Sealtest Dairy was a division of National Dairy Products Corporation (predecessor to Kraft Foods, Inc.) of Delaware. The brand name was later acquired by Ault Foods of Toronto, Ontario and used on dairy products sold in Canada. The Sealtest plant in Toronto took over operations of Silverwood Dairy, the local dairy, in the 1980s. Sealtest brand is now licensed by Natrel.
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Sealtest had its own milk and ice cream parlor, but those two are now owned by Parmalat and Nestlé, respectively. Sealtest also sponsored an ice cream store at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida named Sealtest Ice Cream Parlor and Sealtest Ice Cream Wagon.[1] At one time, the advertising agency on record, Young & Rubicam, wanted to reintroduce the brand as "Now with Natural Vanilla." Consumers responded that they believed the brand to be "all natural" already and the effort to increase brand spending was ended before it went to market.
Sealtest had milk and ice cream plants all across the northeastern part of the United States - there were big operations in Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Huntington, Indiana, Rockford, Illinois, and Philadelphia, as well as New York City. It also had operations in the Mid-South, based out of Memphis, Tennessee.
The Milwaukee operation was purchased from a family-owned dairy operation, Luick Dairy, in the late 1940s or after. The Sealtest brand was originally a franchise, much like the 'Quality Chekd' dairy brand - local milk bottlers bought the rights to the Sealtest name in their market areas. Luick and presumably all the other franchisees were bought up by National Dairy Co.
Sealtest Dairy Company was founded and operated by Vernon F. Hovey. After his death, the company was turned over to his two sons. They ran the business in the state of New York, before selling the business.
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