Quaker Oats Company

A mill in Ravenna, Ohio, started it. The Quaker Mill Company opened in 1877, and four years later Henry Parsons Crowell bought it and did what few food makers of the day dared: he advertised oats to the whole country. Crowell's campaign turned a regional miller into a national name, and the cylindrical canister that arrived in 1915 became as recognizable as the Quaker man on its label. The company organized as the American Cereal Company during the era's consolidation wave, then grew by acquisition, absorbing Great Western Cereal in 1911 and Stokely-Van Camp, owner of Van Camp's beans and Gatorade, in 1983.

PepsiCo bought Quaker Oats in 2001 for about $14 billion, largely to get Gatorade. The oats, grits, and pancake mixes kept rolling out under the same name, now as a division of a snack and beverage giant. PepsiCo's brand page calls Quaker "nourishing families for generations and a proud part of the PepsiCo family," and a 2026 company feature marked 150 years of the business. Quaker is not separately traded; investors who want a piece of it buy PepsiCo stock (NASDAQ: PEP). Its revenue is folded into PepsiCo's Foods segment and not broken out publicly.

The portfolio spans Old Fashioned and Instant Oats, grits, granola bars, cereals, and pancake mixes, with acquired brands like Rice-A-Roni once part of the mix (the DeDomenico family sold it to Quaker for $300 million in the 1980s). In July 2026 PepsiCo unveiled a whole grain oat-based shake under the Quaker umbrella and announced a major expansion at its North Texas facility. Quaker leads the U.S. oatmeal market against General Mills, Kellanova, and private-label oats. Manufacturing runs across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, including the large Cedar Rapids, Iowa plant that made headlines in October 2026 when a fire and reported explosion broke out there. [edit]