Dad Sure Would Have Been Proud

Dad spent most of his working life with Quaker Oats Company. As a matter of fact, that is how I ended up here in Illinois. He had been transferred to the home office located in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago back when I was about to start 6th grade, and I've been here ever since, except for a year in Georgia.

The May 29th Chicago Tribune (his favorite paper) Business section had an article titled "Quaker fills healthy role for PepsiCo. Unit vital in parent's effort to alter image" by John Schmeltzer.

Most people thought PepsiCo would quickly get rid of Quaker Oats when they bought it seven years ago, which they did mostly to acquire Gatorade. "The Chicago-based maker of oatmeal, breakfast cereals, and pasta is assuming the point position for PepsiCo's drive into the health and wellness food category."

This new role is expected to bring new growth to Quaker, whose biggest product continues to be oatmeal which it invented more than a century ago. Quaker provides only 5% of PepsoCo's revenue, but nearly 9% of its operating profit.

Quaker has evidently moved from the Merchandise Mart as the article goes on to say that there are 2000 employees at the 17-story West Loop office building and that number is up 800 from when the company was purchased. The building is dubbed the QTG Group for Quaker, Tropicana, and Gatorade. Tropicana moved there from Bradenton. Florida two years ago.

This year, more than half the products Quaker is introducing will carry the Smart Spot logo for health. All new products are being developed and tested in the Quaker/Gatorade research center in Barrington, Il.

This is where we got out Siamese cat, Sammie from back in the sixties. They had a lot of animals to test new food products.  Now that cat was quite the character. My scratched hands have finally healed.

Somewhere, Dad Must Be Smiling.  --RoadDog