Shreddies are a
breakfast cereal first produced in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
in 1939 by
Nabisco
Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International.
Nabisco's ...
. The ''Shreddies'' brand is held by
Post Consumer Brands
Post Consumer Brands (previously Post Cereals and Postum Cereals; also known as simply "Post") is an American breakfast cereal manufacturer headquartered in Lakeville, Minnesota.
The company, founded in 1895 by C. W. Post, owns a large portfoli ...
in Canada and elsewhere, and
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since ...
in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
and the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
Manufacture
In Canada, production began in 1939 at Lewis Avenue,
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
. Shreddies were produced under the
Nabisco
Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International.
Nabisco's ...
name until the brand in Canada was purchased in 1993 by
Post Cereals
Post Consumer Brands (previously Post Cereals and Postum Cereals; also known as simply "Post") is an American breakfast cereal manufacturer headquartered in Lakeville, Minnesota.
The company, founded in 1895 by C. W. Post, owns a large portfoli ...
, whose parent company in 1995 became
Kraft General Foods, which sold Post to
Ralcorp
Ralcorp Holdings is a manufacturer of various food products, including breakfast cereal, cookies, crackers, chocolate, snack foods, mayonnaise, pasta, and peanut butter. The company is based in St. Louis, Missouri. The majority of the items Ralc ...
in 2008 and is now Post Foods Canada Corp., a unit of
Post Holdings
Post Holdings (officially Post Holdings, Inc.) is an American consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in St Louis, Missouri with businesses operating in the center-of-the-store, refrigerated, foodservice and food ingredient categori ...
, which was spun off from Ralcorp in 2012.
In the United Kingdom, the cereal was first produced by Nabisco's former UK division but is now made by
Cereal Partners
Cereal Partners Worldwide S.A. is a joint venture between General Mills and Nestlé, established in 1991 to produce breakfast cereals. The company is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, and markets cereals in more than 130 countries (exc ...
under the
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since ...
brand at
Welwyn Garden City
Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and ...
. The factory opened in 1926 and began making Shreddies in 1953. The site was briefly owned by
Rank Hovis McDougall
RHM plc, formerly Rank Hovis McDougall, was a United Kingdom food business. The company owned numerous brands, particularly for flour, where its core business started, and for consumer food products. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange an ...
in 1988, which sold it to Cereal Partners in 1990. Nestlé's site at
Staverton started making Shreddies in 1998, and is where all production was moved in 2007.
United Kingdom
*For many years in the UK, the Shreddies boxes featured
Tom and Jerry
''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series c ...
. They regularly featured gifts in the boxes featuring Tom and Jerry, such as glow-in-the-dark stickers sets and puzzle books.
*In around 1992, Frosted Shreddies had the mascot of
Jack Frost
Jack Frost is a personification of frost, ice, snow, sleet, winter, and freezing cold. He is a variant of Old Man Winter who is held responsible for frosty weather, nipping the fingers and toes in such weather, coloring the foliage in autumn, ...
, wearing a blue jumper, a red scarf, and red and light blue gloves.
*From 1995, Shreddies' advertising campaigns featured an antagonist of a big teethed blue monster named Mr. Hungry who was a cartoon personification of "Hunger". His goal was to taunt hungry individuals by drumming on their stomachs with a pair of silver spoons after saying "Ha Ha! Hunger Strikes!" Mr. Hungry was then dispatched when the victim consumed a bowl of Shreddies, sealing him inside a shreddies cage. Despite his troublesome persona, Mr. Hungry was frequently used as a mascot for the cereal during this period. The message during this time was "Shreddies keep hunger locked up 'til lunch" and most ads ended with a box of Shreddies rolling up in front of Mr. Hungry, who then gets crushed between it and a box of Frosted Shreddies zooming in from behind him.
* For a while in the early 2000s, Frosted and Coco Shreddies were advertised as "too tasty for geeks". The advertisements featured "geeks" trying to eat a bowl of either Frosted or Coco Shreddies but being overwhelmed by its taste by being launched into the air like a rocket, followed by a much cooler kid named Sure-Eddie being able to easily eat the Shreddies. In 2003, Coco Shreddies were coated with more chocolate.
* In 2005, Shreddies were advertised as school fuel. The advertisements showed school children being focused on their work at school after eating a bowl of Shreddies for breakfast at home. This TV advertisement was ordered to be removed by the
ASA
ASA as an abbreviation or initialism may refer to:
Biology and medicine
* Accessible surface area of a biomolecule, accessible to a solvent
* Acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin
* Advanced surface ablation, refractive eye surgery
* Anterior spinal ar ...
as it was held to provide an unfair comparison between school children eating Shreddies or eating nothing, rather than a similar cereal.
*In 2007, Shreddies' advertising centred on the claim that they are "knitted by nanas" with shots of a factory full of grandmothers knitting Shreddies. The ad was voted the seventh-favourite advertisement of 2007. And from 2007 - 2011 the packaging was changed to include a photo, on the inner flaps, of the nana who apparently knitted the Shreddies for that specific box.
*In 2010, supporting the launch of a new "Scrumptious new recipe", Shreddies launched a promotion to find new nanas, using TV, digital and Facebook; this subsequently built a huge fan base on Facebook.
* In 2012, the Shreddies Knitting Nanas continued to be used to represent the brand. The campaign was launched on Facebook to the fans in a 1-month build-up to the premiere, with the advertisement going live on TV weeks later in April. The campaign message in 2012 was "Helping you through 'til lunch" (a reference to the early 90s strapline).
* A new advert in 2014 replaced the message with "Shreddies ...AND YOU'RE READY!" The advertisement features the song "
This Is How We Do It
"This Is How We Do It" is the debut single by American singer Montell Jordan. It was released by Def Jam Recordings on February 6, 1995 as the lead single from his debut album, also titled '' This Is How We Do It'' (1995). The single was Def Ja ...
" by
Montell Jordan
Montell Du'Sean Barnett Jordan (born December 3, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Best known for his 1995 single "This Is How We Do It", Jordan was the primary male solo artist on Def Jam's Def Soul imprint until le ...
.
* September 2015 marked the end of the knitting nanas with the ad featuring them singing and disappearing at the end of the song.
* In 2021, a new advertising campaign was launched featuring the television presenter
Nick Knowles
Nicholas Simon Augustine Knowles (born 21 September 1962) is an English television presenter, writer and musical artist. He is best known for his presenting roles on the BBC, including game shows ''Who Dares Wins'' (2007–2019), ''Break the Sa ...
. This tied in with a redesign of the cereal box that was rolled out towards the end of the previous year, and introduced the new slogan "Shreddie For Anything".
Collectables
In January 2012, boxes of Shreddies dating from the early 1970s were reported to be selling on
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
, after being discovered in a village shop. They were reported to have been selling for about £160 per box on eBay.
Old Shreddies from the 1970s found in shop fetch £160 on eBay
January 13, 201
Metro News
Retrieved January 28, 2012,
See also
* Chex
Chex is an American brand of breakfast cereal currently manufactured by General Mills. It was originally produced and owned by Ralston Purina of St. Louis, Missouri, using the name Chex starting in 1950. The Chex brand went with corporate s ...
* List of breakfast cereals
This is a list of breakfast cereals. Many cereals are trademarked brands of large companies, such as Kellogg's, General Mills, Malt-O-Meal Company, Malt-O-Meal, Nestlé, Quaker Oats Company, Quaker Oats and Post Foods, but similar equivalent pro ...
References
External links
*
{{Nestlé
1939 establishments in Ontario
Canadian cuisine
Post cereals
Nestlé cereals
Products introduced in 1955