LYCOS RETRIEVER 
General Mills: Cereals
built 274 days ago
What was unexpected to those involved in the talks is what didn’t 93happen: a straightforward purchase or licensing pact, or a deal under which General Mills could buy and use DuPont’s soy isolates. General Mills, for one, had swung plenty of such agreements, and one of them (an international cereal strategic alliance with NestlŽ) is hugely successful. From the start, though, the vision for 8th Continent was different. This would be a lasting relationship, with both sides contributing people and resources to their corporate child?$40 million for the first two-and-a-half years. And yet the child, quite on purpose, would be markedly different from its parents. 8th Continent would remain small.
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In September 1995 General Mills launched Frosted Cheerios, a sugar-frosted version of the company's flagship cereal. Frosted Cheerios went on to become one of the most successful new cereals in history, capturing 1.5 percent of the market in its first year. In addition to developing successful new products, General Mills ... returned to the acquisition arena, but in a core area rather than a new one. In January 1997 the company made its largest purchase in history when it spent $570 million for the branded ready-to-eat cereal and snack mix businesses of Ralcorp Holdings, Inc. The brands gained included Chex and Cookie Crisp cereals and Chex Mix snacks. General Mills thereby solidified its number two position in the U.S. ready-to-eat cereal market (behind Kellogg), increasing its share to about 26 percent. Meanwhile, to mark the 75th anniversary of Betty Crocker, a new portrait of the icon was created based on a computer composite.
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In the 1930s, a General Mills engineer, Thomas R. James, created the puffing gun, which created cereal pieces into puffed up shapes. This new technology was used in 1937 to create Kix cereal and in 1941 to create Cheerioats (known today as Cheerios).
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