The Quaker Oats Company is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois founded in 1901 by the merger of three separate companies, all of whom sold products made of oats, such as oatmeal. The company expanded into numerous areas, including other breakfast cereals and other food and drink products, and even into non-related fields such as toys.
In the 1970s, the company financed the making of the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and allowed the company to use a number of the product names mentioned in the movie for candy bars.
In August 2001, Quaker merged with PepsiCo, who primarily wanted the company for its Gatorade brand of soft drink. The merger created the fourth-largest consumer goods company in the world. Though the main prize of the company was Gatorade noncarbonated sports drink, Quaker's foods serve as healthy complements to the existing Frito-Lay salty-snacks division.
External link