Kashi heads back to San Diego

After leaving La Jolla more than a year ago, health-oriented food company Kashi is returning to America’s Finest City. A year spent in Battle Creek, Michigan, home base of parent company Kellogg’s, didn’t help generate the vibe the breakfast producer was expecting, and who can stay away once you’ve lived on the blue Pacific?

Founded in San Diego in 1984, Kashi became a successful alternative breakfast cereal and healthy snack and food company for 16 years, operating out of its La Jolla location. It became so successful, in fact, that breakfast giant Kellogg’s purchased the operation in 2000. The Michigan conglomerate had allowed Kashi to operate on its own in the years since, but decided to consolidate all of its holdings to its complex of breakfast and food production in the Battle Creek area, Kellogg’s traditional home.

Kellogg’s has reported that the move back to San Diego is part of the process of returning Kashi back to an independent provider of nutritional products with an emphasis on innovative sources for its foods. As part of this change, David Denholm, the previous leader of the company has been asked to resume control.

In addition, there is belief among the Kellogg’s hierarchy that California, and in particular San Diego, offers an environment more conducive to the kind of leading edge thinking in food production that the brand needs from its Kashi subsidiary. They hope to accomplish this by returning to Kashi to its previous level of performance as a leading seller of healthy foods. Kellog’s believes this will be aided by the business climate in our fair city, and the likelihood of attracting many previous innovative employees who left or were released when Kellogg’s moved the company to the Mid-west.

While a small number of the Kashi sales staff had been  allowed to stay and work in La Jolla, the majority of employees were either laid off, or required to move to Michigan. No announcement has been made on how many employees will move back to San Diego, nor on how many new jobs this may open in the local market.

Welcome back, Kashi.