Mother's Cookies

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"Mother's" redirects here. For the kosher food company, see Manischewitz.
Mother's Cookies
Industry Food (bakery)
Founded 1914 (1914)
Owner(s) Kellogg Company
Website www.motherscookies.com

Mother's Cookies is a brand that originally had a bakery based in Oakland, California, that operated from 1914 to 2008.[1][2] A sister company, Archway Cookies of Battle Creek, Michigan, was founded in 1936. Both Mother's Cookies and Archway declared bankruptcy in 2008.[3] At its height, the company distributed cookies throughout the United States, and was one of the leading cookie makers in the country.[4] The Kellogg Company acquired the Mother's Cookies trademark and recipes in December 2008 and brought the brand back to West Coast grocery store shelves on May 14, 2009.[5][6]

History

Mother's Cookies factory in Oakland, California in 2006
Mother's was founded in 1914 when Woodrow Wilson declared that Mother's Day would be a national holiday in the USA.[7] The founder was N.M. Wheatley, a newspaper vendor.[1] The company was sold to Artal NV, a Belgian company, then bought by Specialty Foods Corp., a conglomerate formed by the Bass Brothers.[8]

Archway was founded in 1936 by the Swansons, a husband-and-wife team who baked soft-batch cookies in their garage. The Swansons expanded their company nationwide in the 1940s, changing its name to Archway to avoid conflict with Swanson, a maker of frozen dinners. In 1962 the founders sold the company to their vice president, George Markham, who bought most of the franchises back over the next several years.[4] Markham in turn sold the company to two employees, who operated it from 1983 to 1998. The company was sold to Specialty Foods in 1998, reportedly for $100 million.[9][10] The transaction made Specialty Foods the third largest cookie maker in the United States[4][11] after Keebler and Nabisco.[12]

The two companies then went through a succession of owners. Specialty Foods sold Mother's and Archway to an Italian firm, Parmalat Finanziaria in 2000 for $250 million.[citation needed] As of 2002 Mother's was baking 17.5 million cookies per day.[13] Cookie sales began to decline after 2000 due to low-fat and low carb diet trends, although sales improved when the company introduced low fat cookies, and accounted for 10% of the United States cookie market as of late 2004.[11] Parmalat filed for bankruptcy[11] amidst a scandal involving illegal sale of corporate bonds. Parmalat in turn sold the companies to Catterton Partners, a private equity firm in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 2005,[1] The new operators closed the Oakland factory in 2006, laid off all 230 workers,[14] and moved baking operations to Ohio and Canada. The company suffered an accounting scandal in 2008[15] and in October 2008, the company became a victim of the financial crisis of 2007–2010 when the company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and laid off all of its workers.[1]

"Holiday" version of Mother's Circus Animal Cookies

Brand and product returns

In December, 2008, Lance Inc. bought the assets of Archway,[16] and soon reopened the former Archway factory in Ashland, Ohio.[17] Also, the same month Kelloggs was approved to buy the assets of Mother's Cookies with plans to return the products to the shelves in mid-2009. In May 2009, Mother's Cookies returned to store shelves, including Kellogg's launch of a website for the product.[18]

Products

Mother's is known for pink and white iced "Circus Animal Cookies", "Taffy Sandwich Cookies", "Peanut Butter Gauchos", and iced oatmeal raisin cookies.[19][20] Archway's most popular product was Ruth's Oatmeal Cookies, based on a recipe found by one of its franchisees at a county fair, which made up 40% of all sales.[4]

Promotions

The company included collectable baseball cards in their packs of cookies, featuring the Pacific Coast League.[21]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 George Raine (2008-10-09). "Mother's Cookies abruptly shut down". San Francisco Chronicle (Hearts). 
  2. ↑ "Mother's Cookies, O'Boisie Corporation sign distribution agreement". Business Wire (press release). 1996-05-13. 
  3. ↑ Mike Nolan (2008-10-09). "Operations Halted:Michigan company has distribution center in Mokena". Chicago Sun Times (Sun-Times). 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Archway Cookies, Inc.". Funding Universe. 
  5. ↑ Kellogg Company Acquiring Trademarks and Recipes of Mother's Cake & Cookie Co. Retrieved Dec 3, 2008
  6. ↑ Mother's Cookies After Kellogg's Purchase
  7. ↑ Linda Civitello (2007). Cuisine and Culture. p. 282. ISBN 978-0-471-74172-5 
  8. ↑ "Bass tied to buyout of food companies". Associated Press. 1993-07-28. 
  9. ↑ "Archway Cookies closing in Battle Creek". WOOD TV 8. 2008-10-03. 
  10. ↑ "Specialty Foods to Pay $100 Million for Two Companies". New York Times. 1998-10-15. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Robin Sidel (2003-12-31). "Appetite Is Growing For Parmalat's Archway Cookie Unit". Wall Street Journal. 
  12. ↑ Kevin McCoy (2004-01-13). "Parmalat's American workers uneasy, while investors are angry". USA Today. 
  13. ↑ Alec Rosenberg (2002-06-05). "Mother's Facelift: Cookie firm not crumbling in face of competition". Oakland Tribune. 
  14. ↑ Tom Abate (2006-04-04). "Oakland bakery abandoning area where it was born". San Francisco Chronicle. 
  15. ↑ New York Times
  16. ↑ Ginger Christ (2008-12-03). "Lance, Inc. approved to buy Archway Cookies, Kelloggs approved by the bankruptcy court to buy Mother's Cookies". Ashland Times-Gazette. 
  17. ↑ John King (2008-12-23). "Shuttered bakery reopens, rehires workers". CNN. 
  18. ↑ Mother's Cookies website
  19. ↑ David Morrill (2008-10-09). "Mother's Cookies closes down". Contra Costa Times. 
  20. ↑ Jane Irene Kelly (1998-03-09). "Mother's Cookies Gets Giddy With KB&P West". Adweek. 
  21. ↑ Gary Land (2004). Growing Up with Baseball. ISBN 978-0-8032-2975-4 

External links

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