Ralcorp

Ralcorp Holdings, Inc.

Type	Subsidiary of ConAgra Foods
Industry	Food production
Founded	1994 (1994) in St. Louis, Missouri (Spun off from Ralston Purina)
Headquarters	Bank of America Plaza St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Key people	Richard Koulouris (VP and President)
Products	Private brand foods sold under the individual labels of various grocery, mass merchandise and drugstore retailers, and frozen bakery products sold to in-store bakeries, restaurants and other foodservice customers.

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 Ralcorp makes are private label, store brand products. It has over 9,000 employees.^[1] Ralcorp has its headquarters in the Bank of America Plaza in downtown St. Louis.^[2]

History and description

1922 newspaper ad for Ralston Whole Wheat cereal.

Originally part of Ralston Purina, the Ralston name was more associated with food for humans; soda crackers and a farina cereal, among other products, were marketed under this name. Ralcorp can trace its ancestry to 1898 when William H. Danforth of Purina Mills, which made animal feeds, began making breakfast cereal. He sought and received the endorsement of Webster Edgerly (a.k.a. Dr. Ralston) who founded the Ralstonism social movement.^[3] Ralston cereal became so successful that Purina Mills was renamed Ralston Purina in 1902.^[4] Ralston Purina also for many years produced the familiar line of Chex and Cookie Crisp cold breakfast cereals. The animal and human food businesses were seemingly only tenuously related. In 1994, the human food business was spun off to Ralcorp Holdings, operating as Ralston Foods, which then sold its branded breakfast cereal lineup to General Mills and its Continental Baking division (Wonder Bread and Twinkies) to Interstate Bakeries. The Purina part of the company is now split. The pet food company was sold to Nestlé is now called Nestlé Purina PetCare. The livestock food company is called Purina Mills, LLC and is a unit of Land O'Lakes. Ralcorp manufactures many store brand foods that are sold in grocery outlets across the United States under the retailers' private labels. In late 2007, Ralcorp signed an agreement with Kraft Foods to acquire the Post Cereals brands, thus returning to the major branded cereal business. The acquisition was completed August 4, 2008.^[5] Another brand name product Ralcorp makes and markets is Ry-Krisp crisp bread.

Purchase by ConAgra

In 2011, Ralcorp received an offer for the company from ConAgra Foods. Ralcorp resisted the attempt. Ralcorp also announced it was spinning off its Post Foods unit.^[6] The spinoff was completed in 2012.^[7] On November 27, 2012, ConAgra officials announced they were purchasing Ralcorp, pending Ralcorp shareholder approval, for approximately $4.95 billion. Stockholders of Ralcorp Holdings Inc. would receive $90 per share. The acquisition was completed in January 2013.^[8] As a result, ConAgra is the largest private-label packaged food business in the United States.^[9]

Subsidiaries

• American Italian Pasta Company (acquired 2010)
• Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products
  • Bakery Chef (acquired 2003)^[10]
  • Cottage Bakery (acquired 2006)^[11]
  • Earl of Sandwich frozen breads^[12][13]
  • Krusteaz frozen products^[14] (acquired from Continental Mills in 1999 by Bakery Chef)^[15]
  • Lofthouse Foods (acquired 2002)^[16]
  • Panne Provincio
• Ralcorp Snacks, Sauces & Spreads
  • Bremner Food Group (acquired 1978)
  • Carriage House Companies (formed 2000)
• Ralston Foods
  • Bloomfield Bakers/Lovin Oven LLC (acquired 2009)

See also

• List of food companies

References

External links

• Ralcorp, official site
  • Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products
  • Ralston Foods