It all started back in 1941, when Ken and Florence Hanna decided to open Ken's Steak House in Framingham, Massachusetts. Steaks of course, were going to be their specialty. But both Ken and Florence wanted something special to serve alongside. That something was a great salad, tossed with an even greater dressing. According to Ken, "It got to the point where our salads were probably more popular than our steaks. And pretty soon people were asking why I didn't put the salad dressing in a bottle and sell it." Friends of Ken did exactly that, and an entire company was born. Frank and Louise Crowley started the business of Ken's Food's in their kitchen in 1958 based on the house dressing served in the restaurant. Today the company has plant operations in Marlborough Massachusetts, McDonough Georgia, and soon in Las Vegas Nevada, employing over 500 associates nationally.

As the years have gone by, Ken's Foods has grown far beyond that original Italian dressing. We're still a family owned and operated business. But today, between our Retail Grocery Products and Food Service divisions, we produce and package over 400 varieties of dressings and sauces.

A lot of people also come to Ken's for custom-made dressings and sauces. Others, like Paul Newman, even bring in their own ideas for dressings, and ask us to produce and bottle them.

When it comes to business, many say there's no such thing as a recipe for success. At Ken's, we happen to disagree.

TECHNOLOGY/PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

While Ken's Foods first gained popularity in supermarkets, over the years we've become an extremely respected name in the foodservice industry, too.

Our products include over 250 high quality salad dressings, as well as barbecue sauces, coleslaw dressings, mayonnaise and more. Our packaging capabilities go from .75-ounce single serve pouches up to 400 gallon totes. And our plants are widely recognized as two of the most advanced and automated in the nation.

What does all this mean?

It means we can satisfy the needs of a lot of different people, whether they're running a small clam shack, a medium-sized restaurant, or a national fast food chain.

It means we can produce as little as 100 cases of custom dressing at a time, or as much as 200 gallons of French dressing in a minute.

It means we're small enough to listen to our customers' needs, yet large enough to accommodate international responsibilities.

In short, it means we're something of a rarity in the salad dressing industry: a company that's really flexible.