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Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International.
Nabisco's plant in Chicago is the largest bakery in the world, employing more than 1,200 workers and producing around of snack foods annually. Its products include Chips Ahoy!, Belvita, Oreo cookies, Ritz Crackers, Teddy Grahams, Triscuit crackers, Fig Newtons, and Wheat Thins for the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Bolivia, Venezuela, and other parts of South America.
All Nabisco cookie or cracker products are branded Christie in Canada, after Canadian baker William Mellis Christie. Christie's flagship bakery in Toronto was demolished after Mondelēz shut it down in 2013. Nabisco opened corporate offices as the National Biscuit Company in the Home Insurance Building in the Chicago Loop in 1898, the world's first skyscraper.
Nabisco celebrated its golden anniversary in 1948, and Nabisco had become the corporate name by 1971. In 1981, Nabisco merged with Standard Brands to form "Nabisco Brands", which merged with R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 1985 to form RJR Nabisco. Kraft General Foods acquired the Nabisco cold cereals from RJR Nabisco in 1993, and the cereal brands are now owned by Post Holdings. In 1999, Nabisco acquired Favorite Brands International. In 2000, Philip Morris Companies Inc. acquired Nabisco and merged it with Kraft Foods in one of the largest mergers in the food industry. In 2011, Kraft Foods announced that it was splitting into a grocery company and a snack food company. Nabisco became part of the snack-food business, which took the name Mondelēz International.
The first use of the name Nabisco was in a cracker brand produced by National Biscuit Company in 1901. The firm later introduced Fig Newtons, Nabisco Wafers, Anola Wafers, Barnum's Animal cracker (1902), Cameos (1910), Lorna Doones (1912), (1912), and Famous Chocolate Wafers (1924, which would be discontinued in 2023).
In 1924, the National Biscuit Company introduced a snack in a sealed packet called the Peanut Sandwich Packet. They soon added the Sorbetto Sandwich Packet. These allowed salesmen to sell to Soda shop, road stands, , , and news stands. Sales increased, and the company started to use the name NAB in 1928. The term Nabs today is used to generically mean any type of snack crackers, most commonly in the southern US.
As of July 16, 2021, parent company Mondelēz International made the decision to close the Fair Lawn plant after 63 years forcing the majority of the 600 employees to move on and/or retire, accept jobs with other businesses or transfer within the company.
In August 2021, over 1,000 workers at several bakeries and distribution centers throughout the United States, organized under the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' International Union, went on strike over disagreements regarding a new labor contract with Nabisco.
In 1971, Nabisco bought J. B. Williams Co., a privately owned pharmaceuticals manufacturer. Williams continued to operate as a separate subsidiary. Nabisco sold Williams to Beecham Group in 1982 after nearly a decade of slumping sales.
In 1981, Nabisco merged with Standard Brands, maker of Planters Nuts, Baby Ruth and Butterfinger candy bars, Royal gelatin, Fleischmann's and Blue Bonnet margarines, amongst others. The company was then renamed Nabisco Brands, Inc. At that time, it also acquired the Life Savers brand from the E.R. Squibb Company, makers of Bubble Yum & Care-free gum. Commercials were revised as a result of the merger by January 1983.
The company was sold to KKR in what was then the biggest leveraged buyout in history, described in the book , and a subsequent film.
In December 1989, RJR Nabisco sold its Del Monte canned fruits and vegetables business in South America to Polly Peck. One year later, in 1990 RJR Nabisco sold Curtiss Candy, which owned the Baby Ruth and Butterfinger brands, to Nestlé. RJR also sold LU, Belin and other European biscuit brands to Danone, only reunited in 2007 after Nabisco's present parent, Kraft Foods, bought Danone's biscuit operations for €5.3 billion.
In 1994, RJR sold its breakfast cereal business (primarily the Shredded Wheat franchise) to Kraft Foods Inc. and the international licenses to General Mills, which later became part of the Cereal Partners Worldwide joint venture with Nestlé.
Also in 1994, RJR acquired Rose Knox's Knox gelatin and integrated the Shredded wheat franchise into the Post Foods portfolio. Post continues to sell the product today.
In 1995, Nestlé agreed to buy the Ortega Mexican foods business from Nabisco Inc. That same year, RJR-Nabisco also acquired the North American margarine and table spreads business of Kraft foods. This purchase included Parkay, Touch of Butter and Chiffon.
In 1998, Nabisco Holdings announced its sale of its margarine and egg substitute business to Conagra Brands. In 1997, the brands of Fleishmann's, Blue Bonnet and Parkay had sales of $480 million. It also sold its College Inn broth brand to HJ Heinz and its Venezuelan Del Monte operations to Del Monte Foods.
In 1999, RJR Nabisco's food and tobacco empire fell apart when they sold its international tobacco division to Japan Tobacco for $7.8 billion.
In 2000 Nabisco Holdings together with several investors (as Finalrealm) acquired United Biscuits, As part of the transaction, United Biscuits acquired Nabisco's European businesses and divested Far East (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) business to Nabisco. Nabisco became a leading shareholder in United Biscuits (the position that inherited by Kraft Foods until 2006). Nabisco then sold its gum and mint business to Hershey Foods Corp. in November of this year.
The Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris) acquired Nabisco (sans Bubble Yum which was sold to Hershey) in 2000 for about $19.2 billion. Philip Morris then combined Nabisco with Kraft. That acquisition was approved by the Federal Trade Commission subject to the divestiture of products in five areas: three Jell-O and Royal brands types of products (dry-mix gelatin dessert, dry-mix pudding, no-bake desserts), intense mints (such as Altoids), and baking powder. Kraft Foods, at the time also a subsidiary of Altria, merged with Nabisco.
In 2006, Nabisco sold its Milk-Bone pet snacks to Del Monte Foods Co. for $580 million. Altria spun-off Kraft Food along with its Nabisco subsidiary in 2007. In January 2007, Kraft sold Cream of Wheat to B&G Foods.
Nabisco made a detailed statement describing how their peanuts were healthier than most other snack products, going as far as comparing the nutritional facts of Planters peanuts to those of potato chips, Cheddar cheese chips, and popcorn. Technically, the commercials complied with United States Food and Drug Administration regulations, and they were allowed to continue. However, as requested by the National Advertising Division, Nabisco agreed to make fat content disclosure more conspicuous in future commercials.
The company's A1 Steak Sauce was the subject of a suit filed against Arnie Kaye in US District Court on March 13, 1990. Kaye's delicatessen used a homemade sauce called "A2 Sauce," sold in both the International Deli and Stew Leonard's supermarkets in Westport, Connecticut. Summary judgement was rendered on March 18, 1991, by Judge Eginton who found in favor of Nabsico and ordered that they were entitled to recoup all profits from the sale of "A.2." sauce as well as attorney's fees.
The current update of the familiar Nabisco trademark was designed by American typographer and graphic designer Gerard Huerta, who has created many famous logos for corporate identity and branding as well as the movie and music industries, such as AC/DC's. "Artist Talk with Legendary Designer Gerard Huerta". Stamford Museum. May 5, 2019.
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