procter & Gamble for $2.7 billion in a cash deal.

In 2017, Kellogg's acquired Chicago-based food company Rxbar for $654 million. Earlier that year, Kellogg's also opened new corporate office space in Chicago's Merchandise Mart for its global growth and IT departments. In the UK, Kellogg's also released the W. K. Kellogg brand of organic, vegan and plant-based cereals (such as granolas, organic wholegrain wheat, and "super grains") with no added sugars.

In 2018, Kellogg's decided to cease their operations in Venezuela due to the economic crisis the country is facing.

On April 1, 2019, it was announced that Kellogg's was selling Famous Amos, Murray's, Keebler, Mother's and Little Brownie Bakers (one of the producers of the cookies for the Girl Scouts of the USA) to Ferrero SpA for $1.4 billion. On July 29, 2019 that sale was completed. Kellogg's kept the Keebler cracker line and replaced the Keebler name on their crackers with the Kellogg's name.

In June 2019, Kellogg's announced their next-generation Kellogg's® Better Days global commitment, focusing on hunger, children, and farmers, with specific targets to reach by 2030.

In October 2019, Kellogg's partnered with GLAAD by "launching a new limited edition "All Together Cereal" and donating $50,000 to support GLAAD's anti-bullying and LGBTQ advocacy efforts". The All Together cereal combined six mini cereal boxes into one package to bring attention to anti-bullying.

In January 2020, Kellogg's has decided to work with suppliers to phase out the use of glyphosate by 2025, which has been used as a drying agent in their products.

For the fiscal year 2017, Kellogg's reported earnings of US$1.269 billion, with an annual revenue of US$12.932 billion, a decline of 0.7% over the previous fiscal cycle. Kellogg's market capitalization was valued at over US$22.1 billion in November 2018.

A list of cereal products produced by Kellogg's, with available varieties:

Various methods have been used in the company's history to promote the company and its brands. Foremost among these is the design of the Kellogg's logo by Ferris Crane under the art direction of famed type guru Y. Ames. Another was the well-remembered jingle "K E double-L, O double-good, Kellogg's best to you!"

With the rising popularity of patent medicine in early 20th century advertising, The Kellogg Company of Canada published a book named A New Way of Living that showed readers "how to achieve a new way of living; how to preserve vitality; how to maintain enthusiasm and energy; how to get the most out of life because of a physical ability to enjoy it". It touted the All-Bran cereal as the secret to leading "normal" lives free of constipation.

Kellogg's was a major sponsor throughout the run of the hit CBS panel show What's My Line? It and its associated products Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies were also major sponsors for the PBS Kids children's animated series Dragon Tales.

Kellogg's is a sponsor of USA Gymnastics and produces the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics, a 36-city tour held after the Olympic games and featuring performances by recent medal-winning gymnasts from the United States.

In 2019, it was announced that Kellog's would become the new title sponsor of the Sun Bowl game, with the game being branded as the "Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl".

W.K. Kellogg was the first to introduce prizes in boxes of cereal. The marketing strategy that he established has produced thousands of different cereal box prizes that have been distributed by the tens of billions.

Kellogg's Corn Flakes had the first cereal premium with The Funny Jungleland Moving Pictures Book. The book was originally available as a prize that was given to the customer in the store with the purchase of two packages of the cereal. But in 1909, Kellogg's changed the book giveaway to a premium mail-in offer for the cost of a dime. Over 2.5 million copies of the book were distributed in different editions over a period of 23 years.

In 1945, Kellogg's inserted a prize in the form of pin-back buttons into each box of Pep cereal. Pep pins have included U.S. Army squadrons as well as characters from newspaper comics and were available through 1947. There were five series of comic characters and 18 different buttons in each set, with a total of 90 in the collection. Other manufacturers of major brands of cereal, including General Mills, Malt-O-Meal, Nestlé, Post Foods, and Quaker Oats, followed suit and inserted prizes into boxes of cereal to promote sales and brand loyalty.

Licensed brands have been omitted since the corresponding mascots would be obvious (e.g. Spider-Man is the mascot for Spider-Man Spidey-Berry).

• Cocoa Hoots cereal: Newton the Owl
• Cocoa Krispies cereal (Known as Choco Krispis in Latin America, Choco Krispies in Germany, Austria, Spain, and Switzerland, Chocos in India, and Coco Pops in Australia, the UK, and Europe): Jose (monkey), Coco (monkey), Melvin (elephant), Snagglepuss (Hanna-Barbera character), Ogg (caveman), Tusk (elephant), and Snap, Crackle and Pop (who were also, and remain as of February 2014, the Rice Krispies mascots; see below)
• Corn Flakes cereal: Cornelius (rooster)
• Frosted Flakes (known as Frosties outside the US/Canada, Zucaritas in Latin America and Sucrilhos in Brazil) cereal: Tony the Tiger
• Froot Loops cereal: Toucan Sam
• Honey Smacks (US)/Smacks (other markets) cereal: Dig 'Em Frog
• Raisin Bran cereal: Sunny the Sun
• Rice Krispies (known as Rice Bubbles in Australia) cereal: Snap, Crackle and Pop
• Ricicles (UK Only) cereal: Captain Rik
• Apple Jacks cereal: CinnaMon and Bad Apple
• Honey Loops cereal: Loopy (bumblebee), Pops (honey bee)
• Keebler cookies and crackers: Ernie and the Elves

Kellogg's made its first foray into auto racing between 1991 and 1992 when the company sponsored the #41 Chevrolets fielded by Larry Hedrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and driven by Phil Parsons, Dave Marcis, Greg Sacks, Hut Stricklin, and Richard Petty, but they gained greater prominence for their sponsorship of two-time Winston Cup Champion Terry Labonte from 1993 to 2006, the last 12 years of that as the sponsor for Hendrick Motorsports' No.5 car. Kellogg's sponsored the No.5 car for Labonte, Kyle Busch, Casey Mears, and Mark Martin until 2010, and it then served as an associate sponsor for Carl Edwards' #99 car for Roush Fenway Racing.

Kellogg's placed Dale Earnhardt on Kellogg's Corn Flakes boxes for 1993 six-time Winston Cup champ and 1994 seven-time Winston Cup champ, as well as Jeff Gordon on the Mini Wheats box for the 1993 rookie of the year, 1995 Brickyard 400 inaugural race, 1997 Champion, and 1998 three-time champ, and a special three-pack racing box set with Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte, and Dale Jarrett in 1996.

Kellogg's has used some merchandising for their products. Kellogg's once released Mission Nutrition, a PC game that came free with special packs of cereal. It played in a similar fashion as Donkey Kong Country; users could play as Tony the Tiger, Coco the Monkey, or Snap, Crackle, and Pop. Kellogg's has also released "Talking" games. The two current versions are Talking Tony and Talking Sam. In these games, a microphone is used to play games and create voice commands for their computers. In Talking Tony, Tony the Tiger, one of Kellogg's most famous mascots, would be the main and only character in the game. In Talking Sam, Toucan Sam, another famous mascot, would be in the game, instead. Some [toy cars] have the Kellogg's logo on them, and occasionally their mascots.

There was also a Talking Snap Crackle and Pop software.

Kellogg's frequently partners with the Olympic Games to feature American athletes from the Olympic Games on the packages of their cereal brands. In 2017, the company announced its marketing campaign for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games featuring American athletes Nathan Chen, Kelly Clark, Meghan Duggan and Mike Schultz.

Some of Kellogg's marketing has been questioned in the press, prompted by an increase in consumer awareness of the mismatch between the marketing messages and the products themselves.

Food bloggers are also questioning the marketing methods used by cereal manufacturing companies such as Kellogg's, due to their high sugar content and use of ingredients such as high-fructose corn syrup.

On June 25, the company voluntarily began to recall about 28 million boxes of Apple Jacks, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks because of an unusual smell and flavor from the packages' liners that could make people ill. Kellogg's said about 20 people complained about the cereals, including five who reported nausea and vomiting. Consumers reported the cereal smelled or tasted waxy or like metal or soap. Company spokeswoman J. Adaire Putnam said some described it as tasting stale. However, no serious health problems had been reported.

The suspected chemical that caused the illnesses was 2-methylnaphthalene, used in the cereal packaging process. Little is known about 2-methylnaphthalene's impact on human health as the Food and Drug Administration has no scientific data on its impact on humans, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also does not have health and safety data. This is despite the EPA having sought information on it from the chemical industry for 16 years. 2-Methylnaphthalene is a component of crude oil and is "structurally related to naphthalene, an ingredient in mothballs and toilet-deodorant blocks" that the EPA considers a possible human carcinogen.

Kellogg's offered consumers refunds in the meantime. Only products with the letters "KN" following the use-by date were included in the recall. The products were distributed throughout the U.S. and began arriving in stores in late March 2010. Products in Canada were not affected.

Kellogg's issued a voluntary recall of some of its "Frosted Mini-Wheats Bite Size Original" and "Mini-Wheats Unfrosted Bite Size" products due to the possibility of flexible metal mesh fragments in the food. The affected products varied in size from single-serving bowls to large 70-ounce cartons. Use-by dates printed on the recalled packages ranged from April 1, 2013, to September 21, 2013, and were accompanied by the letters KB, AP or FK.

On June 3, 2010, Kellogg's was found to be making unsubstantiated and misleading claims in advertising their cereal products by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Kellogg's responded by stating "We stand behind the validity of our product claims and research, so we agreed to an order that covers those claims. We believe that the revisions to the existing consent agreement satisfied any remaining concerns."

The FTC had previously found fault with Kellogg's claims that Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal improved kids' attentiveness by nearly 20%.

The Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has also suggested that the language on Kellogg Pop-Tarts packages saying the pastries are "Made with Real Fruit" should be taken off the products. In July 2012, the UK banned a "Special K" advertisement due to its citing caloric values that did not take into account the caloric value of milk consumed with the cereal. In 2016 an ad telling UK consumers that Special K is “full of goodness� and “nutritious� was banned.

According to Amnesty International in 2016, Kellogg's palm oil provider Wilmar International profited from 8 to 14-year-old child labor and forced labor. Some workers were extorted, threatened or not paid for work. Some workers suffered severe injuries from chemicals such as Paraquat. Kellogg's alleged not being aware of the child abuses due to traceability; Amnesty's human rights director replied that "Using mealy-mouthed excuses about 'traceability' is a total cop-out."

In 2018 Kellogg's ceased operations in Venezuela. Their factories were taken by the Venezuelan state under the Nicolás Maduro administration. In Mid 2019, Venezuelan Kellogg's cereal boxes, portraying the Venezuelan flag and a motto from Maduro: "Together, everything is possible" (Spanish: Juntos todo es posible) alongside Kellogg's logo and mascots were sold all over the country. The Kellogg's Company considers it as an illicit use and the company will take legal action.

Kellogg's donated around $2 million opposing California Proposition 37, a 2012 ballot initiative that, if enacted, would have required compulsory labeling of genetically engineered food products. In March 2016, though, they vowed to label all of their products with genetically modified organisms as such by 2020. In January 2012, Kellogg's gave the Calhoun School a $250,000 grant for a "three-part youth-based project on issues of white privilege and institutionalized racism". In August 2014, Kellogg's called on the President to support the Paris Agreement on climate change. In 2016, Kellogg Company urged President-elect Donald Trump to "continue the Paris Climate Agreement". Kellogg's has donated to notable groups opposing voter-ID laws, such as the Applied Research Center (now RaceForward). The company also decided to remove their advertisements from the Breitbart News website. Breitbart News in turn called for a boycott of Kellogg's products.

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