The granddaddy of breakfast cereals is dumping the business, more than 100 years later. Actually they’re spinning it off into a self-standing subsidiary called WK Kellogg, but it’s clear the management is tossing the legacy business aside to focus on segments that are growing, i.e. their snack-food business including Pringles and Cheez-Its, among others. That corporation will be named Kellanova, but will retain most of current upper management.
Breakfast cereal is in a long term secular decline, interrupted only by the pandemic which forced people to stay home, with enough time to eat a bowl of cereal. Once out-of-home became possible the trends started back down, as they have been doing for more than a decade, and breakfast burritos and drive-thrus become popular again. The encroachment of generics has hurt them, as they overpriced during the reign of exclusivity, which lasted through the 1980’s or so.
In my opinion, cereal and milk is a particularly less-than-healthful breakfast option. Any decline in its popularity will likely result in better overall nutrition.
The original Cheerios, eaten with a little yogurt, varied fruit, and skim milk, is an excellent and very easily prepared fast beginning to the day. But General Mills has spent decades trying to displace the original with high sugar variations. I have twice found original Cheerios vanished from shelves to make room for the junkier forms, and organized customers at grocery stores (once in Los Angeles and once in Mexico) to scream at management to scream at General Mills distributors not to screw with our access to Cheerios…
The best cereal remains homemade multi-grain multi nut Muesli to eat with fruit, and it can be assembled for about 1/3 the price of the packaged stuff.
I get your point, but if people are buying factory-food processed breakfast items, that will lead to worse health.
Even when still in the workforce, I tried to always eat breakfast. It is easy to make a bowl of steel-cut oatmeal and add fruit, but that did require getting up earlier. It’s a whole lot easier to eat healthy as a retiree.
This seems to be the latest thing cooked up by MBAs. JNJ insists it is not going to dump it’s talc liability on the consumer products spin-off, so the only reason would be to pursue the same fad as Kellogg’s. So what really happens when a company splits like that? Administrative overhead doubles, without adding a cent to revenue.
Possibly! It all depends on what’s in the burrito. If its scrambled eggs and a little cheese, it’s probably better. It’s best to start the day off with some sort of protein+fat food. That has a few advantages, one of which is that it fills you better and keeps you from snacking between breakfast and lunch.
I wonder if any of the bright lights ever thought about pivoting and promoting it as a lunch item. It’s easy, it can contain freeze dried fruit (or bring your own), and it’s filling. Long before cereal was marketed as a breakfast food it was used throughout the day as a substantial, starchy food item (medieval and prior). Sold in individual plastic containers or in a communal set up like a hotel express breakfast, I could see it transitioning to a time when people are already sitting down but just want a quick meal to eat at their desk. Quicker than going out for a sandwich, for sure. Ah well, another pipe dream from Goofyhoofy’s Superior Pipe Dream Factory LTD. No wonder I’m a little cash short.
