The Pillsbury Company
The Pillsbury logo
|
|
 Pillsbury Cake Mix (a Smucker Co. product) |
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| Product type | Refrigerated and baking products |
|---|---|
| Owner |
General Mills (The Pillsbury Company) (brand owner; refrigerated products manufacturer) The J.M. Smucker Company (brand licensee; baking products manufacturer) |
| Country | U.S. |
| Introduced | 1872 |
| Ambassador(s) | Pillsbury Doughboy |
| Tagline | Give it a Pop |
| Website |
pillsbury.com pillsburybaking.com |
| Public | |
| Industry | Food processing |
| Fate | Acquired by General Mills; assets divided |
| Successor | General Mills |
| Founded | Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., 1872 |
| Defunct | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Website | www |
Pillsbury is an American brand name used by Minneapolis-based General Mills and Orrville, Ohio-based J.M. Smucker Company. Historically, the Pillsbury Company, also based in Minneapolis, was a rival company to General Mills and was one of the world's largest producers of grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought out by General Mills in 2001. Antitrust law required General Mills to sell off some of the products. General Mills kept the rights to refrigerated and frozen Pillsbury products, while dry baking products and frosting are now sold by Smucker under license.
Leo Burnett created Pillsbury's Doughboy and Jolly Green Giant, which are two of the agency's top brand icons.
C.A. Pillsbury and Company was founded in 1872 by Charles Alfred Pillsbury and his uncle John S. Pillsbury. The company was second only to Washburn-Crosby to use steel rollers for processing grain in the United States. 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.
In 1949, the company introduced a national baking competition, which would come to be known as the Pillsbury Bake-Off; it was nationally broadcast on CBS for many years.
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Wikipedia