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 Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

-based

Mondelēz International Mondelēz International, Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational confectionery, food industry, food, Holding company, holding, drink industry, beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an annual rev ...

. Nabisco's plant in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

is the largest bakery in the world, employing more than 1,200 workers and producing around of snack foods annually. Its products include Chips Ahoy!,

Belvita Belvita, sometimes stylized as belVita or BelVita, is a brand of breakfast biscuit introduced originally in France in 1998 as LU Petit Déjeuner by Kraft Foods Inc. and currently owned by Mondelēz International. Overview The biscuits were ...

Oreo Oreo (; stylized in all caps) is an American brand of sandwich cookie consisting of two cocoa biscuits with a sweet fondant filling. Oreos were introduced in 1912 by Nabisco, and the brand has been owned by Mondelez International since its me ...

cookies, Ritz Crackers, Teddy Grahams, Triscuit crackers,

Fig Newtons Newtons are a Nabisco-trademarked version of a cookie filled with sweet fruit paste. Fig Newtons are the most popular variety. They are produced by an extrusion process. Their distinctive shape is a characteristic that has been adopted by compe ...

, and

Wheat Thins Wheat Thins are a brand of baked whole grain snack food crackers distributed in the United States and Canada by Mondelez International. The product is also available in Australia through wholesaler USA Foods. Vegetable Thins, Oat Thins, Pita Th ...

for the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Bolivia, Venezuela, and other parts of South America. All Nabisco cookie or cracker products are branded Christie in Canada, after Canadian baker

William Mellis Christie William Mellis Christie (5 January 1829 – 14 June 1900) is the namesake for the Canadian Mr. Christie brand of cookies and biscuits, owned by Mondelez International. Christie was born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the only child of John ...

. Christie's flagship bakery in Toronto was demolished after Mondelēz shut it down in 2013. Nabisco opened corporate offices as the National Biscuit Company in the

Home Insurance Building The Home Insurance Building was a skyscraper that stood in Chicago from 1885 to its demolition in 1931. Originally ten stories and tall, it was designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884 and completed the next year. Two floors were added in ...

in the

Chicago Loop The Loop is Chicago's central business district and one of the city's 77 municipally recognized Community areas in Chicago, community areas. Located at the center of downtown Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan, it is the second-largest busi ...

in 1898, the world's first skyscraper.

History

Pearson & Sons Bakery opened in Massachusetts in 1792, and they made a biscuit called pilot bread for consumption on long sea voyages. In 1889, William H. Moore acquired Pearson & Sons Bakery, Josiah Bent Bakery, and six other bakeries to start the New York Biscuit Company. Chicago lawyer Adolphus Green (1843–1917) started the American Biscuit and Manufacturing Company in 1890 after acquiring 40 different bakeries. Then Moore, Green, and John Gottlieb Zeller (1849–1939, founder of Richmond Steam Bakery) all merged in 1898 to form the "National Biscuit Company", and Green was named president. Zeller was president of National Biscuit Company from 1923 to 1931. Nabisco celebrated its golden anniversary in 1948, and ''Nabisco'' had become the corporate name by 1971. In 1981, Nabisco merged with Standard Brands to form "Nabisco Brands", which merged with

R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR) is an American tobacco manufacturing company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded by namesake R. J. Reynolds in 1875, it is the largest tobacco company in the United States. The company is a w ...

in 1985 to form

RJR Nabisco R. J. Reynolds Nabisco, Inc., doing business as RJR Nabisco, was an American conglomerate, selling tobacco and food products, headquartered in the Calyon Building in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. R. J. Reynolds Nabisco stopped ...

. Kraft General Foods acquired the Nabisco cold cereals from RJR Nabisco in 1993, and the cereal brands are now owned by

Post Holdings Post Holdings, Inc. is an American Fast-moving consumer goods, consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri with businesses operating in the center-of-the-store, refrigerated, foodservice, and food ingredient categ ...

. In 1999, Nabisco acquired Favorite Brands International. In 2000, Philip Morris Companies Inc. acquired Nabisco and merged it with

Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

in one of the largest mergers in the food industry. In 2011, Kraft Foods announced that it was splitting into a grocery company and a snack food company. Nabisco became part of the snack-food business, which took the name

. The first use of the name Nabisco was in a cracker brand produced by National Biscuit Company in 1901. The firm later introduced

, Nabisco Wafers, Anola Wafers, Barnum's Animal Crackers (1902), Cameos (1910), Lorna Doones (1912),

s (1912), and Famous Chocolate Wafers (1924, which would be discontinued in 2023). In 1924, the National Biscuit Company introduced a snack in a sealed packet called the Peanut Sandwich Packet. They soon added the Sorbetto Sandwich Packet. These allowed salesmen to sell to

soda fountain A soda fountain is a device that dispenses carbonated soft drinks, called fountain drinks. They can be found in restaurants, concession stands and other locations such as convenience stores. The machine combines flavored syrup or syrup concentrat ...

s, road stands,

milk bar A milk bar is an establishment that primarily sells dairy-based foods and beverages, often at affordable prices, and typically provides seating for customers. Their specific form and offerings can vary significantly by country. History The ...

s, lunch rooms, and news stands. Sales increased, and the company started to use the name NAB in 1928. The term Nabs today is used to generically mean any type of snack crackers, most commonly in the southern US. As of July 16, 2021, parent company Mondelēz International made the decision to close the Fair Lawn plant after 63 years forcing the majority of the 600 employees to move on and/or retire, accept jobs with other businesses or transfer within the company. In August 2021, over 1,000 workers at several bakeries and distribution centers throughout the United States, organized under the

Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' International Union The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) is a trade union, labor union in the United States and Canada primarily representing workers in the food processing industry. The union was established in 188 ...

, went on strike over disagreements regarding a new labor contract with Nabisco.

Mergers and acquisitions

Acquisitions

The National Biscuit Company acquired the Shredded Wheat Company, maker of Triscuit and Shredded Wheat

cereal A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...

, and Christie, Brown & Company of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in 1928, but all of the Nabisco cookie and cracker products in Canada still use the name Christie. It also acquired F.H. Bennett Company, maker of Milk-Bone dog biscuits, in 1931. In 1971, Nabisco bought J. B. Williams Co., a privately owned pharmaceuticals manufacturer. Williams continued to operate as a separate

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

. Nabisco sold Williams to

Beecham Group The Beecham Group plc was a British pharmaceutical company. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Founded by Thomas Beecham who opened the first factory in St Helens, Lancashire in 1859, Beecham focused on marketing the business b ...

in 1982 after nearly a decade of slumping sales. In 1981, Nabisco merged with Standard Brands, maker of Planters Nuts, Baby Ruth and

Butterfinger Butterfinger is a chocolate bar, candy bar manufactured by the Ferrara Candy Company, a subsidiary of Ferrero SpA, Ferrero. It is manufactured internationally by Nestlé. It consists of a layered crisp peanut butter core covered in a "chocolate ...

candy bars, Royal gelatin, Fleischmann's and Blue Bonnet margarines, amongst others. The company was then renamed Nabisco Brands, Inc. At that time, it also acquired the

Life Savers Life Savers (stylized as LifeSavers) is an American brand of ring-shaped hard and soft candy. Its range of mints and fruit-flavored candies is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in paper-wrapped aluminum foil rolls. Candy manufacturer ...

brand from the E.R. Squibb Company, makers of Bubble Yum & Care-free gum. Commercials were revised as a result of the merger by January 1983.

R. J. Reynolds merger

In 1985, Nabisco was bought by R.J. Reynolds, forming "RJR Nabisco". After three years of mixed results, the company became one of the hotspots in the 1980s

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is the acquisition of a company using a significant proportion of borrowed money (Leverage (finance), leverage) to fund the acquisition with the remainder of the purchase price funded with private equity. The assets of t ...

mania. The company was in auction with two bidders: F. Ross Johnson, the company's president and CEO, and

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global private-equity and investment company. , the firm had completed private-equity investments in portfolio companies with approximately $710 billion of total ...

, a private equity partnership. The company was sold to KKR in what was then the biggest leveraged buyout in history, described in the book '' Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco'', and a subsequent

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

Subsequent acquisitions and divestitures

In 1989, RJR Nabisco Inc. sold its Chun King foods division to Yeo Hiap Seng Limited and Fullerton Holdings Pte. Ltd for $52 million to reduce its debt from its $24.5 billion buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. In December 1989, RJR Nabisco sold its Del Monte canned fruits and vegetables business in South America to Polly Peck International PLC. One year later, in 1990 RJR Nabisco sold Curtiss Candy, which owned the Baby Ruth and Butterfinger brands, to

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

. RJR also sold LU, Belin and other European biscuit brands to

Groupe Danone Danone S.A. () is a French multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in 1919 in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris, where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of the company's produ ...

, only reunited in 2007 after Nabisco's present parent,

, bought Danone's biscuit operations for €5.3 billion. In 1994, RJR sold its breakfast cereal business (primarily the Shredded Wheat franchise) to Kraft Foods Inc. and the international licenses to

General Mills General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...

, which later became part of the

Cereal Partners Worldwide 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 (excep ...

joint venture with Nestlé. Also in 1994, RJR acquired Rose Knox's Knox gelatin and integrated the Shredded wheat franchise into the

Post Foods Post Consumer Brands, LLC (previously Post Cereals and Postum Cereals; also known simply as Post) is an American consumer packaged goods food manufacturer headquartered in Lakeville, Minnesota. The company, founded in 1895 by C. W. Post, own ...

portfolio. Post continues to sell the product today. In 1995, Nestlé agreed to buy the Ortega Mexican foods business from Nabisco Inc. That same year, RJR-Nabisco also acquired the North American margarine and table spreads business of Kraft foods. This purchase included Parkay, Touch of Butter and Chiffon. In 1998, Nabisco Holdings announced its sale of its margarine and egg substitute business to

ConAgra Conagra Brands, Inc. (formerly ConAgra Foods) is an American consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Conagra makes and sells products under various brand names that are available in supermarkets, restaurants, ...

. In 1997, the brands of Fleishmann's, Blue Bonnet and Parkay had sales of $480 million. It also sold its College Inn broth brand to HJ Heinz and its Venezuelan Del Monte operations to Del Monte Foods. In 1999, RJR Nabisco's food and tobacco empire fell apart when they sold its international tobacco division to Japan Tobacco for $7.8 billion. In 2000 Nabisco Holdings together with several investors (as Finalrealm) acquired

United Biscuits United Biscuits (UB) is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of McVitie's biscuits, Jacob's Cream Crackers, and Twiglets. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In ...

, As part of the transaction, United Biscuits acquired Nabisco's European businesses and divested Far East (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) business to Nabisco. Nabisco became a leading shareholder in United Biscuits (the position that inherited by Kraft Foods until 2006). The

Altria Group Altria Group, Inc. (previously known as Philip Morris Companies, Inc. until 2003) is an American corporation and one of the world's largest producers and marketers of tobacco, cigarettes, and medical products in the treatment of illnesses c ...

(formerly Philip Morris) acquired Nabisco (sans Bubble Yum which was sold to

Hershey Hershey may refer to: People * Hershey (name), a list of people with the surname, given name or nickname Places * Hershey, Nebraska, a village * Hershey, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community, home to the chocolate company * Hershey, Cuba ...

) in 2000 for about $19.2 billion. Philip Morris then combined Nabisco with Kraft. That acquisition was approved by the Federal Trade Commission subject to the divestiture of products in five areas: three Jell-O and Royal brands types of products (dry-mix gelatin dessert, dry-mix pudding, no-bake desserts), intense mints (such as Altoids), and baking powder. Kraft Foods, at the time also a subsidiary of Altria, merged with Nabisco. In 2006, Nabisco sold its Milk-Bone pet snacks to Del Monte Foods Co. for $580 million. Altria spun-off Kraft Food along with its Nabisco subsidiary in 2007. In January 2007, Kraft sold Cream of Wheat to

B&G Foods B&G Foods, Inc. is an American branded foods holding company based in Parsippany, New Jersey. The company was formed in 1996 to acquire Bloch & Guggenheimer, a Manhattan-based producer of pickles, relish and condiments which had been founded in 1 ...

Legal battles

In 1997, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus became concerned with an

ad campaign An advertising campaign or marketing campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ide ...

for Planters Deluxe Mixed Nuts. The initial

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

featured a man and monkey deserted on an island. They discover a crate of Planters peanuts and rejoice in the peanuts' positive health facts. Nabisco made a detailed statement describing how their peanuts were healthier than most other snack products, going as far as comparing the nutritional facts of Planters peanuts to those of

potato chips Potato chips (North American English and Australian English; often just chip) or crisp (British English and Hiberno-English) are thin slices of potato (or a thin deposit of potato paste) that has been deep frying, deep fried, baking, baked, ...

Cheddar cheese Cheddar cheese (or simply cheddar) is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white (or orange if colourings such as annatto are added), and sometimes sharp-tasting. It originates from the English village of Cheddar, Somerset, Cheddar in ...

chips, and

popcorn Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns, or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated. The term also refers to the snack food produced by the expansion. It is one of the oldest snacks, with evidence of p ...

. Technically, the commercials complied with United States

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

regulations, and they were allowed to continue. However, as requested by the

National Advertising Division The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is an American private, 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization founded in 1912. BBB's self-described mission is to focus on advancing marketplace trust, consisting of 92 independently incorporated local BBB organizati ...

, Nabisco agreed to make fat content disclosure more conspicuous in future commercials. The company's A1 Steak Sauce was the subject of a suit filed against Arnie Kaye in US District Court on March 13, 1990. Kaye's delicatessen used a homemade sauce called "A2 Sauce," sold in both the International Deli and Stew Leonard's supermarkets in

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Located in the Gold Coast (Connecticut), Gold Coast along the Long Island Sound, it is northeast of New York City and is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connec ...

. Summary judgement was rendered on March 18, 1991, by Judge Eginton who found in favor of Nabsico and ordered that they were entitled to recoup all profits from the sale of "A.2." sauce as well as attorney's fees.

Brands and products

* 100 Calorie Packs * Arrowroot * Bacon Dippers *

* Better Cheddars * Cameo * Captain's Table * Cheese Nips * Chips Ahoy! * Chicken in a Biskit * Chocolate Wafers (discontinued in 2023) * Club Social * Corn Diggers * (Canada) * Dad's Cookie (c.1929 Canada) * Dizzy Grizzlies * Doo Dads * Frollini de Oro Saiwa * Fudgee-O Cookies (Canada) * Giggles * Good Thins * HeyDay Cookie Bars * Honey Maid * Hony Bran * In A Biskit * Kool Stuf toaster pastry * Kraker Bran * Lorna Doone * Mallomars chocolate marshmallow * Mister Salty Pretzels * Nabisco Classics *

Newtons The newton (symbol: N) is the unit of force in the International System of Units (SI). Expressed in terms of SI base units, it is 1 kg⋅m/s2, the force that accelerates a mass of one kilogram at one metre per second squared. The unit i ...

Nilla Nilla Wafers are a wafer-style cookies made by Nabisco, a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International. The name is a shortened version of ''vanilla'', the flavor profile common to all Nilla-branded products in previous years. Orig ...

* Nutter Butter * Orchard Crisps *

** List of Oreo varieties * Oro Saiwa * Pecanz * Pirate * Potato Chipsters * Premium Plus * Premium Saltines * Ritz Crackers * Rice Thins * Royal gelatin dessert * Royal Lunch * Sea Rounds * Shredded wheat * Social Tea * Sportz * Stoned Wheat Thins - discontinued * Sugar Rings * Team Flakes * Teddy Grahams * Thinsations * Toasted Chips * Toastettes * Triscuit * Twigs * Uneeda Biscuit * Urra Saiwa * Wheat Squares *

* Zu Zu Ginger Snaps *

Zwieback Zwieback () is a form of rusk eaten in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Scandinavia, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey. It is a ...

Toast

Corporate image

Nabisco's trademark is a diagonal ellipse with a series of antenna-like lines protruding from the top ("Orb and Cross" or

Globus cruciger The for, la, globus cruciger, cross-bearing orb, also known as ''stavroforos sphaira'' () or "the orb and cross", is an Sphere, orb surmounted by a Christian cross, cross. It has been a Christian Church, Christian symbol of authority since the M ...

). It forms the base of its logo and can be seen imprinted on Oreo cookies, in addition to Nabisco product boxes and literature. The trademark is derived from a medieval Venetian printer's mark that represented "the triumph of the moral and spiritual over the evil and the material". The current update of the familiar Nabisco trademark was designed by American typographer and graphic designer Gerard Huerta, who has created many famous logos for corporate identity and branding as well as the movie and music industries, such as

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

's."Artist Talk with Legendary Designer Gerard Huerta"
''Stamford Museum''. May 5, 2019.

Sponsorship

From 2002 to 2005, Nabisco and Kraft jointly sponsored both

Dale Earnhardt Ralph Dale Earnhardt (; April 29, 1951February 18, 2001) was an American professional Stock car racing, stock car driver and racing team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Serie ...

, Inc., and

Roush Racing Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, doing business as RFK Racing, is an American professional stock car organization that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. One of NASCAR's largest racing teams in the 2000s and early 2010s, Roush formerly ...

. Earnhardt Jr. won four races in a row at

Daytona International Speedway Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, about north of Orlando, Florida, Orlando. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race ...

with Nabisco sponsorship. Kraft and Nabisco sponsored a part-time Sprint Cup effort in car #81 driven by Jason Keller and John Andretti and fielded by Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Nabisco also sponsored

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. (born October 10, 1974) is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and broadcaster. A third-generation driver, he is the son of the late 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt and relative ...

in the 2010 Subway Jalapeño 250 at

in July 2010 with their Oreo/Ritz brands and

Tony Stewart Anthony Wayne Stewart (born May 20, 1971), nicknamed "Smoke", is an American semi-retired professional auto racing driver, and former NASCAR team co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing. He currently competes in the NHRA Top Fuel class. He is a four-t ...

with the Ritz brand in the 2010 DRIVE4COPD 300 at

in 2010.

References

Notes

External links

* (Snack Worlds.com)
FTC summary of competitive concerns
about the 2000 acquisition of Nabisco
Historic Nabisco factory in Detroit
{{Authority control Mondelez International Snack food manufacturers of the United States Food and drink companies established in 1898 American companies established in 1898 1898 establishments in New Jersey Companies based in Morris County, New Jersey Mondelez International brands Food manufacturers of the United States Multinational food companies East Hanover Township, New Jersey 1985 mergers and acquisitions 2000 mergers and acquisitions