The story
Founded by Charles Alfred Pillsbury and John S. Pillsbury in 1872, in Minneapolis.1
Founding and early development
C. A. Pillsbury and Company was founded in 1869 by Charles Alfred Pillsbury and his uncle John S. Pillsbury. The company was second in the United States (after Washburn-Crosby) to use steel rollers for processing grain. The finished product required transportation, so the Pillsburys assisted in funding railroad development in Minnesota.
In 1889, Pillsbury and its five mills on the banks of the Mississippi River were purchased by a British company. The company also tried to purchase and merge with the Washburn Crosby Company (a precursor of General Mills), but the principals at Washburn prevented the takeover.
In 1923, the Pillsbury family reacquired "Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company, Limited" which subsequently was incorporated in 1935 as "Pillsbury Flour Mills Company".
1950s
In 1949, the company introduced a national baking competition, which came to be known as the Pillsbury Bake-Off; it was nationally broadcast on CBS for many years and resulted in a series of successful cookbooks that helped market Pillsbury brands.
Only seven products used the Pillsbury name in 1950, but the company began adding to its product line. In 1951 they acquired Ballard & Ballard Company, and 1957 brought the beginning of packaged biscuit dough, which would become one of the company's most important and profitable product lines in later decades.The company began advertising heavily on television. In 1957, Pillsbury commissioned a TV commercial jingle (from its advertising agency Leo Burnett) with the main lyrics "Nothin' says lovin/Like somethin' from the oven/And Pillsbury says it best". The jingle became a well-known signature of the company and was used, with modifications, for at least 20 years.
Later corporate acquisitions included restaurants such as Burger King, Steak and Ale, Bennigan's, Godfather's Pizza, Häagen-Dazs, and Quik Wok, plus popular grocery store food brands such as Green Giant.
1960s–1970s
Advertising company Leo Burnett created Pillsbury's Doughboy in 1965.
In the 1960s, Pillsbury added Sweet* 10 made with cyclamate, which became the most popular artificial sweetener. In 1964, Pillsbury introduced Funny Face Drink Mix with the names Goofy Grape, Rootin' Tootin' Raspberry, Freckle Face Strawberry, Loud Mouth Lime, Chinese Cherry (later Choo-Choo Cherry), and Injun Orange (later Jolly Olly Orange). Lefty Lemon followed in 1965, along with other flavors. The Funny Face characters, as well as the Funny Face brand were created in 1963 by Hal Silverman, a Creative Director at Campbell Mithun Advertising. When cyclamate was banned, Sweet* 10 and Funny Face were eliminated, resulting in a $4.5 million loss. Both products were re-introduced after changes, and the drinks became available sweetened and unsweetened.
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Another drink mix introduced in 1966 was Moo Juice, a flavored powder that when combined with milk in a shaker, produced a milkshake. Moo Juice was also created by Hal Silverman. Its TV commercial featured a talking animation of the product's cartoon cow head mascot voiced by comedian Frank Fontaine. Moo Juice was short-lived, as its milkshakes tended to be thin compared to similar products such as Borden's Frosted and Birds Eye's Thick and Frosty.
Among the other kid foods that Silverman created for Pillsbury was Nugget Town, chocolate flavored nuggets that came in eight different, collectable packages that when popped open and folded made into a whole western town. The TV commercial featured comedian Buddy Hackett as the voice of the town's little bear sheriff. Also, there was Gorilla Milk—"...you'll go ape for Gorilla Milk, a glass in the morning and you'll swing all day"—a protein additive that turned milk into an instant breakfast. This product, aimed at teenagers, was not successful going against Carnation Instant Breakfast.
That decade, Pillsbury also created Space Food Sticks to capitalize on the popularity of the space program. Space Food Sticks were developed by Robert Muller, the inventor of the HACCP standards used by the food industry to ensure food safety.
When NASA astronaut Scott Carpenter launched into space on Mercury capsule Aurora 7 in 1962, he was carrying with him the first solid space food – small food cubes developed by Pillsbury's research and development department. Taking Pillsbury scientists more than a year to develop, space food cubes were followed by other space-friendly foods, such as cake that was not crumbly, relish that could be served in slices and meat that needed no refrigeration.
Pillsbury acquired the Burger King fast food chain in 1967. Pillsbury bought out Green Giant in 1979.
1980s and after
The Pillsbury Company bought Häagen-Dazs in 1983. Then in 1985, Pillsbury acquired Diversifoods, the largest Burger King franchisee in the U.S. and parent company of Godfather's Pizza. In 1988, Pillsbury sold the Godfather's Pizza chain to a management-led group as part of the company's restructuring moves.
In 1989, the British company Grand Metropolitan (later Diageo) purchased the food maker, and during this ownership period the company divested itself of all production and distribution facilities (contracting these functions to other companies), making itself simply a marketing entity for its own brands (Pillsbury, Green Giant, Old El Paso, Totino's, etc.) Pillsbury sold all of their restaurant brands and exited the business completely by the late 1990s. In 1999, Pillsbury and Nestlé merged their U.S. and Canadian ice cream operations into a joint venture called Ice Cream Partners.
In 2001 Nestlé exercised its contractual right to buy General Mills' interest in Ice Cream Partners, which included the right to a 99-year license for the Häagen-Dazs brand. Pursuant to that license, the Dreyer's subsidiary of Nestlé produced and marketed Häagen-Dazs products in the United States and Canada.
In 2001, Diageo sold Pillsbury to General Mills. The baking products division was sold to International Multifoods Corporation, which was later acquired by Smucker's.
From Wikipedia’s article on Pillsbury (brand), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4