Cold breakfast cereal first emerged in the late-1800s, and the industry has been steadily growing ever since, with profit margins hovering around 50%. Though sugary and often lacking in basic nutrients required for a healthy breakfast, the morning treat has caught on like wildfire, expanding from 160 options in 1970 to over double that number in 1998.
Today, the big players are Kellogg’s, General Mills, and Post, but this wasn’t always the case. In the early days of breakfast cereals there were other smaller brands that are all but forgotten today. And this is not to mention all the many cereal formulations retired by the big three manufacturers that are no longer on supermarket shelves, completely foreign to younger generations.