Pillsbury is not owned by a single company worldwide; different parts of the brand are owned by different companies in different product categories and regions.
Main ownership today
- General Mills owns and markets most of the refrigerated and frozen Pillsbury products (like refrigerated doughs and Toaster Strudel) and generally presents Pillsbury as one of its core brands.
- Brynwood Partners, a private-equity firm, owns the U.S. shelf‑stable Pillsbury baking mixes and flour business, which it bought from J.M. Smucker in 2018.
How it ended up this way
- Diageo (through its predecessor Grand Metropolitan) sold Pillsbury to General Mills in 2001, but antitrust conditions required that certain baking product lines be spun off.
- Those flour and cake-mix lines were first sold to International Multifoods, then to J.M. Smucker in 2004, and finally to Brynwood Partners in 2018, which is why the Pillsbury logo appears on products from both General Mills and Brynwood today.
Who owns what (summary table)
Pillsbury segment| Current owner
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Refrigerated/frozen dough products| General Mills 368
Toaster Strudel and similar items| General Mills 36
Shelf‑stable baking mixes and flour| Brynwood Partners 23
