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
New Kensington, Pennsylvania 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 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. 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. == Notable achievements ==