With the passage of time, many leading brands shifted their direction from their original product business to other products and subsequently managed to find their place till now.
For example, surely many people don't know that once upon a time Peugeot was originally a flour mill!
This article will briefly tell about the business changes of famous brands that will change your view of them.
Nintendo
In 1889, Nintendo was a company that produced game cards that were also called 'Hanafuda cards'. It is very famous and prevalent among Japanese mafia gangs for gambling purposes.
In addition, this company also tried to switch to other businesses such as hospitality but it was not well received. By 1983, Nintendo began to venture into the field of video games after releasing its first game console. In 1996, the Nintendo 64 appeared with 3D graphics.
Wrigley
The father of William Wrigley Jr had a shop selling soap, every purchase of soap in his shop would be gifted with free items such as umbrellas to attract the hearts of his customers. The umbrella then turns into chewing gum. The store also turned into a store selling baking powder. People loved the gum and asked Wigley to sell it. Wrigley then partnered with the Zeno chewing gum manufacturing company and changed his company name to Wm Wrigley Jr. Company.
Peugeot
Jean-Pierre and Jean-Frederic Peugeot are two brothers who are also the founders of the European car brand, Peugeot. They have made a wise move when turning their flour mill into an iron factory that produces iron-based products including bicycles. Their business later expanded to the creation of three-wheeled cars. Peugeot then split into two divisions, one to make appliances and the other to make automobiles and bicycles. The parts eventually merged.
Shell
Around 1883, the Shell petroleum company used to import oriental shells for interior decoration which was popular in that era. Marcus and Samuel, the founders of Shell, then became interested in the oil business where they started transporting oil in tankers, and called themselves 'The tank syndicate'. The company subsequently merged with the Royal Dutch petroleum company and in 1907, the company was named Royal Dutch Petroleum. They reinvented their logo into a scallop-shaped shell that was previously mussel-shaped.
Motorola
When Paul Gavin started Motorola, his intention was to make car radios. Gavin later changed the name of the radio from Victrola to Motorola which is a combination of the words Moto (motor) and ola (sound). It also means 'sound in motion'. In 1960 and the following years, Motorola began to manufacture telephones and other IT equipment.
