Pet, Inc.
Former American branded foods company / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Pet, Inc. was an American company that was the first to commercially produce evaporated milk as a shelf-stable consumer product with its "PET Milk" brand.[1] While evaporated milk was popular before refrigerators were common in homes, sales peaked in the 1950s and it is now a niche product used in baking and as a cooking ingredient.
Formerly |
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Company type | Private |
Industry | Dairy |
Founded | 1885; 139 years ago (1885) in Highland, Illinois |
Founder | John Meÿenberg |
Defunct | 1995; 29 years ago (1995) |
Fate | Acquired by Pillsbury, becoming a brand |
Headquarters | , United States |
Products | Evaporated milk |
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Website |
PET anticipated this change and starting in the 1950s became a multi-brand food products conglomerate through a series of acquisitions. This gave it ownership of consumer brands like Old El Paso Mexican foods, Progresso soups, Whitman's chocolates, Underwood canned meats, and others. Pet was a subsidiary of multi-industry conglomerate IC Industries between 1978 and 1991 when it once again became independent.
Pet ceased independent operations in 1995 when it was acquired by the Pillsbury Company with "PET" becoming a Pillsbury brand.[2] When Pillsbury was acquired by General Mills in 2001, the PET brand was sold to International Multifoods to avoid antitrust concerns. Multifoods in turn was acquired by J.M. Smucker in 2004 who spun off its US sweetened condensed and evaporated milk operations, including PET, as Eagle Family Foods Group in 2014.
The "PET" trademark is owned by Eagle who still produce the PET Milk brand of evaporated milk. Eagle also licenses the PET trademark to the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) farmers cooperative who use the "PET Dairy" brand as a regional tradename for fresh and processed dairy products sold in the Southeastern United States.