Donald B. Lourie Company

1181 Words3 Pages

Erika Watts
History 2010
Professor Elmore
16 November 2016
Corporate Report #2
Donald B. Lourie, the company's first outside manager, rose to CEO in 1953 and maintained the atmosphere of a family company with personal leadership but leaned on external support for its increasingly complex marketing decisions. Leading products in 1960 were Quaker Oats and Mother's Oats, Aunt Jemima Pancake Mixes, Quaker and Aunt Jemima Corn Meal and Grits. Quaker also had significant gains in pet food increasing volume in both Puss n' Boots Cat Food and Ken-L-Ration, leader in canned dog food, for the year. Products introduced to the market were Aunt Jemima Easy Mixes, Life, the ready to eat oat cereal, Flako Coffee Cake Mixes, Meat Flavor Puss'n Boots for …show more content…

Quaker Oats started the decade with profits around $13.2 million and ended the year with $21.3 million. The company expanded in the industry's fastest-growing fields: convenience foods, cereal, and pet food. In 1969, Robert D. Stuart, Jr., son of company co-founder Robert Douglas Stuart, became CEO. He motivated the company to move further into the young family market, in acquiring the Fisher-Price Toy Company in 1969, which was held for over two decades and grew significantly making up 25 percent of Quaker's total sales in 10 …show more content…

A second toy company, Louis Marx & Co., Inc. – leading manufacturer of children’s riding toys, games, and trains – was purchased in 1972 to complement Fisher Prices by offering different types of toys and games for children of a broader age group. A merger with Needle Craft Corporation of America was also completed in 1972, the yarn processing and art needlecraft business was acquired in efforts to connect with adults and older children through creative leisure time crafts. Magic Pan Restaurant, an American chain full-service crêperie which was purchased in 1969, expanded rapidly over the decade establishing 72 restaurants in the U.S. and 4 in Canada by 1978. The chemical division fell on some hard times and reported a net loss of $7 million when faced with the competition of a cheaper substitute for furfural. In efforts to expand its foreign market in grocery and pet foods, Quaker made several acquisitions of foreign companies in Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific, during the decade. Due to this global focus, new production suffered and from 1970 to 1978 only one new major product, 100 Percent Natural Cereal, was

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