Talk:Weet-Bix

Weet Bix Waffle

FROM ARTICLE: In Australia supermarkets typically stock cheaper, generic products which are almost indistinguishable from Sanitarium Weet-Bix - whilst both products are supplemented with various vitamins such as Thiamin (vitamin B1), Riboflavin (vitamin B2) and Niacin (vitmain B3), the cheaper product lacks important minerals such as folate, iron, magnesium and zinc. Generic brands also tend to have a differing cook process on the raw wheat, leading to an inferior, more fragile biscuit. Regardless of brand, the biscuits have a crunchy texture because they are made from many flakes of wheat which are toasted, thereby removing excess moisture, having been moulded into the required shape. They are usually served with either cold or warm milk; if served with warm milk, they have a tendency to become soggy. They can also be served spread with butter and jam or Vegemite, usually served as a snack rather than at breakfast.

This to me seems wrong for wikipedia somehow. Too chatty. I think the chat about cold and warm milk should go entirely. The chat about cheaper, generic copy products seems pointless given that Weet-Bix isn't unique anyway. In any event that chat about copy products needs a severe trimming down. Asa01 09:46, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

misc comment

Weet-bix are freakin' delishious--141.132.11.3 04:06, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

very disorganised

the article needs to be reorganised. Theres like a 500 word block of text in the intro, before the table of contents. All this should be placed under various categories. The intro should just have the small explaination of what Weet-Bix are. Samatic 05:39, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

That large section of text was entered verbatim today, and as it looks like it could have been a copyright violation, I removed it. If it can be verified to a source, it should then be reintegrated. Ansell 05:44, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Section which needs verification

The following section needs to be referenced in order for it to be verifiable (a wikipedia policy):

The reference is Bennison Osborne's daughter - Yvonne D. Sainsbury (Dorothy Osborne) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:283:4600:13FF:84B8:8BF4:4FDC:4BB (talk) 00:36, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

"Weet-Bix was invented by Bennison Osborne in N.S.W., Australia in the mid 1920s. Benn set out to make a product more palatable than "Granose." He tried his new product on his little nieces and nephews until he had it perfected, and in 1928 he registered the tradename "Weetbix" and production started at 659 Parramatta Road, Leichhardt, N.S.W. with the financial backing of Mr. Arthur Shannon. Benn's friend Malcolm Ian "Mac" Macfarlane from N.Z. joined him and proved a brilliant marketer. The product was so successful that in October of 1928, Mr. Shannon sold the rights in the product to the Sanitarium Health Food Company, at which point Mac suggested that they take the product to N.Z. The product proved so successful in N.Z. that it quickly became apparent that it would be difficult to adequately supply the market from Australia. Again, with the financial assistance of Mr. Arthur Shannon, factories were established in both Auckland and Christchurch. The enterprise was such a great success that Mr. Shannon again sold out (in 1930) to the Sanitarium Health Food Company.

"Benn and Mac then exported the product to South Africa where they obtained other financial backing and installed a factory in Cape Town, forming the "British & African Cereal Company Pty. Ltd.," which was registered in London with Benn as the Managing Director. For the purpose of differentiating between the various countries, it was decided that the product, when introduced into England, should be known as "Weetabix." In England, Benn and Mac became the Joint Managing Directors with Benn controlling production and Mac controlling marketing. Thirty-three potential sites for the factory were examined, with Burton Latimer eventually being chosen, due in part to the offer of a disused flour mill by a Mr. George who was allotted shares in the company. For records see the 1932 and 1933 papers (Kettering Leader & Guardian," and "Northamptonshire Advisor" and also the May 19, 1933, "Town and Country News.") When the business was firmly established, Mr. Shannon offered to finance an expansion of the business. However, cash flow was such that additional financing was not necessary. Mr. Shannon however, did suggest investigating the Canadian market.

"At this point, Mac left the business to go overseas and Benn became the sole Managing Director with Mr. George as Chairman of Directors. A fleet of cars was purchased and salesmen employed throughout England. At the height of its success in 1936, Benn sold his share holding to the Directors and left the Company to go to the U.S.A. Weetabix was unsuccessful in the U.S.A. (Stoneham, Mass.) and Benn eventually became the wartime supervisor of the Army Air Force Base in Zephyr Hills, Florida. After the war, in 1946, he took his wife and three daughters by freighter back to Australia, where he died in 1980. Around 1992, Weetabix successfully entered the U.S.A. market from Canada via Stoneham, Mass., the site of the unsuccessful U.S. factory." Ansell 10:33, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

I note also that the section about it being introduced to Canada in 1992 doesn't gel with the Weetabix website which states that it was introduced to Canada in 1967. BigBadaboom0 (talk) 16:33, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

In September 2008, I did an online search and was unable to locate any online resources that were able to support this accounting of the history of Weet-Bix. So I decided to email the PR contacts of Sanitarium Australia, Sanitarium New Zealand and Weetabix UK. I asked them to view the page and verify whether the history as stated in this article was accurate. On January 29, 2009 I received the following email from Sanitarium NZ (weetbix@sanitarium.co.nz):

Thankyou for your enquiry.
We apologise for the delay in getting back to you. After reviewing the article on the history of Weet-Bix we are happy with the description and can confirm that it is an accurate account of our history.
Kind Regards,
The Weet-Bix Team
This is an email from New Zealand Health Association Limited,
trading as Sanitarium Health Food Company.

I know this is not as good as a verified source, but at least we can have more confidence in the current history section which was added by an anonymous editor. -- BigBadaboom0 (talk) 21:22, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Dead links

The England vs Warney link is dead. It sounds good but is it critical and worth the effort to find it under a new URL to which it might have moved? [[[User:60.242.50.195|60.242.50.195]] 19:58, 13 May 2007 (UTC)]

WikiProject Shennanigans?

What does Weet-Bix have to do with the Seventh Day Adventist church? Why does that Wikiproject claim this article?-- Mikeblas (talk) 02:10, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

From the article: "In 1930, Sanitarium acquired Grain Products, which like Sanitarium had ties with the Seventh-day Adventist Church and made Weet-Bix a Sanitarium product." --Closedmouth (talk) 03:54, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Food and drink Tagging

This article talk page was automatically added with {{WikiProject Food and drink}} banner as it falls under Category:Food or one of its subcategories. If you find this addition an error, Kindly undo the changes and update the inappropriate categories if needed. The bot was instructed to tagg these articles upon consenus from WikiProject Food and drink. You can find the related request for tagging here . If you have concerns , please inform on the project talk page -- TinucherianBot (talk) 13:34, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Relative sweetness

The article claims that Weetabix (UK) is sweeter than Weet-Bix. This sounds unlikely to me, as Weetabix is an unsweetened product - it certainly doesn't taste sweet. Can someone comment who has hard factual knowledge of the ingredients of both products, or failing that direct experience of trying the two products together? If the claim can't be substantiated it should be removed. I won't add a citation request for the time being. --80.176.142.11 (talk) 21:03, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

I was born and raised in Sydney so I therefore grew up eating Weet-Bix. As an adult I lived in the UK for 8 years eating Weetabix. I too agree that Weetabix is in fact sweeter AND has a more palatable texture. I have a box of Weetabix in front of me and it does in fact contain Organic dehydrated cane syrup. I compared both of the products ingredient labels and it shows that Weet-Bix has "Raw Sugar" 22.1g of carbs (1.1g of sugars) whereas Weetabix has "Organic dehydrated cane syrup" 29g of carbs (2g sugars). I am now sending this information to Wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.174.48.169 (talk) 18:14, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Which country came up with the awesome slogan 'Aussie/Kiwi Kids are Weetbix Kids'

Reading through the history of the article, it appears to flip-flop on which country had the slogan first as weetbix affectionates from either country are offended at the suggestion they copied the other. If there is no evidence either way, I suggest that it should say that both countries use the slogan, and not give credit for who copied whom. Further, the product is still marketed in this way, has it been all along, or did the company stop using this at some stage and start again? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.37.40.162 (talk) 05:00, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

Weet-bix would appear to be an Aus creation, while Aus kids were definitely Weet-bix kids before Kiwi kids were. Of course these facts do not need to be emphasized in the article, although if it was the other way round you can be the Kiwi editors would be at pains to point the facts out. Theodore D (talk) 19:51, 17 January 2012 (UTC)-202.169.248.9 (talk) 15:20, 22 September 2013 (UTC) AA

Bit ironic to say that while pointing it out yourself in such a manner isn't it. Regardless, this isn't a talk page, if you have a reference either way, please present it. As the previous editor stated if there are no references either way no definitive statement should be made.Number36 (talk) 11:47, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

Link to original documents on Wordpress.

Not sure what to do with this, Theodore D added it in line to the article here. It's a Wordpress page set up specifically for original documents as references for this article. Not sure about what to make of that in regards to WP:RS, and WP:PRIMARY, etc. But doesn't belong in the article as this;

For original copies of the documentation noted above, please link to [1].

Just inserted at the end of the history section in bold with an external link. Number36 (talk) 11:58, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

Brexit

Why've we got 'Brexit' in the weet Bix cards section? GOLDIEM J (talk) 11:16, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

Good spotting. Recent vandalism, now fixed. - Snori (talk)