Bush Brothers and Company
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| Corporation (Family-owned) | |
| Industry | Food processing |
| Founded | Chestnut Hill, Tennessee, USA (1908) |
| Founder | A.J. Bush |
| Headquarters | Knoxville, Tennessee, USA |
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Key people
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Jim Ethier (Chairman and CEO) |
| Website | www.bushbeans.com |
Bush Brothers & Company is a family-owned corporation best known for its Bush's Best brand canned baked beans. The company produces approximately 80 percent of the canned baked beans consumed in the United States, representing estimated annual sales in excess of $400 million and the processing of more than 55 million pounds of beans per year. In addition, the company also offers other canned beans (black, garbanzo, pinto, and refried), as well as peas, hominy, and cut green beans. Based in Knoxville, Tennessee, Bush Brothers operates plants in Augusta, Wisconsin and Chestnut Hill, Tennessee. Its canned goods are sold through retail food outlets and food service operators throughout the United States and Canada.
In 1904, A. J. (Andrew Jackson) Bush partnered with the Stokely family to open a tomato cannery in Chestnut Hill, Tennessee. His cannery proved so profitable that, by 1908, he was able to buy out the Stokelys' interest and establish his own independent business. He entered into partnership with his two oldest sons, Fred and Claude, and established Bush Brothers & Company.
In 1922, A.J. Bush took out a $945 loan on his life insurance policy and used his bank line of credit to incorporate his business. Bush Brothers & Company was incorporated in June 1922, and Fred Bush (A.J.'s oldest son) was named president. (Fred was also a Director of the National Canners Association, the primary industry trade group for canning companies.)
The company's canning operations originally began with laborious, manual processes, then expanding with steam powered engines, and eventually evolving on into electric powered factory machinery.
During the 1920s, Bush Brothers & Company began expanding its operations to include products other than tomatoes. The company constructed a small canning factory in Clinton, Tennessee in 1923, and began canning both tomatoes and peaches in 1924. The year 1928 saw the company's expansion into corn and hominy, as well as the lease of the Smith Brothers & Company's Oak Grove corn processing plant just outside Dandridge, Tennessee. And in 1930, Bush Brothers opened a new plant in LaFollette, Tennessee, where it processed blueberries in addition to tomatoes.
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Wikipedia