How McKee Foods, producer of Little Debbie, was built to last in the Chattanooga area

Photography courtesy McKee Foods / Early McKee Foods production line photo. Workers would pipe creme and cap cookies by hand. These processes are all modernized today. Photography courtesy McKee Foods / Early McKee Foods production line photo. Workers would pipe creme and cap cookies by hand. These processes are all modernized today.

By Jennifer McNally November 1, 2022 3 min read

Then

The McKee Foods story began in 1934 during the height of the Great Depression when founder O.D. McKee began selling 5-cent snack cakes from the back of his car. Soon after, he and his wife, Ruth, bought a small bakery on Main Street in Chattanooga, using the family car as collateral.

Now

Today, McKee Foods employs more than 6,400 people in Collegedale, Tennessee; Gentry, Arkansas; Stuarts Draft, Virginia; and Kingman, Arizona, with annual sales exceeding $1.4 billion. The company creates and produces Little Debbie baked goods, Drake’s cakes, Sunbelt Bakery snacks and Fieldstone Bakery food products.

McKee Foods remains a family-owned operation. The third generation runs the business today, with the fourth working their way up through the ranks to learn every aspect of the business. The company operates one of the largest private trucking fleets in the United States, shipping more than 9 million cartons of sweet baked goods per year.