In 1927, United Biscuit was created by the merger of several cracker bakeries around the Midwest, including the Sawyer Biscuit Co. of Chicago. United Biscuit made its headquarters in Chicago, which was also the location of its packaging materials division, the Chicago Carton Co. During the mid-1930s, the Sawyer bakery on the city's Near West Side employed about 350 people. Annual sales passed $100 million during the 1950s, when the company employed over 1,000 people in the Chicago area. In 1953, United Biscuit built a new bakery—one of some 20 plants around the country—in Melrose Park, just west of Chicago. The company also moved its general offices from Chicago to Melrose Park. In 1966, United Biscuit changed its name to Keebler Co., and the headquarters moved to Elmhurst, just a few miles west of Melrose Park. By this time, the company employed nearly 7,000 people around the country. Over the next few years, Keebler grew. During the 1980s, when Keebler had become the second-largest American manufacturer of cookies (behind Nabisco), annual revenues passed $1 billion. In 2001, the company was purchased by the Kellogg Co., based in Battle Creek, Michigan. Keebler and its nearly 2,000 employees continued to operate from Elmhurst under the Keebler name.

This entry is part of the Encyclopedia's Dictionary of Leading Chicago Businesses (1820-2000) that was prepared by Mark R. Wilson, with additional contributions from Stephen R. Porter and Janice L. Reiff.