Our History
When our friends discover Eagle Foods is less than 10 years old, they can’t believe it. It’s true, though. Some of our brands have delighted customers for more than century.
So how can that be? It’s a simple story.
Eagle Foods was once a division of The J.M. Smucker Company. We took off on our own in December 2015 when founders Paul Wagstaff and Jeff Boyle took ownership of four iconic canned milk brands: Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk and Evaporated Milk, Magnolia® Sweetened Condensed Milk, PET® Milk, and Milnot Evaporated Milk.
Then we started growing. The G.H. Cretors popcorn brand joined Eagle Foods in 2017, and we acquired the Helper and Suddenly Salad brands from General Mills in 2022.
Today, Eagle Foods offers consumers and retailers amazing products in three core categories: snacks, baking, and meals and sides. And we’re only getting started.
Still curious how we’ve grown? Check out the timeline below.
Gail Borden introduces Eagle Brand evaporated milk
PET milk company debuts as the Helvatia Milk Condensing Company
Charles Cretors patents the process for popping corn and the machine to do it with
Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders are supplied with PET milk during the Spanish-American War
Milnut evaporated milk debuts
Milnut renamed Milnot Elsie the Borden Cow makes her debut
A brass floor marker in the Seneca, Mo., Milnot plant denotes the Missouri-Oklahoma border, on which the plant was built.
Hamburger Helper debuts nationally
Helper introduces Lefty, its spokes character
Hamburger Helper lands at No. 3 in Food Network’s Top 5 Food Fads of the 1970s
Popcorn Indiana brand popcorn is introduced in the U.S.
Eagle Foods is established, named after the Eagle Brand condensed milk created by Gail Borden
For Eagle Foods, 2017 was poppin’. The company acquired both the Popcorn Indiana and G.H. Cretors brands.
Eagle Foods acquires Helper and Suddenly Salad brands
