The story
In 1984, HP Hood was the first dairy to bring Lactaid-branded milk to the New England market; entrepreneur Alan Kligerman had introduced the Lactaid brand of lactase dietary supplements in 1977 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 product, Hood Light.
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. 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.
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.
In 2004, the company acquired Crowley Foods, based in Binghamton, New York; and Kemps, based in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 2007, HP Hood acquired Crystal Cream and Butter Company, based in Sacramento, California, but then sold it that same year to Foster Farms Dairy. In 2008, they acquired the ice cream business of Brigham's Ice Cream, based in Arlington, Massachusetts. These acquisitions effectively expanded the company's reach from New England and New York to the broader United States.
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.
From Wikipedia’s article on HP Hood, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5