Heluva Good!
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food products |
| Founded | 1925 |
| Founder | Perry Messinger |
| Headquarters | Lynnfield, Massachusetts , United States |
Area served | United States, Canada |
Key people | George F.T. Yancey, Sr. (former owner) |
| Products | Cheeses, chip dips, sour cream, condiments |
| Parent | HP Hood LLC |
Heluva Good! is a U.S.-based company known for its range of cheeses, chip dips, sour cream, and condiments. Since 2004, it has operated as a subsidiary of the dairy firm HP Hood LLC, following HP Hood's acquisition of Crowley Foods. The company’s headquarters are located in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. Heluva Good! products are sold in grocery outlets throughout the United States and Canada. From 1980 until its 2015 closure, a Heluva Good! Country Store served customers in Wallington, New York, near Sodus. Cheese packaging was formerly conducted at a Sodus facility, which also ceased operations in 2015.
History
The origins of Heluva Good! trace back to 1925 when Sodus local Perry Messinger began producing washed curd cheese as a leisure activity in the basement of the A.B. Williams Company, where he was owner and manager. The brand name "Heluva Good!" reportedly came from a traveling salesman’s enthusiastic remark about the cheese. Messinger officially launched the business by opening a cheese shop in 1939 and registered the Heluva Good! name the following year.
Messinger ran the enterprise as a small, family-focused operation, incorporating playful branding techniques such as listing imaginary executives like Father Time as President—a character that appeared on product packaging for over five decades. The company counted prominent figures like Franklin D. Roosevelt and Jimmy Doolittle among its notable patrons.
In 1955, ownership transferred to George F.T. Yancey, Sr. from Rochester, New York. Under Yancey and his son’s leadership, Heluva Good! grew regionally and diversified its offerings to include additional cheeses, chip dips, and condiments.
Heluva Good! was acquired by Crowley Foods of Binghamton, New York in 1984. Two decades later, HP Hood took over Crowley Foods. In 2006, the company refreshed its packaging design by temporarily removing the Father Time mascot before bringing it back later.
The brand also engaged in motorsports sponsorships, notably supporting NASCAR races such as the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 held at Michigan International Speedway during 2010 and 2011.
On April 19, 2015, HP Hood declared it would close both the Sodus cheese packaging plant and the Wallington Country Store by June 26, 2015; however, warehouse and delivery functions persisted until July. Production of cheese was relocated to Schreiber Foods’ facility in Green Bay, Wisconsin, while chip dips and condiments continued to be manufactured at HP Hood’s Arkport, New York location. This shift sparked some consumer dissatisfaction locally due to the loss of regional manufacturing. HP Hood cited prevailing market conditions as the main reason behind these closures.