My Science School

          Have you ever thought that it’s too late to begin something? Well, if Colonel Sanders thought so, we wouldn’t have the world’s most famous fried chicken-KFC!

          A forty-year-old Colonel Sanders began selling fried chicken for hungry travellers after the Second World War. He had a store near a gas station and soon travellers started to fill their tummies along with their petrol tanks, making his chicken famous. He later franchised his business across America, but his recipe remained a secret. He also patented a method of preparation that involved frying chicken under pressure.

          By 1964, his franchise became too large for him to manage and he sold KFC to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown, Jr. and Jack C. Massey. After a series of ownership changes, KFC is currently owned by Yum Brands. It is the world’s second-largest restaurant chain after McDonald’s and Colonel Sanders still remains the iconic face of KFC.

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          In the 1930s, one of the issues that troubled the Brazilian government was their surplus coffee produce. They did not know what to do with huge sacks of unsold coffee until Nestle offered them a solution. Thanks to Max Morgenthaler and three years of his research, we now enjoy the invigorating flavour of Nescafe.

          Max was committed to come up with an instant coffee mixture that retained its natural flavour, but was easy to make. He succeeded in creating a powdered variety that made tasty coffee by simply mixing water. He named it Nescafe by combining the first three letters of Nestle with the word Cafe.

          The Second World War was a major game changer for Nescafe. Nescafe became a part of the food rations of the US forces and they loved it. The brand grew through the 1940s with export to many countries. Today, Nescafe is enjoyed in 180 countries.

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          Pharmacist Henri Nestle was troubled thinking about malnutrition that affected many babies in Switzerland. Many mothers were not able to breastfeed their babies as they were away because of work. He worked on creating something that would be tasty and nutritious at the same time.

          After a considerable number of trials, Henri came out with a formula made of milk, flour and sugar. He tested this on a malnourished child whose health improved after its consumption.

          This happened in the 1860s. Soon, Henri opened a factory to produce this infant formula- Farine Lacte Henri Nestle. Later, he sold the company to Jules Monneret who worked for the further growth of the company.

          Around the same time, another company known as the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company competed with Nestle, but the competition did not last long. The two merged in 1905. A year later, they began making chocolates.

          Nestle withstood both World War I and II. By 1945, it became an international brand with factories in several Latin American countries and continued to prosper.

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         Julius Maggi was a Swiss miller who took over his father’s business. It was the 1880s; Europe was increasingly industrialized with more and more women joining the workforce. These working women found it difficult to get enough time to cook nutritious food for their families. Julius Maggi wanted to provide healthy and delicious food supplies for these working women.

          He worked to create new flour from pulses. After two years of research, he introduced powdered pea and bean flours in 1884, followed by one of the world’s first instant soups. His products were a huge success that revolutionized the way millions cooked in the years that followed.

          Julius Maggi invested a lot of money in advertising and exploited the possibilities of advertising on public transport. Maggi vans gave out free samples of hot soups and also did poster campaigns. A brand like Maggi was quick to grow and become international. In 1947, it was acquired by Nestle, another Swiss brand with the same visionary approach towards food.

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          Dominos is the first thing that comes to our mind when we think of pizza. This international brand started when two brothers James and Tom Monaghan decided to run an outlet of DomiNick’s, a chain pizza restaurant. Soon, James, who was not so interested in the pizza business, sold his share to Tom for a second-hand Volkswagen Beetle.

          Tom later purchased two more pizzerias. Though Tom wanted to use the brand name DomiNick’s, the original owner forbade him to do so. One of Tom’s helpers Jim Kennedy suggested the name Domino’s which he accepted without a second thought. Thus, Domino’s Pizza was born in 1965.

          For the next fifteen years, Domino’s followed a traditional model of business; they only delivered pizzas and had a limited menu. Their menus started including non-pizza items only from the 1990s. Since then, there have been more innovations like dine-in restaurants and pizza cars.

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          Starbucks was started by three friends who met in the University, who shared the love for coffee and tea. English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker were fascinated by the coffee seller Alfred Peet’s roasting techniques and brewing skills.

          Drawing inspiration from Peets, they decided to open a coffee outlet that sold quality roasted coffee beans. After considering some names, they chose ‘Starbuck’, the name of the first mate in Moby Dick, because they thought that the name starting with ‘st’ had some special power.

          When they started the company in Seattle in 1971, they only sold roasted whole coffee beans and did not yet brew coffee to sell. The only brewed coffee served in the store was free samples as most of their customers did not know much about their products. The credit for the introduction of Starbucks cafe lies with Howard Schultz.

          Schultz bought Starbucks in 1982 as a marketing head. Schultz brought Starbucks when Baldwin and Bowker decided to sell it in 1987 and introduced the cafe style of business. It was an instant hit, followed by a period of rapid expansion. Starbucks soon became the world’s largest public coffee-house chain.

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          Quaker Oats Company, whose history dates back to the mid-1880s is famous not for the brand name alone, but also for its trademark. The trademark was registered by Henry Seymour and William Heston, the former owners of Quaker Oats, who sold it to Henry Parsons Crowell due to bankruptcy. Quaker has long been the icon of a healthy breakfast. The name was chosen as it projected values like honesty and integrity.

          Four oatmeal business pioneers- Ferdinand Schumacher, John Stuart, George Douglas, and Henry Parsons Crowell-formed the American Cereal Company in the mid-1880s that used the Quaker trademark. They were producing oats and wheat cereals, corn meal, baby food, and animal feed while management conflicts broke out. Dirty ownership fights led to a split that gave shape to the Quaker Oats Company with Crowell as its president.

          Throughout its history, Quaker had bought and sold several brands that changed the profile of the company. By the 1980s, Quaker sold off its non-food operations. It is owned by Pepsico since 2001.

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          Golden arches, the clown with red and yellow stripes, and burgers. This would make you think only of McDonald’s, the brand that revolutionized the modern fast food business.

          The world’s largest restaurant chain started in California in 1948, when two brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald decided to seek their fortune by selling hamburgers and hotdogs. But it was nowhere close to the McDonald’s that we know today. The brothers focused on providing quick bites for the people on the road. Their meeting with salesman Ray Kroc however, changed all this.

          Ray Kroc was impressed by their technique of creating large quantities of food at a low price. Seeing a great business opportunity, he decided to invest in the brothers and offered them a franchise program in 1945.

          The chain expanded and within ten years, McDonald’s went international. Eventually, Ray Kroc bought out the brothers from McDonald’s Corporation. But he retained the name as it had got ingrained to the burgers they sold.

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          Baskin-Robbins started with two ice cream lovers who happened to be brothers-in-law. As a teenager, Irvine Robbins used to work in his father’s ice cream shops while Burton Baskin made ice creams for his colleagues in the US navy. Both of them had separate ice cream shops before they decided to be partners. The passion for creating new flavours brought them close.

          In 1945, they decided to merge their shops to form the world-renowned ice cream store- Baskin Robbins. They expanded gradually and began franchising by hiring managers. In 1949, they purchased their first dairy production unit in California. This was the beginning of the ice cream revolution. They experimented with new ingredients and flavours, bringing out more varieties. The idea was to create a different flavour for each day of a month. Right now, they have more than 1300 flavours in their assortment. They still continue to come up with a new ‘Flavour of the Month’ each month along with other creative ice creams and cake designs.

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          In 1919, Ernest Woodruff bought the company and ran Coca-Cola for the next 60 years. Nothing was the same ever again.

          He is responsible for bottling the beverage. He popularized these bottles so much, that people slowly started forgetting the soda fountains. He is also responsible for many other innovations like the metal-topped coolers, and coin-operated Coke vending machines.

          Woodruff took great efforts in marketing Coke overseas. Woodruff also created links between Coca-Cola and the U.S. military. At the outbreak of World War II, he swore that American servicemen would be able to get a cold Coca-Cola everywhere the war took them. They took Coke everywhere they went and even though the soldiers returned, Coke remained behind. Today, Coca-Cola is sold virtually everywhere in the world.

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          Coca-Cola is quintessentially American and its history dates back to 1886. It all began with the curiosity of Dr. John S. Pemberton, a pharmacist from Atlanta. He wanted to make a soft drink that could be sold in the soda fountains, famous during that time.

          He succeeded in making a flavoured syrup of distinct taste. It tasted good when mixed with carbonated water. People who tasted it instantly liked it. His friend Frank M Robinson suggested the name Coca-Cola which soon became an iconic brand. The story of Coca-Cola begins here.

          Coca-Cola was an instant hit in the market. Soon, the soda fountains were crowded with Coke customers. Within two years of its creation, a major part of its shares was sold to Asa Candler under whom, Coca-Cola expanded. He invested considerably in promotion campaigns. As a result, the demand increased and distribution chains grew. Looking at the possibilities of expansion, the company started to bottle the drink. The drink soon began to be associated with happiness and any occasion was felt to be incomplete without it.

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          Bournville took its birth from the expansion plans of Cadbury. In 1879, Richard and George decided to build a new factory. Those days, factories were no different from dungeons. Richard and George Cadbury wanted to build something better for their workers, and Bournville was built on a fourteen acre plot.

          Unlike other factories, it had warm rooms to dry clothes and places to heat food. The brothers also built a workers’ village around the factory. Each house had a garden big enough to grow vegetables. Workers were also provided with recreation facilities like football and cricket fields for the men and boys, and a playground and a garden with a lily pond for the wives and daughters.

          The workers were given good wages, medical treatment and pension. Bournville was a multi-purpose factory site. During World War II, the company converted parts of the factory into workrooms to manufacture equipment like pilot seats for fighter planes.

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          The sweetness of Cadbury is 195 years old. It all started in Birmingham, when a young John Cadbury opened a grocery shop in 1824, where he sold tea, coffee and drinking chocolate.

          Right from the beginning, John was concerned with finding an alternative for alcohol. He strongly believed that drinking ruined many families. He invested all his hopes in his chocolate drink and it soon gained popularity.

          By 1831, he decided to expand the business and started producing a range of drinking chocolates and cocoas. Luckily for him, the heavy tax on cocoa was cut down significantly, which made his cocoa products affordable to the masses.

          In 1854, Queen Victoria issued them their first Royal Warrant. But, luck did not always favour John. The death of his second wife devastated him; soon he turned towards social work, leaving his company in the hands of his sons, Richard and George.

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          The idea of Volvo cars was conceived in a Swedish ball bearing factory. Assar Gabrielsson was working in the company as a sales manager when his wife died in an accident. This had an impact on him. ‘It’s time to create a safer new car’ he thought.

          Engineer Gustav Larson understood his concern. It snows a lot in Sweden which decreases the friction of the tyres, making driving difficult. The engineers worked with this in mind and in 1927, they came out with a stable car with a highly responsive steering wheel. Their cars were specially noted for their safety features. The cars were a huge success following which Volvo trucks and buses hit the market and were exported across Europe.

          Throughout its history, the ownership of Volvo cars has been transferred from one group to another. It is currently under the Geely Holding Group of China. Other Volvo products including trucks, buses and marine and industrial supplies are owned by AB Volvo.

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          The word Boeing brings to our mind an image of an aircraft. Aviation pioneer William Edward Boeing established Pacific Aero Products Co. in 1916 to manufacture aeroplanes. The company was renamed Boeing a short while after the designing of Model C, their first airplane.

          Boeing started with making planes for military and transportation purposes. Though it dominated the market in the 1920s, the company had a strong rival from the start of the 1930s- McDonnell Douglas Corporation. Boeing came out with some of its best models to compete with Douglas. The company later purchased Douglas in 1997.

          By the end of the 20th century, Boeing produced most of the world’s best sellers till date. Its first wide-body jetliner Boeing 747, capable of carrying 490 passengers held a capacity record for 37 years and over 1,500 such planes were sold.

          Things weren’t always easy for Boeing. The company was nearly bankrupt in the 1970s, but regained sound financial status by the 90s.

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