How the cereal empire began

IN all probability, you have recently eaten something for your breakfast, which was developed by accident to improve the diet of the patients in a sanatorium. Kellogg’s first appeared in Ireland in 1920 and we are now one of the top consumers of cereals in the world, eating 130 million bowls of Corn Flakes each year.

William Keith Kellogg worked as a broom salesman but gave up his job to help his brother, John Harvey, run his sanatorium in Battle Creek Michigan. John Harvey believed that you are what you eat together with plenty of fresh air, exercise and a complete ban on caffeine, alcohol and tobacco. They were encouraged by their Church, The Seventh Day Adventists, to make modern commercial foods based on grain. As they tried to develop a breakfast food that was wholesome and pleasant to eat, they developed Corn Flakes more or less by accident.
One day in the 1870s, John Harvey was experimenting with different ways to cook wheat to make it more pleasant to eat. He accidentally put some cooked grains through rollers. They came out the other side as flakes and thus we had the first ever Corn Flakes. They decided to try their new discovery on the patients and they proved very popular. When patients who left began sending back orders for the new cereal, they realised what they had discovered could be sold commercially.
This led to a falling out between the two brothers. William wanted to keep the process a secret but John was prepared to let everybody in the sanatorium see how it was done. When a former patient, CW Post started a company to produce the flakes, William decided it was time to act. He left his brother and set up the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Company and the company we now know as Kellogg’s was born.
He watched his company grow for a few years and then in 1906, launched his first major advertising campaign with spectacular results. Sales grew to almost 3,000 boxes per day and within three years, they were selling one million cases annually. They led the field in developing sales. William printed healthy eating advice on the packets and in 1923, went as far as hiring a nutritionist to develop recipes and spread the word about healthy eating. Their advertising continued to evolve down the years and we had Tony the Tiger, Snap Crackle and Pop, Pat Jennings appearing in an ad for Frosties and even the Beatles being pictured on boxes in 1963. The company, which started with 40 employees in Battle Creek, now employs over 30,000 people in 19 countries.
WK Kellogg set up the Kellogg Foundation in 1930 to give something back to the community and it is now one of the largest philanthropic organisations in the world.
In Ireland, it promotes charity fundraising but 60 years ago, its first grant to any organisation here was to the ICA. This funded the establishment of An Grianán in Termonfeckin in Louth, which was the first residential adult education centre in the country.
John Harvey accidentally rolled the first Corn Flakes but the Kellogg’s company was established by his brother William Keith Kellogg, who was born on April 7 1860, 151 years ago this week.