Ralcorp Holdings is an American manufacturer of various food products, including

breakfast cereal Breakfast cereal is a category of food, including food products, made from food processing, processed cereal, cereal grains, that are eaten as part of breakfast or as a snack food, primarily in Western societies. Although warm, cooked cereals li ...

, cookies, crackers,

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

, snack foods,

mayonnaise Mayonnaise (), colloquially referred to as "mayo" (), is a thick, creamy sauce with a rich and tangy taste that is commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, Salad#Bound salads, bound salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various o ...

pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an Leavening agent, unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or Eggs as food, eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pasta was originally on ...

, and

peanut butter Peanut butter is a food Paste (food), paste or Spread (food), spread made from Grinding (abrasive cutting), ground, dry roasting, dry-roasted peanuts. It commonly contains additional ingredients that modify the taste or texture, such as salt, ...

. 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. Ralcorp has its headquarters in the Bank of America Plaza in downtown St. Louis.

History and description

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 (Dr. Ralston) who founded the Ralstonism

social movement A social movement is either a loosely or carefully organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a Social issue, social or Political movement, political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to re ...

. Ralston cereal became so successful that Purina Mills was renamed Ralston Purina in 1902. Ralston Purina also for many years produced the familiar line of Chex and Cookie Crisp cold

s. 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 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 ...

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 sold 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 ...

is now called Nestlé Purina PetCare. The livestock-feed company is called Purina Mills, LLC, and is a unit of

Land O'Lakes Land O'Lakes, Inc. is an American member-owned agricultural cooperative based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Arden Hills, Minnesota, United States, focusing on the dairy industry. The cooperative has 1,959 direct producer-members, 751 ...

. Ralcorp manufactures many store-brand foods that are sold in

grocery A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...

outlets across the United States under the retailers' private labels. In late 2007, Ralcorp signed an agreement 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 ...

to acquire the

Post Cereals 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 ...

brands, thus returning to the major-branded cereal business. The acquisition was completed August 4, 2008. 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 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, ...

. Ralcorp resisted the attempt. Ralcorp also announced it was spinning off its Post Foods unit. The spinoff was completed in 2012. On November 27, 2012, ConAgra officials announced they were purchasing Ralcorp, pending Ralcorp shareholder approval, for about $4.95 billion. Stockholders of Ralcorp Holdings Inc. would receive $90 per share. The acquisition was completed in January 2013. The acquisition made ConAgra the largest private-label packaged food business in the United States at that time.

Purchase by TreeHouse Foods, Inc

On February 1, 2016, TreeHouse Foods announced that it completed the acquisition of ConAgra Foods' private brands operations. "TreeHouse paid $2.7 billion in cash plus transaction expenses for the business and financed the transaction through the closing of its previously announced offerings of $775 million in aggregate principal senior notes due 2024 with a 6.0% annual interest rate and common stock issuance of 13.3 million shares at a price of $65 per share (which includes the exercise, in full, of the overallotment option), aggregating $862.5 million in gross proceeds. The remainder of the purchase price was financed under the Company's revolving credit facility." The rumor of the deal broke in October 2015. According to a FoodProcessing.com article from 10/23/2015:"TreeHouse Foods is rumored to be in advanced talks to purchase the Ralcorp business from ConAgra Foods in a deal valued at $2.5- to $2.7 billion, according to a report from ''Reuters''." This was a huge loss from the $5.1 Billion ConAgra paid for Ralcorp two years earlier.

Purchase by Post Holdings

On June 1, 2021,

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 ...

announced it acquired the ready-to-eat ("RTE") cereal business of TreeHouse Foods.

Subsidiaries

* American Italian Pasta Company (acquired 2010) * Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products ** Bakery Chef (acquired 2003) ** Cottage Bakery (acquired 2006) ** Earl of Sandwich frozen breads ** Krusteaz frozen products (acquired from Continental Mills in 1999 by Bakery Chef) ** Lofthouse Foods (acquired 2002) ** Panne Provincio * Ralcorp Snacks, Sauces and Spreads ** Bremner Food Group (acquired 1978) ** Carriage House Companies (formed 2000) * Ralston Foods ** Bloomfield Bakers/Lovin Oven LLC (acquired 2009)

References

External links

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Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products
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Ralston Foods
{{Post Holdings Food manufacturers of the United States Holding companies of the United States Ralston Purina Baking mixes Manufacturing companies based in St. Louis American companies established in 1994 Food and drink companies established in 1994 Holding companies established in 1994 1994 establishments in Missouri Conagra Brands brands Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange 2013 mergers and acquisitions 2016 mergers and acquisitions 2021 mergers and acquisitions Corporate spin-offs Post Holdings