Frozen pizza

Pillsbury is the third largest frozen pizza marketer in the U.S. The Jeno’s and Totino’s labels are value-based lines, while Pappalo’s caters to a slightly higher quality, premium-priced group.

In 1905, Gennaro Lombardi opened the first pizzeria in the U.S. Pizza did not become popular until after World War II. War veterans who had been stationed in Italy returned home craving the pizza they had eaten there. In the 1950s, Celentano Brothers became the first brand of frozen pizza to be marketed nationally.

The first major investment in frozen pizzas occurred in 1962 when Rose Totino initiated mass production. Totino used crust she purchased in Chicago and topped it with ingredients at her company in Minnesota.

In her quest to avoid cardboard-like crust, Totino was granted a patent for dough in 1979 that was designed for freezing and subsequent baking. Totino’s Finer Foods became a nationwide business, Rose hire brokers, people who will sell a product in different towns, to sell her pizzas across the country.

In November 1975, Pillsbury entered the frozen pizza business by acquiring Totino’s Finer Foods, Inc., a leading manufacturer and seller of frozen prepared pizza, with sales in excess of $39 million in its fiscal year ending October 31, 1975, which Pillsbury now operates as its frozen foods division. For its fiscal year ending October 31 1976, Pillsbury frozen food division had frozen prepared pizza sales in excess of $48 million.
Frozen pizza

History of frozen pizza

The technological innovation of the home freezer, which proliferated in the 1950s, made possible the rise of the frozen pizza market. By 1972, one in every three households had a home freezer.

In Newark, the Celentano brothers opened an Italian specialty shop in 1947. Their product line included every imaginable meat and cheese, freshly made, for Italian cooking. In 1957, the brothers applied their expertise to pizza, making a frozen version available for home cooking.

Pizza soon became the most popular of all frozen foods. Soon after, Rose and Jim Totino, owners of one of the frist pizzerias in Minneapolis, who had opened a pizza parlor in 1952, came out with their own brand of frozen pizza.

Totino’s Finer Foods became a nationwide business. Rose hire brokers, people who will sell a product in different towns, to sell her pizzas across the country.

Pillsbury acquired Totino’s in 1975 for $20 million, giving them a nationwide market in frozen food distribution. By 1969, Totino’s frozen pizza had cornered the market with 75% of all frozen pizza sales, but it faces the competition of an emerging rival, Tombstone, bought by Kraft in 1986.
History of frozen pizza