Charlestown, Massachusetts. Recent company acquisitions by HP Hood have expanded its reach from predominantly New England to the broader United States
. Today, the company has an annual sales revenue of about $3.2 billion and more than 3,400 employees.
From 1980 to 1995, HP Hood was owned by Agway. That year, the company was acquired by the Kaneb Family.[1][2] HP Hood is an independently owned, private company and is listed at #216 on the Forbes "America's Largest Private Companies 2018" list.[3]
History
In 1984, HP Hood was the first dairy to bring Lactaid-branded milk to the New England market;[4] entrepreneur Alan Kligerman had introduced the Lactaid brand of lactase dietary supplements in 1977[5] and then started to license the brand to dairies in 1982.[6] In 1987, HP Hood, which had always been focused on New England, went nationwide for the first time with a low-fat ice milk product, Hood Light.[4]
In early 1991, Kligerman licensed the Lactaid brand to Johnson & Johnson subsidiary McNeil, which launched a massive advertising campaign that turned Lactaid into J&J's fastest-growing brand of the 1990s.[5] 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.[7]
In 2001, HP Hood renegotiated its contract with McNeil and became the official supplier of Lactaid milk for the entire United States market.[7] By 2004, Lactaid was the No. 1 national brand of milk in the United States.[8]
In 2017, the company purchased a former Muller Quaker plant in Batavia, New York.[11] In 2022, the company purchased land in Greenville, Texas,[12] and has plans to expand capacity.