Pet Milk Company

Pet Milk Company traces its roots to 1885, when Helvetia Milk Condensing Company was founded in Highland, Illinois. It was later associated with the PET brand of evaporated milk, a product that became widely recognized in American kitchens and helped make the company a familiar name in the food industry.

As the business grew, it broadened its reach beyond canned milk. Under the name Pet, Inc., the company added other food brands and businesses, becoming a more diversified packaged-food company over the 20th century.

Pet, Inc. was eventually acquired by Pillsbury in 1995, and Pillsbury itself later became part of General Mills. That long path from a regional milk condenser to a nationally known food company helps explain why the PET name still carries a strong sense of food-history nostalgia.