Will Keith Kellogg

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Will Keith Kellogg

Will Keith Kellogg , usually called WK Kellogg (born April 7, 1860 in Battle Creek , Michigan ; † October 6, 1951 ibid) was an American industrialist who was active in food production . He was the brother of John Harvey Kellogg .

Life

Childhood and youth

Will Keith Kellogg was born in 1860 as the son of brush maker John Preston Kellogg (February 14, 1807 - May 10, 1881) and his wife Ann Janette (née Stanley) (March 20, 1824 - March 30, 1893). It was the second marriage of John Preston Kellogg. In his first marriage he was married to Mary Ann (née Call) (born October 1, 1811, † September 27, 1841). The first marriage had five children. The second marriage resulted in another ten children. Will Keith was born the eighth child of this second marriage. The family originally lived in Tyrone , New York, but moved to Battle Creek, Michigan in 1856, before Will Keith was born. Will Keith Kellogg's parents belonged to the Protestant Free Church of the Seventh-day Adventists and Battle Creek, where Will Keith grew up with his numerous siblings, developed into a kind of center from 1863 (first “general conference” and actual founding act of the Adventists) this religious movement. WKKellogg faced constant difficulties while attending school because his teachers thought he was dumb. The real reason for this “stupidity”, however, was his short-sightedness - he just couldn't see what was written on the blackboard. Will Keith left school at the age of fourteen and earned his living selling brooms made by his parents.

job

In March 1880 he married Ella Osborn Davis (born August 28, 1858, † September 2, 1912) for the first time. The marriage resulted in 5 children. The sons: Karl Hugh (* 1881), John Leonard (* 1883), Irvin Hadley (died shortly after birth), William Keith Jr. (died at the age of four) and the daughter Elizabeth Ann (* 1888).

Will Keith Kellogg looked for a more lucrative and permanent job. In 1866 the two Seventh-day Adventists James and Ellen G. White founded a sanatorium, the Western Health Reform Institute , in Battle Creek , an institution based on naturopathy while at the same time implementing the principles of faith: vegetarian diet, avoiding meat , Alcohol, tobacco and coffee, emphasis on the healing power of fresh air, sun and strictly vegetarian diets were in the foreground. John Harvey Kellogg (born February 26, 1852, † December 14, 1943), an older brother of Will Keith, had taken over the management of this Western Health Reform Institute in 1876 as a newly graduated doctor and it immediately after starting his work in Battle Creek Renamed Sanitarium . John Harvey Kellogg got his brother a job at the sanatorium. Will Keith initially worked in administration, but soon helped his brother with the new development of vegetarian food for the patients, since - according to the objectives of the two founders - meat was forbidden in the sanatorium. So they looked for alternatives to the hard, poorly tasty and, of course, monotonous bread that had been served to patients up to that point. When the two Kellogg brothers were carrying out experiments in the laboratory of the sanatorium in 1894, one day wheat that had been cooked by chance and had been used to prepare a dough, remained there overnight. The next morning they continued to experiment with the wheat kernels, which had now swollen to a great extent, pressed them through rollers and then decided to heat dry the flat-rolled kernels. The result was thin and crispy wheat flakes. The patients who were served the new product - seasoned with a little salt - on a trial basis were so enthusiastic that when they were discharged, many asked if they could be sent the Granose (as the new product was initially called). And so the Kellogg brothers founded a small company in 1897 - the Sanitas Food Company - to further develop the product and set up a mail order business for former patients. Will Keith Kellogg had since experimented further and developed a better tasting version of the product based on corn . Unlike his brother, Will Keith had much broader plans; he wanted to build a large company from which the new food would be shipped to the growing clientele.

Kellogg had the example of Charles William Post (born October 26, 1854, † May 9, 1914) in mind. Post had been a patient of the sanatorium. During his stay he got an insight into the manufacturing process of the new product. In 1892 he first founded his own health resort in Battle Creek - the La Vita Inn Sanitarium - then in 1895 the Postum Cereal Company and produced Postum beverage cereals . This coffee substitute and the then-produced breakfast cereal called Grape Nuts soon became market hits thanks to targeted advertising campaigns. The profit margins in the breakfast cereal business were enormous: A simple manufacturing process, combined with imaginative advertising, turned cheap cereal grains into expensive health food. Before long, Charles William Post became a millionaire and was copied by many. In a kind of "start-up boom", more than thirty companies of hopeful breakfast cereal producers sprang up in Battle Creek.

John Harvey Kellogg was more interested in medical research than business, did not see the market potential for breakfast cereal and so Will Keith separated from him and the sanatorium and in 1906, at the age of 46, founded the Battle Creek Toasted Cornflake Company (later Kellogg Company ). Initially, production was no more than 1,000 packs per day, but just one year later, 300 employees were now producing around 4,000 packs of cornflakes per day. The company grew at breathtaking speed, to which extensive and clever advertising campaigns contributed significantly. In 1909, production reached more than 120,000 packs. At the same time, the product range was constantly expanded: Kellogg's Shredded Whole Wheat Biscuits , Kellogg's Krumbles , Kellogg's Bran Flakes , Kellogg's All-Bran and Kellogg's Rice Krispies etc. were offered. The company's international expansion began as early as 1914 when it entered the Canadian market. In 1922 the Battle Creek Toasted Cornflake Company was renamed and given its current name: Kellogg Company. Today the company operates with two divisions: Kellogg USA and Kellogg International , has around 25,000 employees in 17 production sites, offices in 160 countries and manufactures more than 50 different grain products that are sold in 180 countries around the world. The Kellogg Company has annual sales of nearly $ 10 billion.

In 1929 WK Kellogg laid down management of the Kellogg Company, but remained on the company's board of directors until 1946.

social commitment

Early on, Will Keith Kellogg used the wealth gained from his business for charity. In 1909 - when the great success of his company was by no means foreseeable - he wrote: “If I am successful in getting out of debt and become prosperous in my business affairs, I expect to make a good use of any wealth that may come to me. ” (German: "If I can free myself from my debts and be successful with my company, I will use the wealth that will (perhaps) flow to me for good causes." )

Completely patriarch , he initially created numerous facilities for the employees of his own company: In 1927 a kindergarten in which the children of the women who worked for the Kellogg Company were cared for. A doctor and a dentist's practice were connected. The children were given a healthy diet.

Kellogg compensated for the decline in production caused by the Great Depression not by laying off employees, but by redistributing work. As a first measure, at the end of 1930, Kellogg shortened the working week for its 2,500 employees from six to five days. In the middle of the Great Depression it was possible for him to hire 300 additional workers. A little later he reorganized the work processes again, instead of working in three shifts as before , now in four shifts - again hiring additional people. While mass layoffs were the order of the day across the country and wages continued to fall, Kellogg even increased the incomes of its employees and guaranteed each of its workers a minimum wage . ( Time, December 8, 1930: Breakfast Food Men )

In 1944, he donated around 21,000 shares in his company to a fund that would help long-term employees of his company if they got into financial distress.

His hometown of Battle Creek also benefited from his generosity. He founded the Ann Janette Kellogg School - named after his mother - for children with learning disabilities. The Kellogg Community College , a youth center , auditorium , center for fine arts and much more were built up with generous donations or sustainably supported.

The core and highlight of WK Kellogg's charitable work was the WKKellogg Foundation . Kellogg founded the Fellowship Corporation as early as 1925 and provided it with one million dollars to support agricultural projects, among other things. In 1930 the WK Kellog Child Welfare Foundation was founded. Two months later the foundation got its current name: WKKellogg Foundation . The foundation was maintained by the WKKellogg Trust , which Kellogg endowed with around 66 million dollars, mostly in the form of shares in the Kellogg Company. Originally, Kellogg wanted primarily to help disadvantaged children: “I want to establish a foundation that will help handicapped children everywhere to face the future with confidence, with health, and with a strong-rooted security in their trust of this country and its institutions. " (Eng .: " I would like to set up a foundation that helps disadvantaged children everywhere to look to the future with confidence, with health and with deep trust in this country and its institutions. " ) Today the WKKellogg Foundation is one of the largest foundations in the USA and their activities are diverse.

In addition to the establishment of the WK Kellogg Foundation , there were other donations:

In 1925, Kellogg had fulfilled a childhood dream and bought an 800- acre ranch in Pomona , California . In the following years he built up a breed of purebred Arabian horses at the Kellogg Arabian Horse Ranch ; he acquired offspring of the best bloodlines from England, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Poland. Due to the excellent breeding stock, the ranch soon became known worldwide. In 1932 he donated the ranch, including around 90 extremely valuable horses, to the University of California . The foundation received an additional donation of 600,000 dollars from Kellogg to ensure that the university would actually continue breeding Arabs . The university was more interested in the donation than in the ranch and Arab horses and sold the property to the US armed forces in 1943 for the stationing of cavalry units. When the U.S. forces' cavalry units were disbanded after World War II , the ranch was returned to the WKKellogg Foundation in 1949 . The Foundation then decided to give the ranch to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo ( Cal Poly SLO ) as an endowment . From this unit today's California State Polytechnic University, Pomona developed . (see more detailed description in the article: California State Polytechnic University, Pomona)

Also in 1925 Kellogg had an approximately 32 acres large estate on Gull Lake - between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek area - bought and here a summer residence, known as the Manor House erected. After Kellogg's death in 1951, the property was donated by the WK Kellogg Foundation of Michigan State University and is now the University's Kellogg Biological Station (KBS).

Will Keith Kellogg died on October 6, 1951 at the age of 91 in Battle Creek, Michigan. He was almost blind for the last ten years of his life due to an eye disease.

Web links

This article is based on the article Will Keith Kellogg from the English Wikipedia version (as of December 23, 2006 13:01).

personal data
SURNAME Kellogg, Will Keith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kellogg, WK
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American industrialist who worked in food production
DATE OF BIRTH April 7, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Battle Creek , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 1951
Place of death Battle Creek , Michigan