Famous Amos Cookies
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| Owner |
Kellogg Company (Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Co., L.L.C.) |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1975 |
| Markets | Worldwide |
Famous Amos is a brand of cookie founded in Los Angeles in 1975 by Wally Amos. The company expanded quickly, selling more than $1 million of cookies by its second year.
Wallace "Wally" Amos was born in Tallahassee, Florida July 1, 1936. In 1948 he moved to New York City to live with his Aunt where they often baked cookies together. As an adult, Wally Amos, an Air Force veteran who worked as a talent agent with the William Morris Agency, would send his home-baked chocolate chip cookies to celebrities to entice them to meet and perhaps sign a deal with his agency. Amos hit a plateau working for the William Morris Agency and decided to strike out on his own.
On March 10, 1975, Amos took the advice of some friends, and with $25,000 from singers Marvin Gaye and Helen Reddy, he opened a cookie store at 7181 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood in Los Angeles, California, naming it "Famous Amos". In the first year he sold $300,000 worth of cookies, followed by more than $1,000,000 in sales in the store's second year of operation. By 1982 the company's revenues reached $12 million.
The store proved so popular that the "Famous Amos" brand eventually branched out to sell cookies in supermarkets, a move that would later be emulated by other specialty stores such as Baskin-Robbins, T.G.I. Fridays, and Starbucks.
In 1985 the meteoric rise began to slow down. That year the company lost $300,000 and had revenues of $10 million. Investors got involved to try and stop the downward spiral, but according to Mr. Amos, they took more of an equity stake each time and did not stay long enough to get the company back on track. By 1988 the company lost $2.5 million. That year the Shansby Group purchased Famous Amos for $3 million. After one year as a paid spokesman for his sold company, Amos quit in frustration.
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