Weetabix

Weetabix (originally "What-a-Wheat") is a whole grain wheat breakfast cereal produced by Weetabix Limited in the United Kingdom. It comes in the form of palm-sized (approx. 9.5 cm × 5.0 cm or 4" × 2") rounded rectangle-shaped biscuits. Variants include organic and Weetabix Minis (bite-sized) versions. The UK cereal is manufactured in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, and in Canada and exported to over 80 countries. Weetabix for the North American market (Canada and the U.S) is manufactured in Cobourg, Ontario, in both organic and conventional versions.

Weetabix is made from whole grain wheat and the version sold in the United Kingdom has 3.8 g of fibre in a 37.5 g serving (2 biscuits). The product sold in North America has 4 grams of fibre in a 35 g serving.

History

Weetabix is the British version of the original Australian Weet-Bix. Both Weet-Bix and Weetabix were invented by Bennison Osborne, an Australian. Weet-Bix was introduced in Australia through the company “Grain Products Limited” in the mid-1920s, with funding from businessman Arthur Shannon and marketing assistance from Osborne’s New Zealand friend Malcolm Macfarlane. To both Osborne’s and Macfarlane’s disappointment, Grain Products sold both its Australian company (in 1928) and then its New Zealand company (in 1930), to the Sanitarium Health Foods Company. Osborne and Macfarlane then went to South Africa where Arthur Shannon, the owner of Grain Products, funded another Weet-Bix factory. While in South Africa, Osborne modified his Weet-Bix recipe and with Macfarlane, obtained private funding and began the development of a new company, The British and African Cereal Company Limited, naming the new company's product, Weetabix. The company commenced business in England in 1932 in an unused gristmill at Burton Latimer, near Kettering. In 1936, the name of the company was changed to Weetabix Limited.

Weetabix Limited

Weetabix Ltd., trading under the name Weetabix Food Company and commonly referred to as simply Weetabix, is a food processing company that is responsible for the production of breakfast cereal brands. Weetabix is also the name of one of the company's products, a wheat-based breakfast cereal in the form of relatively large biscuits.

History

The food product was originally invented in Australia in the 1920s by Bennison Osborne. Osborne and his friend Malcolm MacFarlane successfully launched Weet-Bix in Australia and New Zealand under the sponsorship of the owner of Grain Products Ltd., who soon sold the Australasian rights to the Australasian Conference Association Limited Sanitarium Health Food Company. Osborne and MacFarlane decided to expand into South Africa and while there, they began the establishment of the British & African Cereal Company, Ltd., a Private Company, in order to start a venture in England under the Companies, Act,1929, (Company No. 267687), where they became joint Managing Directors until MacFarlane left the Company in 1932/1933, after which Osborne became the sole Managing Director until 1936, when he left the Company for the United States of America. The first Directors of the Company were Bennison Osborne, Malcolm MacFarlane, Alfred Richard Upton and Arthur Stanley Scrutton. Frank George, who had offered them the use of a disused flour mill in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, subsequently requested and was granted shares in the Company and was offered a place on the Board.