In 1889 William Moore united six eastern bakeries into the New York Biscuit Company. In 1890 Adolphus Green united forty midwestern bakeries under the name the American Biscuit & Manufacturing Company.
In 1898 Moore and Green together with John G. Zeller of Richmond Steam Bakery formed the National Biscuit Company.
This merger ended the cutthroat competition among the companies. The new entity dominated the cracker and cookie industry.
By the early 1940s, the company had 59 manufacturing facilities across the country producing some 200 products.
In 1971 the National Biscuit Company changed its name to Nabisco, Inc. In 1981 Ross Johnson of Standard Brands instrumental the merging of Nabisco with Standard Brands Incorporated to become Nabisco Brands, Inc.
In 1985 RJ Reynolds Industries, Inc., in an attempt to reduce its reliance on tobacco, acquired Nabisco brands, Inc. The acquisition created the largest consumer goods company in the United States.
A year later, in 1986, RJ Reynolds Industries Inc. changed its name to RJR Nabisco, Inc. and RJR’s Del Monte and Nabisco Brands operations were combined to form Nabisco Brands, Inc.
Philip Morris Companies, Inc. acquired Nabisco in December 2000 for $18.9 billion and merged it with Kraft Foods.
Eventually Kraft Foods was spun off into a separate company where Nabisco lives on as a brand name.
In 2010 Kraft Foods announced that it was making its Nabisco line of crackers healthier by adding more whole wheat.
Nabisco Brands
