Who Owns Hungry Jack?

Hungry Jack emerged in the 1960s under International Multifoods, the Minneapolis milling company that descended from New Prague Milling, founded in 1892. Multifoods built Hungry Jack into a national value brand spanning pancake mixes, table syrup, and dehydrated potato products, marketing it as an affordable alternative to Bisquick and Aunt Jemima.

The brand rode the growth of center-store convenience foods through the 1970s and 1980s, with the grinning hungry lumberjack character anchoring advertising. Multifoods itself consolidated through the 1990s, acquiring the Pillsbury dessert and specialty baking lines from General Mills in 2001.

Smucker's $840 million takeover of Multifoods closed June 18, 2004, its largest acquisition at the time and part of a strategy to become a center-store staple supplier across breakfast and baking. Two years later, Smucker sold Hungry Jack's potato business to Basic American Foods and focused the brand entirely on breakfast.

Today Hungry Jack remains the leading value-priced national pancake and syrup brand, positioned below Bisquick and Pearl Milling in price while holding full national distribution.