Shreddies
Encyclopedia
Breakfast cereal
A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...
sold in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
produced by Post Cereals
Post Cereals
Post Foods, LLC, also known as Post Cereals is a food company that was founded by C.W. Post in 1895 with the first Postum, a "cereal beverage," developed by Post in Battle Creek, Michigan. The first cereal, Grape-Nuts, was developed in 1897. Post has its headquarters in the Bank of America Plaza...
and General Mills
General Mills
General Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...
, consisting of malted squares of inter-woven whole grain
Whole grain
Whole grains are cereal grains that contain cereal germ, endosperm, and bran, in contrast to refined grains, which retain only the endosperm. Whole grains can generally be sprouted while refined grains generally will not sprout. Whole-meal products are made by grinding whole grains in order to make...
wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
.
Shreddies has been made in the UK since 1955. It was produced under the Nabisco
Nabisco
Nabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...
name until the brand in Canada was purchased in 1993 by Post Cereals whose parent company in 1995 became Kraft General Foods
Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...
which sold Post to Ralcorp
Ralcorp
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...
in 2008 and is now Post Foods Canada Corp.
Manufacture
In the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the cereal was first produced by Nabisco's former UK division but is now made by Cereal Partners
Cereal Partners Worldwide
Cereal Partners Worldwide S.A. is a joint venture between General Mills and Nestlé, established in 1991 to produce breakfast cereals. The company is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, and markets cereals in more than 130 countries Cereal Partners Worldwide S.A. is a joint venture between...
under the Nestlé
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...
brand at Welwyn Garden City
Welwyn Garden City
-Economy:Ever since its inception as garden city, Welwyn Garden City has attracted a strong commercial base with several designated employment areas. Among the companies trading in the town are:*Air Link Systems*Baxter*British Lead Mills*Carl Zeiss...
. The factory opened in 1926. It began making Shreddies in 1950. The site was briefly owned by Rank Hovis McDougall in 1988, who sold it to Cereal Partners in 1990. Nestlé's site at Staverton
Staverton, Wiltshire
Staverton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire.Staverton is near the confluence of the River Avon and the River Biss and is on the south bank of the former; to the south of the village is the Kennet and Avon Canal and a marina serves the canal communities. Staverton is...
started making Shreddies in 1998, and is where all production was moved to in 2007.
The wheat for the cereal comes from over 500 different farms in four counties in the UK.
The cereal is one of a number of whole-grain cereals marketed with the whole grain symbol, as part of a marketing campaign emphasising the healthiness of the cereal. It began manufacture in Canada in 1939 at Lewis Avenue, Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls
The Niagara Falls, located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls, which combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world and has...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
.
Sugared and chocolate-flavoured versions of the cereal are available in the UK as Frosted Shreddies and Coco Shreddies (chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
), and a honey-flavoured version has also become available recently. The former advertising slogan in the UK was: Keeps hunger locked up until lunch. The advertising slogan for the Frosted and Coco Shreddies was: Too tasty for geeks.
Canada
- In Canada the cereal has been known for many years by its musical jingleJingleA jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
, "Good Good Whole-Wheat Shreddies". The mascots of the cereal in Canada were Freddie and Eddie, two anthropomorphic (yet legless) pieces of the cereal. Around 1993, their appearance changed to that of a younger youthful age complete with baseball capBaseball capA baseball cap is a type of soft cap with a rounded stiff brim. The front of the cap typically contains designs or logos of sports teams ,...
s and they also grew hair and legs. By the late 1990s, the characters were discontinued in all advertising and packaging. The cereal is now marketed as an "adult" cereal.
- In January 2008, the company started a new ad campaign for new "Diamond Shreddies", Consumer reaction to the campaign has translated into a statistically significant sales increase, according to at least one media report on the campaign's success. The campaign won the 2008 Grand Clio Award for Integrated (i.e. multiple media) Campaign.
United Kingdom
- For many years in the UK the Shreddies boxes featured Tom and Jerry (from the MGM cartoons). They regularly featured gifts in the boxes featuring Tom and Jerry, such as glow in the dark stickers sets, and puzzle books.
- It recently had a TV advert removed by the ASAAdvertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)The Advertising Standards Authority is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instances...
as it provided an unfair comparison between school children eating Shreddies or eating nothing, rather than a similar cereal.
- For a few years, Shreddies' advert campaigns featured a cartoon personification of "Hunger" as an antagonist. He appeared as a blue monster with big teeth whose goal it was to taunt hungry individuals by drumming on their stomachs with a pair of silver spoons. Hunger would then be dispatched when the victim consumed a bowl of shreddies, sealing hunger inside a shreddie cage. Despite his troublesome persona, hunger was frequently used as a mascot for the cereal during this period.
- Shreddies' most recent campaign is a claim that they are "knitted by nanas" with shots of a factory full of grandmothers knitting Shreddies. The boxes have also been changed to include a photo on the inner flaps, of the nana who apparently knitted the specific box. The Nana is believed to be wife of popular document developer, Gerald Davis.