The company can trace its history to the Minneapolis Milling Company, an organization founded in 1856 by Illinois Congressman Robert Smith which leased power rights to mills operating along Saint Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River. Cadwallader C. Washburn acquired the company shortly after its founding and hired his brother, William D. Washburn to assist in the company’s development. In 1866, the Washburns got into the business themselves, building the Washburn “B” Mill at the falls. At the time, the building was considered to be so large and output so vast that it could not possibly sustain itself.
However, the company succeeded, and in 1874 he built the even bigger Washburn “A” Mill. In 1877, the mill entered a partnership with John Crosby to form the Washburn-Crosby Company. A year later, the “A” mill exploded, killing 17 workers and also demolishing several nearby buildings. The mill was rebuilt and continued to operate for almost 90 years. In the 1920s, the company stepped in to take over a failing Twin Cities radio station, renaming it WCCO (from Washburn-Crosby Company).
General Mills itself was created in 1928 when Washburn-Crosby President James Ford Bell directed his company to merge with 26 other mills.
Beginning in 1929, General Mills products contained box top coupons, known as Betty Crocker coupons, with varying point values, which were redeemable for discounts on a variety of house wares products featured in the widely distributed Betty Crocker catalog. The coupons and the catalog were discontinued by the company in 2006, and a new website based retail concept is scheduled to open in 2007. General Mills brought the popular radio show The Lone Ranger to broadcast in 1941. The show was then brought to television, and, after 20 years, their sponsorship came to an end in 1961.
The Term Paper on Company Comparison: Raytheon (Rtn) and Textron (Txt)
Raytheon was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1922, as the American Appliance Company, by Laurence K. Marshall, Vannevar Bush, and Charles G. Smith. Marshall and Bush were engineering students, while Smith was an inventor and scientist, but they were all entrepreneurs. After failures to market an idea for a new refrigerator the trio began to focus on electronics. (Raytheon, Wikipedia.com) An ...
When NASA astronaut Scott Carpenter launched into space on Mercury capsule Aurora 7 in 1962, he was carrying with him the first solid space food small food cubes developed by Pillsbury’s research and development department. Taking Pillsbury scientists more than a year to develop, space food cubes were followed by other space-friendly foods, such as non-crumbly cake, relish that could be served in slices, and meat that needed no refrigeration. [3] The first venture General Mills took into the toy industry was in 1965. The company bought Rainbow Crafts, which was the manufacturer of Play-Doh.
General Mills’ purchase of the company was substantial because it brought production costs down and tripled the revenue. Beginning in 1959, General Mills sponsored the famous Rocky and His Friends television show, which later prompted The Bullwinkle Show in 1961. Until 1968, Rocky and Bullwinkle were featured in a variety of advertisements for General Mills. General Mills came out with their “Monster Cereals” in the 1970s. Two of the cereals, Frute Brute and Yummy Mummy, were discontinued from the “Monster Cereal” line in the 1980s. [citation needed]
In 1970, General Mills acquired a five-unit restaurant company called Red Lobster and expanded it nationwide. Soon, a division of General Mills titled General Mills Restaurants developed to take charge of the Red Lobster chain. In 1982, General Mills Restaurants founded a new Italian-themed restaurant chain called Olive Garden. Another themed restaurant, China Coast, was added before the entire group was spun-off to General Mills shareholders in 1995 as Darden Restaurants. During the same decade, General Mills ventured further, starting General Mills Specialty Retail Group.
The Term Paper on Risk Management Within General Motors Company
This research looks at the General Motors Company and what led to company failure and filing of bankruptcy in 2009. The American automotive industry was poorly managed for years and was almost eliminated when the economy crashed in 2008. Without the help of the U. S. government, General Motors and Chrysler would not have been able to survive. How did GM, as the number one auto manufacturer and ...
They acquired two clothing and apparel companies, Talbots and Eddie Bauer. The acquisition was short-lived. Talbots was purchased by a Japanese company, then known as JUSCO, and the Spiegal company purchased Bauer. Spiegal later declared bankruptcy, yet Bauer still remains, albeit in a smaller presence in the United States today. From 1976 to 1985, General Mills went to court as the parent company of Parker Brothers, which held the rights on the brand name and gaming idea of the board game Monopoly, claiming that the so called Anti-Monopoly game of an economics professor infringed their trademark.
The dispute extended up to the U. S. Supreme Court, which ruled against them, saying that while they have exclusive rights to the game Monopoly, they can not prevent others from using the word “monopoly” in the name of a game. During the 1980s, General Mills sold Parker Brothers to Kenner. In 2001, the company purchased Pillsbury, although it was officially described as a “merger. ” Some of the cereals had whole grain, but in late 2004, the company transitioned its entire breakfast cereal line to whole grain due to scientific research showing the positive impact eating whole grains has on one’s health.
Since 2004, General Mills has been producing more products targeted to the growing ranks of health-conscious consumers. The company has chosen to switch all its cereals to whole grain. According to nutritionalists, whole grains are a much healthier choice when choosing grain products. “If whole grain becomes a marketing magnet, it could lead the way to a healthier nation,” says Dr. Neal Barnard, author of Breaking the Food Seduction. The company also started manufacturing their kid-targeted cereals with less sugar.
