Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Inc. (or simply Dreyer's) is an American ice cream and frozen dairy dessert company, founded in 1928 in Oakland, California. The company's two signature brands, Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream and Edy's Grand Ice Cream, are named after its founders, William Dreyer and Joseph Edy. The Dreyer's brand is sold in the Western United States and Texas, while the Edy's brand is sold in the Eastern and Midwestern United States. In 2020, Froneri, the joint venture between Nestlé and PAI Partners, agreed to take over all of Nestlé's U.S. ice cream businesses, including Dreyer's, Häagen-Dazs, and Drumstick. Joseph Oliver Edy was born in Missouri and raised in Montana. Edy operated a homemade candy and ice cream parlor at 122 North Broadway in Billings, Montana during the 1910s. In the 1920s, he and his wife Grace decided to join his brother in California. In 1925, Joseph Edy opened the doors to Edy's Character Candies Shop in Oakland. Edy's high-quality candy quickly became recognized as among the best in the East Bay Area, and Edy was soon operating six shops. William Dreyer also ran a business in the 1920s, an ice cream manufacturing venture in the California dairy country community of Visalia. In 1926, he was recruited to run a large new plant in Oakland for National Ice Cream. While in Oakland, he met Joe Edy.

In 1928, Edy and Dreyer decided to join forces to manufacture ice cream. They secured a small factory and launched Edy's Grand Ice Cream (the "Grand" reflected their street address on Grand Avenue in Oakland). Hence they market under the Dreyer's name in the Western United States and Texas, and under the Edy's name in the Eastern and Midwestern United States.

In 2002, Nestlé agreed to acquire 67% of Dreyer's for $3.2 billion.

Timeline

thumb|Edy's (brand from the Edy's Grand Ice Cream) delivery truck pictured in [[Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2010]]

  • 1906: William Dreyer made his first frozen dessert to celebrate his ship's arrival in America from Germany.
  • 1982: Dreyer's introduces a new flavor, Cookies N Cream. Unlike traditional churning methods, the ice cream does not need to be frozen once it is done churning. Since this freezing stage produces large ice crystals, which gives the ice cream a grainy texture, manufacturers would add milk fat to counterbalance the grainy texture. As this extra freezing process isn't necessary with low-temperature extrusion, the "slow churned" line of ice cream is labeled as containing two-thirds the calories and half the fat of "regular" ice cream. Dreyer's has also extended this process to other brands besides its two flagship brands, such as Häagen-Dazs, which it produces under a license from General Mills.
  • 2020: Nestle sells all of its US ice cream businesses, including Dreyer's, Häagen-Dazs, and Drumstick to Froneri for $4 billion.