July 10, 2025 • 12 mins
A major Michigan brand is on the chopping block—W.K. Kellogg, the iconic cereal maker, is selling to Italian candy giant Ferrero for $3.1 billion. Justin Barclay and James Dickson break it down, tying the deal to broader concerns about Michigan’s population decline, job losses, and the erosion of local manufacturing. They also dig into Tudor Dixon’s decision not to run in 2026, the early governor's race field, and how Michigan must position itself to win big with Trump’s America First movement. Plus, a hilarious preview of James’ upcoming podcast on the end of TSA's “security theater”—and why jazz, masks, and taking off your shoes all have something in common.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In Michigan. It's a story. We're taking a bite out
of UH cerial maker WK Kellogg selling to Ferrero, the
Italian candy maker three point one billion dollars sales and
shares rather jumping thirty percent on this deal. And I
(00:21):
don't know if it's a horrible you know, it's it's
sad to see tradition, you see. I know, it just
kind of goes into the I guess maybe the idea
and the narrative of oh gosh, we're gonna lose, We're
gonna lose another one, another big Michigan company. I want
they start making a cereal somewhere else. Is that going
to impact jobs? And that does tie in as I
just mentioned how serious twenty twenty six is and where
(00:44):
things are headed are good friend, James Dixon joins us
now don I seventy five over on X in the
Michigan Enjoyer podcast. I appreciate you being here with us today, James.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Just good to hear your voice.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
You know, we've talked about it before. And as as
important as to twenty four was for the nation, and
I believe it was, I think twenty twenty six is
just as important here in Michigan because I'm watching all
this money come back into the country. I don't want
to see us miss out as a state. The same time,
(01:17):
we've got this story here about Kellogg, and I don't
know whether they stay, whether they go, or what happens,
but I can tell you that we've seen this story before,
We've seen the impact, and in fact, they got another
one here. Brian Postumus posting this yesterday, The Michigan has
(01:37):
a population problem. It's now secret. He says. People want
to live in places they can afford, in places where
they can make their best living. Unfortunately, this is no
longer the place. It's got a graphic up here. Top
five destination places Michigan residents are moving from or two Chicago, Phoenix, Anaheim.
Just kind of crazy to think about Fort Myers, Florida,
(01:59):
and Tampa, but all in that list, and I actually,
you know, I know some folks that have moved to
a few of those places. I'm just afraid that we're
going to miss out on the manufacturing things, like it's
just not an environment that's built to make things here
in Michigan again, energy costs, et cetera. Uh, and then
(02:19):
the brain drain. I hate to see it. But that's
why I believe twenty twenty six is so important.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Absolutely, and this thing was Kellow Here's why it matters.
I mean, you know, we used to have Cereal City
in Michigan. And you know when I was on when
I was a little kid living in Inkster, there was
a company, Adres Appliances, who made our keyball shirts, you know,
for the keball team, and they did it for you know,
(02:45):
decades before me and decades after me, and so every
kid in that community has an affinity for that local business.
And you think about the Ford, the Gms, the Kelloggs,
how many livelihoods in Michigan are tied end of that.
How many people make such a good living from that
that they're able to donate to the key ball team,
(03:07):
that they're able to do these things for the community.
And so when you take away these pillars of the community,
a community gets weaker. And so this is the danger
is that they weigh a dollar amount in your face
and you know the deal is too good to pass on.
You can't ignore it. You have to take it. They
(03:29):
made them an offer too good to refuse. Now, what
shocks me about Kelloggs three billion dollars. That's it. Yeah,
after all this time, after one hundred and nineteen years,
you sell out for just three billion dollars. I mean
NBA teams are selling for three times that amount. Now,
it just sounds low, and it doesn't sound like the
(03:53):
kind of deal where there's going to be a buy
in from the new buyer into our community. Here, it
sounds more like they want to extract the value from
the name. My guess is, if they're a big enough
company to buy Catogs, they probably have some fubstancial manufacturing
already going. So what's going to happen Michigan? And it's
(04:17):
said because if you're offered the biggest dollar amount you've
ever seen, it's easy for me, as someone who has
not offered that money, to say, don't think it hold
out for more. But if you don't want to be
in the cereal business anymore, your family just wants to
move on with life. But this is what happens. It
(04:37):
weakens the fabric. I think about the nineteen fifties, you know,
Underground Publishing and Grand Rapids. It fed into the Christian
ethos of that community, and so you had one of
the best publishing houses in America, a Christian publishing house
that was in your own backyard. When those things go
away and when they're bought up by foreign entities, those
(04:58):
do take cracks from the foundation of your community.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
James Dixon with us right now down I seventy five
over on X and the Enjoyer Podcast, the Conversation of
the Day. It is something that I think quite a
bit about. Obviously, with twenty twenty six, so much is
on the line, folks. It's it's it's just it's something
that I think is impossible to overstate. And speaking of
(05:27):
twenty twenty six, James, we got a big announcement yesterday
on a candidate. Tudor Dixon has made the announcement former
gubernatorial Republican goodbinatorial candidate in twenty two then she will
not run for governor or Senate that open Senate seat.
Kind of an interesting announcer. She said. She instead intends
(05:50):
to help back Trump and of course protecting and advancing
his America First agenda here in a state. Prior to
prioritizing border security, job creation, tax cuts, and campaigning for
other conservative candidates across Michigan. Now she didn't roll out
running maybe in some other capacity for something else. But
I thought it was interesting because we're already starting to
(06:12):
see sort of a crowded field out there for governor.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, I think Studor is admitting reality. You know, no
one was waiting around like what Tudor adiction going to
do in twenty twenty six. This whole storyline was created
by her. I mean, what kind of a candidate as
I might run for governor, which is a chief executive
role in Landing, or I might run to be one hundred,
(06:42):
one of one hundred senators in Washington. You're so it's
like saying I might go to Michigan and I might
go to Ohio state. I feel like you kind of
know which one you're leaning toward, right, and so you
know that was kind of the the sers in the books, right,
you go for both and up with severs. So I
think it's good to have some the era of statewide,
(07:05):
you know, to see you know, you want to run
for senate. You want to be immediate personality who amplifies
people who are running in twenty twenty six and helps
maybe prevent what happened to tutor Or. She got decided
very early on through an interview she did and maybe
she can coach people, so that doesn't have it again.
(07:27):
I'm all right, but the idea that this person was
going to be, you know, the answer to our pressers,
there was no reason to think that. So it's nice
to have clarity on the field.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah. I got to ask you, though, I mean, what
do you see out there? Is it too early to
tell based on who's announced for let's say governor?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
HM? Honestly, so look at it. You can't go wrong,
especially those first three candidates who got in. You got
Mike Cox, two time state wide winner. Uh. This guy
was an attorney general in the past, and now he
comes back rebranded as more of a businessman, successful lawyer.
(08:09):
He has some Rick Snyder to him the senator where
if I can be born in the side of the
current governor, people might see the high that higher rolland landing.
And you have John James who is right now and
(08:31):
John James is so far ahead. THEO they're using to
discredit John James is not also joking that he doesn't
want James from Michigan because he wants him to stay
in Congress. This is the best stop that close.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Hey, James, lose it. You're breaking up here. Just a
little bit better. Can you hear me go a little
bit better? Just kind of losing.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, yeah. So John James, you know, in Washington, doing
very well there. He's trying the Jim Blanchard move. It
is highly unusual for someone to go from Washington to Lansing,
but Jim Blanchard when he did that in the eighties,
he was trying to oppose Ronald Reagan, the Republican president.
John James is trying to work in concert with Donald
(09:22):
Trump the president. To imagine if we had somebody in
Lansing who was aligned with Washington, and I think in
either of those cases you would have that. Then you
have Tom Leonard. It's got a former House speaker in Michigan,
but he also lost the twenty eighteen AG race to
Dana Nussell. So how do you go from losing to
(09:43):
Nussle to winning the governor's race. I think that's going
to be a tough one for people to imagine.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
What are you working on over at the Enjoyer. I
know you've got a couple of things in the.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Fire there, oh absolutely, you know, with the with the
TSA announcing after nineteen years the end of the shoes
off pop. My podcast Friday is going to be about
the end of security theater. Oh yeah, and what's mask
and jazz and shoes at the airport have in common?
None of them have anything to do with keeping you safe.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Well, we had this shoe bomber right in Paris, and
then I remembered I'd said, I kind of remember this
because I know a guy that was on this plane
that helped stop it. Back in two thousand and nine
there at dtw the underwear bomber, And luckily we didn't
have to change that when we walked through. Uh. But
(10:34):
I know a guy that was part of that, part
of that whole thing, and he actually, you know, was
able to help stop the situation. And I don't remember
the full story on it, but you know what, it
is interesting. I do the TSA pre check and so
I haven't taken my shoes off at an airport in years.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
You know, I last time I flew. I don't travel
very often. Last time I did. You know, you go
through the process, and they've gotten handsier over the years. Boy,
and perhaps perhaps sensing my discomfort, they told me, hey,
if you give us eighty dollars, I won't grab your junk.
Now I considered it, and I don't fly enough to
(11:17):
make it worth my while, But man if I did,
and I could get on the no grab junk lift,
I'd like to do. And that's the thing they have.
They have made it so you can't even feel secure
in your person. You might get pat down, felt up
an X ray just trying to get from point A
to point B. It is did you ever vote for this?
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah? It is wild to watch this too, that it's
finally coming around, as folks like to call the most
enduring term, I believe ts a thousands standing around, but
it is. It is nice to know. It is nice
to know that it's finally going, and so your podcast
will be about that this weekend. We'll be looking forward
to it. James Dixon always a pleasure in the meantime
(12:02):
down at I seventy five over on x make sure
you look him up and find what am I one
of my favorite places to do, so right there. Always
a pleasure, my friend.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Thank you, justin I appreciate you.
In Michigan. It's a story. We're taking a bite out
of UH cerial maker WK Kellogg selling to Ferrero, the
Italian candy maker three point one billion dollars sales and
shares rather jumping thirty percent on this deal. And I
(00:21):
don't know if it's a horrible you know, it's it's
sad to see tradition, you see. I know, it just
kind of goes into the I guess maybe the idea
and the narrative of oh gosh, we're gonna lose, We're
gonna lose another one, another big Michigan company. I want
they start making a cereal somewhere else. Is that going
to impact jobs? And that does tie in as I
just mentioned how serious twenty twenty six is and where
(00:44):
things are headed are good friend, James Dixon joins us
now don I seventy five over on X in the
Michigan Enjoyer podcast. I appreciate you being here with us today, James.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Just good to hear your voice.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
You know, we've talked about it before. And as as
important as to twenty four was for the nation, and
I believe it was, I think twenty twenty six is
just as important here in Michigan because I'm watching all
this money come back into the country. I don't want
to see us miss out as a state. The same time,
(01:17):
we've got this story here about Kellogg, and I don't
know whether they stay, whether they go, or what happens,
but I can tell you that we've seen this story before,
We've seen the impact, and in fact, they got another
one here. Brian Postumus posting this yesterday, The Michigan has
(01:37):
a population problem. It's now secret. He says. People want
to live in places they can afford, in places where
they can make their best living. Unfortunately, this is no
longer the place. It's got a graphic up here. Top
five destination places Michigan residents are moving from or two Chicago, Phoenix, Anaheim.
Just kind of crazy to think about Fort Myers, Florida,
(01:59):
and Tampa, but all in that list, and I actually,
you know, I know some folks that have moved to
a few of those places. I'm just afraid that we're
going to miss out on the manufacturing things, like it's
just not an environment that's built to make things here
in Michigan again, energy costs, et cetera. Uh, and then
(02:19):
the brain drain. I hate to see it. But that's
why I believe twenty twenty six is so important.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Absolutely, and this thing was Kellow Here's why it matters.
I mean, you know, we used to have Cereal City
in Michigan. And you know when I was on when
I was a little kid living in Inkster, there was
a company, Adres Appliances, who made our keyball shirts, you know,
for the keball team, and they did it for you know,
(02:45):
decades before me and decades after me, and so every
kid in that community has an affinity for that local business.
And you think about the Ford, the Gms, the Kelloggs,
how many livelihoods in Michigan are tied end of that.
How many people make such a good living from that
that they're able to donate to the key ball team,
(03:07):
that they're able to do these things for the community.
And so when you take away these pillars of the community,
a community gets weaker. And so this is the danger
is that they weigh a dollar amount in your face
and you know the deal is too good to pass on.
You can't ignore it. You have to take it. They
(03:29):
made them an offer too good to refuse. Now, what
shocks me about Kelloggs three billion dollars. That's it. Yeah,
after all this time, after one hundred and nineteen years,
you sell out for just three billion dollars. I mean
NBA teams are selling for three times that amount. Now,
it just sounds low, and it doesn't sound like the
(03:53):
kind of deal where there's going to be a buy
in from the new buyer into our community. Here, it
sounds more like they want to extract the value from
the name. My guess is, if they're a big enough
company to buy Catogs, they probably have some fubstancial manufacturing
already going. So what's going to happen Michigan? And it's
(04:17):
said because if you're offered the biggest dollar amount you've
ever seen, it's easy for me, as someone who has
not offered that money, to say, don't think it hold
out for more. But if you don't want to be
in the cereal business anymore, your family just wants to
move on with life. But this is what happens. It
(04:37):
weakens the fabric. I think about the nineteen fifties, you know,
Underground Publishing and Grand Rapids. It fed into the Christian
ethos of that community, and so you had one of
the best publishing houses in America, a Christian publishing house
that was in your own backyard. When those things go
away and when they're bought up by foreign entities, those
(04:58):
do take cracks from the foundation of your community.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
James Dixon with us right now down I seventy five
over on X and the Enjoyer Podcast, the Conversation of
the Day. It is something that I think quite a
bit about. Obviously, with twenty twenty six, so much is
on the line, folks. It's it's it's just it's something
that I think is impossible to overstate. And speaking of
(05:27):
twenty twenty six, James, we got a big announcement yesterday
on a candidate. Tudor Dixon has made the announcement former
gubernatorial Republican goodbinatorial candidate in twenty two then she will
not run for governor or Senate that open Senate seat.
Kind of an interesting announcer. She said. She instead intends
(05:50):
to help back Trump and of course protecting and advancing
his America First agenda here in a state. Prior to
prioritizing border security, job creation, tax cuts, and campaigning for
other conservative candidates across Michigan. Now she didn't roll out
running maybe in some other capacity for something else. But
I thought it was interesting because we're already starting to
(06:12):
see sort of a crowded field out there for governor.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, I think Studor is admitting reality. You know, no
one was waiting around like what Tudor adiction going to
do in twenty twenty six. This whole storyline was created
by her. I mean, what kind of a candidate as
I might run for governor, which is a chief executive
role in Landing, or I might run to be one hundred,
(06:42):
one of one hundred senators in Washington. You're so it's
like saying I might go to Michigan and I might
go to Ohio state. I feel like you kind of
know which one you're leaning toward, right, and so you
know that was kind of the the sers in the books, right,
you go for both and up with severs. So I
think it's good to have some the era of statewide,
(07:05):
you know, to see you know, you want to run
for senate. You want to be immediate personality who amplifies
people who are running in twenty twenty six and helps
maybe prevent what happened to tutor Or. She got decided
very early on through an interview she did and maybe
she can coach people, so that doesn't have it again.
(07:27):
I'm all right, but the idea that this person was
going to be, you know, the answer to our pressers,
there was no reason to think that. So it's nice
to have clarity on the field.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah. I got to ask you, though, I mean, what
do you see out there? Is it too early to
tell based on who's announced for let's say governor?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
HM? Honestly, so look at it. You can't go wrong,
especially those first three candidates who got in. You got
Mike Cox, two time state wide winner. Uh. This guy
was an attorney general in the past, and now he
comes back rebranded as more of a businessman, successful lawyer.
(08:09):
He has some Rick Snyder to him the senator where
if I can be born in the side of the
current governor, people might see the high that higher rolland landing.
And you have John James who is right now and
(08:31):
John James is so far ahead. THEO they're using to
discredit John James is not also joking that he doesn't
want James from Michigan because he wants him to stay
in Congress. This is the best stop that close.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Hey, James, lose it. You're breaking up here. Just a
little bit better. Can you hear me go a little
bit better? Just kind of losing.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, yeah. So John James, you know, in Washington, doing
very well there. He's trying the Jim Blanchard move. It
is highly unusual for someone to go from Washington to Lansing,
but Jim Blanchard when he did that in the eighties,
he was trying to oppose Ronald Reagan, the Republican president.
John James is trying to work in concert with Donald
(09:22):
Trump the president. To imagine if we had somebody in
Lansing who was aligned with Washington, and I think in
either of those cases you would have that. Then you
have Tom Leonard. It's got a former House speaker in Michigan,
but he also lost the twenty eighteen AG race to
Dana Nussell. So how do you go from losing to
(09:43):
Nussle to winning the governor's race. I think that's going
to be a tough one for people to imagine.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
What are you working on over at the Enjoyer. I
know you've got a couple of things in the.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Fire there, oh absolutely, you know, with the with the
TSA announcing after nineteen years the end of the shoes
off pop. My podcast Friday is going to be about
the end of security theater. Oh yeah, and what's mask
and jazz and shoes at the airport have in common?
None of them have anything to do with keeping you safe.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Well, we had this shoe bomber right in Paris, and
then I remembered I'd said, I kind of remember this
because I know a guy that was on this plane
that helped stop it. Back in two thousand and nine
there at dtw the underwear bomber, And luckily we didn't
have to change that when we walked through. Uh. But
(10:34):
I know a guy that was part of that, part
of that whole thing, and he actually, you know, was
able to help stop the situation. And I don't remember
the full story on it, but you know what, it
is interesting. I do the TSA pre check and so
I haven't taken my shoes off at an airport in years.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
You know, I last time I flew. I don't travel
very often. Last time I did. You know, you go
through the process, and they've gotten handsier over the years. Boy,
and perhaps perhaps sensing my discomfort, they told me, hey,
if you give us eighty dollars, I won't grab your junk.
Now I considered it, and I don't fly enough to
(11:17):
make it worth my while, But man if I did,
and I could get on the no grab junk lift,
I'd like to do. And that's the thing they have.
They have made it so you can't even feel secure
in your person. You might get pat down, felt up
an X ray just trying to get from point A
to point B. It is did you ever vote for this?
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah? It is wild to watch this too, that it's
finally coming around, as folks like to call the most
enduring term, I believe ts a thousands standing around, but
it is. It is nice to know. It is nice
to know that it's finally going, and so your podcast
will be about that this weekend. We'll be looking forward
to it. James Dixon always a pleasure in the meantime
(12:02):
down at I seventy five over on x make sure
you look him up and find what am I one
of my favorite places to do, so right there. Always
a pleasure, my friend.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Thank you, justin I appreciate you.
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