Old El Paso is owned by General Mills (the United States, NYSE: GIS), which acquired the brand on 31 October 2001 from Diageo, as part of a $10.5 billion deal that also included Pillsbury and Häagen-Dazs.[1][2] Before General Mills, Old El Paso was owned by Diageo from 1989 to 2001.[2]
Evidence: General Mills, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2026-07-01, SEC EDGAR, 1 July 2026. Verified from filings; last checked .
Old El Paso is a Mexican-style meal kit brand dating to the 1930s, whose taco kits introduced many households outside Mexico to the format. General Mills acquired it with Pillsbury in 2001, and it is one of the largest Mexican food brands in Europe as well as North America.
A plain count of the times the name appears in the text of each annual report, not counting the start of a sentence. A brand that an owner writes about more is usually one it treats as central.
The USPTO record for the Old El Paso mark lists PET INCORPORATED as the owner of record (serial number 75090874). A trademark is often held by a group company rather than the listed parent, so the registrant's name can differ from the owner named above.[3]
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full General Mills ownership tree →
See the full General Mills brand portfolio (18) →
General Mills controls 18 brands on Brandtree, 17 of them in food.
The 74 brands in canned & shelf-stable meals on Brandtree belong to 43 owners. The largest is Thai Union, with 13.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken of the Sea | Thai Union | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
| Albert Heijn | Ahold Delhaize | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
| Bonduelle | Bonduelle | 🇫🇷 France |
| Heinz Baked Beans | Kraft Heinz | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Aunt Nellie's | Seneca Foods | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Aldi (Nord) | Aldi Nord | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| Aldi (Süd) | Aldi Süd | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| 365 by Whole Foods Market | Amazon | 🇺🇸 United States |
General Mills is a publicly listed company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, founded in 1856. Brandtree records 18 brands under its control, and it is listed as NYSE: GIS.
General Mills grew out of Minneapolis flour milling in the nineteenth century and incorporated under its present name in 1928. Cereal, snack bars, yoghurt and pet food are its largest businesses, and it holds Häagen-Dazs in North America.
General Mills: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,550 brands that began in the United States. 479 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Old El Paso is not one of them.
General Mills bought Pillsbury from Diageo, roughly doubling its size. The Federal Trade Commission required the divestiture of Pillsbury's dessert and specialty products business to International Multifoods before clearing the deal.
The parent company of Old El Paso is General Mills, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Yes. Old El Paso originated in the United States in 1938 and its owner, General Mills, is also headquartered in the United States.
General Mills completed its acquisition of Old El Paso on 31 October 2001, after announcing the deal on 17 July 2000. The deal, which also included Pillsbury and Häagen-Dazs, was valued at $10.5 billion (enterprise value).
Before General Mills, Old El Paso was owned by Diageo from 1989 until 2001.
Yes. As of 4 October 2026, Old El Paso is still owned by General Mills. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
Report a correction Opens a pre-filled GitHub issue. See our corrections policy.
Brandtree needs to remember this choice and does not set any other cookie unless you accept.
If you choose “Accept all”, we also use Google Analytics cookies to count visits and see which pages help, so we can improve the site.
If you choose “Accept required”, no analytics cookie is set. Google Analytics still receives a cookieless ping with the page address and your IP address. No advertising is used either way. Privacy policy