Automatic Filling and Sealing Without the Use of Hands, H

HP Hood LLC is an American

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

company based in

Lynnfield, Massachusetts Lynnfield is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 13,000. Lynnfield initially consisted of two distinct villages with a single governing body. Lynnfield Center comprises mostly ...

. Hood was founded in 1846 in

Charlestown, Massachusetts Charlestown is the oldest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett tribe, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Boston, and also adjoins t ...

, by Harvey Perley Hood. Recent company acquisitions by HP Hood have expanded its reach from predominantly

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

to the broader

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Today, the company has an annual sales revenue of about $2.7 billion. Hood Blimp

From 1980 to 1995, HP Hood was owned by

Agway Agway of DeWitt, New York, is an American agricultural business that offers feed for livestock and poultry, as well as seed, fertilizers, and herbicides. History Agway was formed on July 25, 1964, from a merger between the Grange League Federati ...

. That year, the company was acquired by the Kaneb Family. HP Hood is an independently owned, private company and is listed at #216 on the Forbes "America's Largest Private Companies 2018" list.

History

In 1984, HP Hood was the first dairy to bring Lactaid-branded milk to the

market; Available through

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...

. entrepreneur Alan Kligerman had introduced the Lactaid brand of

lactase Lactase is an enzyme produced by many organisms. It is located in the brush border of the small intestine of humans and other mammals. Lactase is essential to the complete digestion of whole milk; it breaks down lactose, a sugar which gives m ...

dietary supplements in 1977 Available through

. and then started to license the brand to dairies in 1982. In 1987, HP Hood, which had always been focused on New England, went nationwide for the first time with a low-fat

ice milk Ice milk, or iced milk, is a frozen dessert with less than 10 percent milk fat and the same sweetener content as ice cream. Ice milk is sometimes priced lower than ice cream. A 1994 change in United States Food and Drug Administration rules allow ...

product, Hood Light. In early 1991, Kligerman licensed the Lactaid brand to

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1886 that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company i ...

subsidiary McNeil, which launched a massive advertising campaign that turned Lactaid into J&J's fastest-growing brand of the 1990s. That same year, under McNeil's supervision of the brand, HP Hood became the official supplier of Lactaid milk for the

East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the coa ...

. Available through

. In 2001, HP Hood renegotiated its contract with McNeil and became the official supplier of Lactaid milk for the entire United States market. By 2004, Lactaid was the No. 1 national brand of milk in the United States. Available through

. In 2004, the company acquired

Crowley Foods Crowley Foods (legal name Crowley Foods LLC) is an American dairy company formerly based in Binghamton, New York. It has been a subsidiary of HP Hood LLC since being purchased by the company in 2004, which is headquartered in Lynnfield, Massach ...

, based in

Binghamton, New York Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

; and Kemps, based in

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...

. In 2007, HP Hood acquired Crystal Cream and Butter Company, based in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

, but then sold it that same year to

Foster Farms Dairy Crystal Creamery (formerly Foster Farms Dairy) was founded in 1901 by Max and Verda Foster in Modesto, California, a venture following their 1939 founding of Foster Farms. The company claims to be the "largest privately owned dairy in Califor ...

. In 2008, they acquired the ice cream business of

Brigham's Ice Cream Brigham's Ice Cream is a brand of ice cream and formerly a restaurant franchise. Brigham's is sold in quart containers throughout New England, and was served at franchised restaurants located in Massachusetts until 2013. It was founded in Newt ...

, based in

Arlington, Massachusetts Arlington is a New England town, town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The town is six miles (10 km) northwest of Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, and its population was 46,308 at the 2020 census. History ...

. These acquisitions effectively expanded the company's reach from

and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

to the broader

. In 2017, the company purchased a former Muller Quaker plant in Batavia, New York. In 2022, the company purchased land in Greenville, Texas, and has plans to expand capacity.

Brands

Current brands

*Hood *Simply Smart *Calorie Countdown *

Heluva Good! Heluva Good! is an American company specializing in cheeses, chip dips, sour cream and condiments. It has been a subsidiary of dairy company HP Hood LLC since the acquisition of Crowley Foods in 2004. The primary offices for the company are in Ly ...

*Axelrod Foods *M. Maggio Company *Penn Maid Foods *Booth Brothers Dairy *Green's Ice Cream *

*Hagan Ice Cream *Planet Oat *La Terra Fina *

Lactaid Lactase is an enzyme produced by many organisms. It is located in the brush border of the small intestine of humans and other mammals. Lactase is essential to the complete digestion of whole milk; it breaks down lactose, a sugar which gives mi ...

(brand of McNeil Nutritionals, LLC produced by HP Hood since 1984) *Hershey's milk and milkshakes (brand of

The Hershey Company The Hershey Company, commonly known as Hershey's, is an American multinational company and one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world. It also manufactures baked products, such as cookies and cakes, and sells beverages like milksh ...

produced by HP Hood since 2010)Hershey's Milk and Milkshakes - ''Hershey's Milk and Milkshakes Announces Product Line Expansion'' (January 29, 2013)
Retrieved Apr. 23, 2015. *Blue Diamond Almond Breeze (brand of

Blue Diamond Growers Blue Diamond Growers is an agricultural cooperative and marketing organization that specializes in California almonds. Founded in 1910 as the California Almond Grower's Exchange, the organization claims to be the world's largest tree nut pro ...

produced by HP Hood since 2008)''Sacramento Business Journal'' - ''New owners whip up work at old Crystal Cream plant'' by Melanie Turner (June 29, 2012)
Retrieved Apr. 23, 2015. *Southern Comfort Eggnog

Former brands

* Kemps (sold to

Dairy Farmers of America Dairy Farmers of America Inc. (DFA) is a national milk marketing cooperative in the United States. DFA markets members' raw milk and sells milk and derivative products (dairy products, food components, ingredients and shelf-stable dairy products) ...

in 2011)Kansas City Business Journal, ''Dairy Farmers of America Will Become Owner of Kemps'' (April 15, 2011)
Retrieved Feb. 6, 2015. ** Goodrich Ice Cream * Rosenberger's Dairy (sold to Balford Farms in 2014)WBNG Channel 12 Action News, ''Conklin Dairy Distribution Center Staying Open'' by Anna Norris (September 26, 2014)
, Retrieved Feb. 6, 2015. **Rosenberger's Dairy Wagon

Iconography

HP Hood is a

icon and their name and logo are well known. The smoke stack marked "Hoods Milk" at their former facility near

Sullivan Square Sullivan Square is a traffic circle located at the north end of the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is named after James Sullivan, an early 19th-century Governor of Massachusetts. Sullivan Square station on the MBTA Orange ...

, Charlestown remains a landmark. The 20-acre facility is being redeveloped as a mixed residential-commercial campus called the "Hood Park". The company ran a highway safety campaign called Hood Samaritan (see

Good Samaritan In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...

) circa 1960, that was later taken over by the

CVS Pharmacy CVS Pharmacy, Inc. is an American retail corporation. A subsidiary of CVS Health, it is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was also known as, and originally named, the Consumer Value Store and was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, in ...

chain. At

Boston Children's Museum Boston Children's Museum is a children's museum in Boston, Massachusetts, dedicated to the education of children. Located on Children's Wharf along the Fort Point Channel, Boston Children's Museum is the second oldest children's museum in the Unit ...

, the outdoor

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...

stand takes the form of a large Hood Milk Bottle. The Hood

blimp A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigid airships (e.g. Zeppelins), blimps rely on the pressure of the lifting gas (usually helium, rather than hydr ...

often appears at sport and cultural events (most often Red Sox home games above Boston, and the

Eastern States Exposition The Big E, formally known as The Eastern States Exposition, and billed as "New England's Great State fair", is the largest agricultural event on the eastern seaboard and the fifth-largest fair in the nation. The Big E is inclusive of all six of ...

in October). The Hood blimp made news on September 26, 2006 when it crashed in a wooded area near

Manchester-by-the-Sea Manchester-by-the-Sea (also known simply as Manchester, its name prior to 1989) is a coastal town on Cape Ann, in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is known for scenic beaches and vista points. According to the 2020 population ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. The Hoodsie cup, a small cardboard cup of ice cream, is an iconic product; the term "Hoodsie" is occasionally cited as a

shibboleth A shibboleth (; hbo, , šībbōleṯ) is any custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or even a single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another. Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many societies as passwor ...

of the Boston-area dialect. A United States Supreme Court case, '' H.P. Hood & Sons v. Du Mond'', was decided in the Hood Company's favor, in which the State of New York was prevented from withholding a license to acquire milk produced in New York, and sold in Massachusetts, based on the

dormant commerce clause The Dormant Commerce Clause, or Negative Commerce Clause, in American constitutional law, is a legal doctrine that courts in the United States have inferred from the Commerce Clause in Article I of the United States Constitution, Article I of the U ...

limitations on state intervention in interstate commerce. The company and their logo served as somewhat of an inspiration to the popular

Phish Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band is known for musical improvisation, extended jams, blending of genres, and a dedicated fan base. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon ...

tune "Harry Hood".

References

External links

* {{authority control Companies based in Lynnfield, Massachusetts Dairy products companies of the United States Companies formed by management buyout Privately held companies based in Massachusetts American companies established in 1846