Meet The Massive Bakery Behind Little Debbie Snacks (And Other Brands Too)

Most of us probably don't think much about where the average Little Debbie Swiss Roll comes from. It's just a quick and inexpensive treat that gets tossed into a lunchbox or backpack, or gobbled down from a break room vending machine. The story behind all of Little Debbie's beloved treats, however, is actually pretty sweet. In an era of large conglomerates, where many of the brand-name foods we can buy at the grocery store are owned by companies like Nestlé, Unilever, and General Mills, Little Debbie is produced by McKee Foods, a family-owned company that's remained independent for decades.

McKee Foods, which is headquartered in Collegedale, Tennessee, can trace its roots back to the 1930s. It all started when founders O.D. and Ruth McKee started selling 5-cent snack cakes out of the back of a 1928 Whippet. The family eventually bought a small bakery, and after decades of slowly building the brand, they perfected a line of shelf-stable cakes in the 1960s, which they named after their granddaughter, Debbie (yes, she's a real person who is still a part of the company). This decade is when the bakery took off from a small operation to a national brand, but unlike many of the company's competitors, like Hostess (owned by the J.M. Smucker Company), or Tastykake (owned by Flower Foods), McKee has managed to maintain its independence and grocery store identity after all these years.

McKee Foods is by no means a mom-and-pop business at this point. In addition to Little Debbie, the company currently oversees multiple national grocery store brands including Sunbelt Bakery, Drake's, Fieldstone Bakery, and Little Debbie Vending. Getting all those snack cakes and granola bars onto store shelves across the country is no small task, which is why the company operates four commercial bakeries: one in Tennessee (where there's also a Little Debbie park), as well as Arkansas, Virginia, and Arizona, with around 6,400 employees working to keep the country stocked up on oatmeal creme pies.

Despite the scale of the company's operation, however, McKee is in no way comparable to a conglomerate like Flower Foods, which operates 44 bakeries in 19 states and produces a much wider collection of recognizable brands, including Wonder and Dave's Killer Bread. But even though it might not be able to compete on that scale, McKee is also not beholden to the pressures of being a publicly traded company.

Businesses that are ultimately focused on shareholder profit are incentivized to prioritize short-term financial gains. This can come in the form of discontinuing legacy products (R.I.P, Choco Taco) and other compromises that its founders might not ordinarily have wanted to make. It's reassuring that some of the snacks we grew up with are still in the hands of a company that prioritizes consistency and legacy. It's also nice to know that every Nutty Buddy (Chowhound's number one fave) is supporting a family-owned business.