Bakery company McKee Foods has been feeding Americans for nearly 100 years. While the organization is best known for making snack cakes under the brand name Little Debbie, it has become one big bakery business, pulling in a reported $1.9 billion in annual sales. What's more, the household name's leaders—through production expansion and continued innovation—plan on getting bigger.

In the beginning
The Great Depression might not seem like the ideal time to kick off a business, but that’s where McKee Foods got its start. Founder O.D. McKee began small in 1934, selling snack cakes from the back of his car (a 1928 Whippet) around Chattanooga, TN, for a nickel apiece. Word got around, business took off, and O.D. and his wife Ruth were able use the resulting proceeds to buy a small, shuttered bakery using that Whippet as collateral.

Times at first were tough—the McKees set up shop in front of the facility and the family lived in the back, with a sheet dividing work and home. Eventually, their hard work, sacrifice, and business chemistry paid off and McKee Foods began to grow.

“O.D. was the visionary—he was on top of things from production, he was the engineering genius,” says Kenny Hammontree, brand manager. “His wife, Ruth was very pragmatic; she was more cautious. They balanced each other perfectly and laid the groundwork for the organization to grow from very humble beginnings to where it is today.”

In 1960, O.D. and Ruth started selling McKee Foods’ first family pack of baked goods; the couple and their children, though, found themselves wracking their noggins trying to come up with a fitting name for their line of snacks. A packaging salesman that happened to be in the office started helping them brainstorm when, Hammontree relates, he asked about their kids and grandkids. When they mentioned granddaughter Debbie, the salesman’s ears perked up.

“He asked, “Do you have a picture of Debbie?’” Hammontree says. “He happened to have a picture in his office—the picture that is now iconic, of Debbie wearing the little cowgirl hat—and with that, the brand was born.”

Going and growing
McKee Foods started adding to the Little Debbie portfolio of snack cakes, with many of the items popping up in the McKees’ heads, then onto shelves, in the early days still around today.

“In the 1960s, some of the core products were Oatmeal Creme Pies, Zebra Cakes, Nutty Buddy, which are still around today and doing well, then expanded with Fudge Brownies in the late ‘60s,” Hammontree says. "Then every few years, new products were coming out that have become iconic, things like the Fudge Rounds; and then in the '70s and in the '80s you have Christmas Tree Cakes that have become so beloved and launched us as a seasonal powerhouse—when [consumers] think about Christmas season or other seasons, they think about Little Debbie products.”

Other favorites like breakfast-friendly Honey Buns and colorful Cosmic Brownies came in the 1990s, and many others have since joined the lineup. Along with the growing number of SKUs, the company has also grown production and distribution, with manufacturing facilities in Arkansas and Virginia, a distribution center in Arizona, and the items found on retail shelves across the U.S.

As McKee’s Little Debbie line has bloomed, the brand also has expanded beyond the snack-cake aisle. A partnership with cereal giant W.K. Kellogg led to the creation of several breakfast cereals modeled after signature Little Debbie items, such as Oatmeal Cream Pies and Cosmic Brownies. Also, a line of Little Debbie frozen treats (created in collaboration with Hudsonville Ice Cream) has brought the brand into freezer cases. Hammontree reports another notable collaboration has extended the brand’s reach into home goods.

“We actually have a partnership with Goose Creek Candles where they launched a variety of candles, including Cosmic Brownie Candles,” he reports. “So, if you don't want to eat a Cosmic Brownie, you can have the scent of a Cosmic Brownie throughout your home with the candle.”

Company culture
As McKee Foods has expanded over the years, it has managed to remain a family business. Sons Ellsworth and Jack and still hold leadership roles across the country, whose brands also include Sunbelt Bakery, Drake’s Cakes, and Fieldstone Bakery. The fourth generation of McKees are joining the operation, and even Little Debbie herself (now Debbie McKee-Fowler, and not so little anymore) remains actively a part of the firm.

“She's the mascot, she's the face of the brand, but she is still involved,” remarks Hammontree. “Debbie's generation is in senior management right now. The fourth generation is involved now—Debbie recently retired from day-to-day involvement, but she is still the chairman of the board. We see her around the bakery often, and her cousins are still involved, nieces and nephews...”

And Hammontree says everyone at McKee Foods takes its storied history and positive reputation very seriously.

“The heart that the McKee family put into from day one is still part of the culture here,” he says. “People care about the brand—people constantly are talking about what will the consumers think, the people actually eating the cake. Everyone involved in the company wants the final person who's eating the product to love it and have passion about it and enjoy it.”

Big and small
Among the many McKee Foods is its Mini Muffins, made in a range of flavors (some of which are inspired by Cosmic Brownies and other snack cake iterations). The diminutive baked bites are popular with consumers looking for a quick, convenient breakfast, but the multi-packed products are enjoyed by consumers in all-day snacking occasions.

“With the multi-packs, you get portion control—you don't have to take the whole thing and risk eating all of them in one sitting,” offers Hammontree. “You get to take that little bit of fun for breakfast and start your day off or snack anytime. I'm the kind of person that I eat muffins anytime. I'm not going to say, ‘No, it's past noon, I'm not going to eat these muffins.’"

The Mini Muffins might themselves be tiny, but their success in recent years has McKee Foods betting big on their future. In 2023, the company told the world an ambitious expansion of its Apson Pike facility (situated near its Collegedale, TN headquarters) they had originally announced in 2020—just as the pandemic was shutting things down around the world—was underway, with an estimated price tag of about $500 million.

“As we've grown as more and more consumers have fallen in love with the brand and shared it across generations, the demand for the product has grown, and we've just needed to keep pace with that,” Hammontree relates. “We've opened the facility now—we don't have all the lines full, we're expanding that, but it is an investment in the community and our hometown. It brings more jobs, it brings more excitement, and really further cements our location in Chattanooga and ourselves as part of the city.”

With the new facility comes new equipment, and according to Hammontree, the company tends to invest in the best.

“We’re always looking to be cutting edge,” he comments. “Every decade is different with the company; this is just the next step towards the future.”

McKee Foods, in addition to keeping its eye on the latest technology, also prioritizes food safety as well as protecting its workers: “The new facility's the latest step, the expansion of technology that keeps McKee Foods at the forefront of food safety but also of employee safety, of making sure that we have employees that are doing work that's ergonomically well-designed so that they are safe, that they can go home to their families and be sharing memories of their work day and sharing experiences with their family. In addition to that, we are looking to expand and lay the groundwork now for not only what we are making today, but what we can be making in the future and how we grow from there.”

Cakes and community
While McKee Foods and Little Debbie are part of many consumers’ regular snacking, the company also works to ensure it is part of communities it operates in, Hammontree says.

“It certainly is been part of the McKee culture to care about our communities, whether it's the Collegedale community within the Chattanooga area or each of our facilities in Stuarts Draft, VA; Gentry, AR; and Kingman, AZ; and to be a part of the fabric of the community.”

One of the ways McKee has given back to its local communities is creating resources that nearby residents can enjoy.

“Recently in Collegedale, we opened Little Debbie Park, where we actually have giant structures, like a giant Nutty Buddy,” Hammontree reports. “We looked at that almost hand in hand with the plant expansion—it's economic, but it's also for community as a whole. It’s adding jobs but it's also making employees' families' lives better.”

Continued innovation
“We have a wonderful product development team, and our marketing team—the brand team works closely with that group,” Hammontree says. “We work closely across the organization to really understand what our capabilities are, but more so what matters for consumers—what do they want?”

The company takes a thoughtful, thorough approach to development of products, with multiple levels of product testing, internal discussions, and interaction with consumers before a product idea becomes product reality.

“People have grown up with Little Debbie, so a Little Debbie product has to not only be a good product in and of itself, but also to resonate with the consumers who love the brand and carry on that legacy of decades of the Little Debbie brand.”

And while Hammontree cannot reveal specifics about what Little Debbie creations the company is working on, he reveals efforts on products and projects will continue to focus on what its customers hunger for.

“We always are looking at new products; we're looking at what the consumers want,” he says. “We’re looking at different ways that we can build on what consumers love and expect from McKee Foods.” SF&WB