In 1947, in a small house on Curtis Street in Paris, Tennessee, a great idea was born. Cedric and Mildred Knott saw the opportunity to use Mildred's personal recipes for salad spreads for making sandwiches, and deliver them to local businesses. Pimento cheese, chicken salad, ham salad, deviled ham, tuna salad, and egg salad - Mildred could make it all. It was at that time that Knott's Foods started what has become a 60 year commitment to quality and customer service.
Their workday started around 2:30 a.m., with Cedric and Mildred making the product fresh each day. Cedric would then load the product into his vehicle, and deliver the sandwiches to stores who would display the products on their sales counter as daily fresh items, replacing and replenishing every day.
They could not have imagined in 1947 how their little business would expand into seventeen states, and grace the shelves of prominent stores in the southeast. You can find Knott's products in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Northern Florida, North Carolina, West Virginia,Southern Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Texas, Louisiana, Eastern Oklahoma, Southern Illinois, and Southern Indiana.
Over the last sixty years, Knott's Wholesale Foods, Inc. has evolved into a full-scale production and distribution center. All the original products that were produced in Cedric and Mildred's kitchen are still made in Paris, Tennessee less than a mile from the house on Curtis Street. Jerry Knott, son of Mildred and Cedric Knott, is the current CEO. Under Jerry's sales direction, the company and it's territories have expanded, with DSD company routes distributing several well known brands in the snack food industry as well as Knott's brand products. We are a family business that has third generation members involved in the day-to-day operations.
The outstanding quality of our products and our focus on customer service is what fuels our continued growth. Consistency is important to keep customers assured that our products will be the best they've ever tasted - 100% of the time. Our goal is to exceed customer expectations by providing them with the best product that is available on the market.
Knowing the name Knott's means expecting the best!
