In many backyards across America, a barbecue is not complete without baked beans. That means that, for the country’s largest canned bean company, Bush Brothers, nearly 40 million pounds are sold leading up to Memorial Day Weekend.
In fact, Knoxville, Tennessee-based Bush’s sells 80% of America’s canned baked beans, a feat that fourth-generation heir and chairman of Bush Brothers, Drew Everett, attributes to being “bean-focused” and not getting “distracted by other products.”
“Today we’re still as committed to the bean as we ever have been,” says Everett, 56. “I love to be in the backyard grilling different types of meats that pair well with our baked beans. They play in a lot of iconic moments, particularly as we approach the summer with Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day cookouts and barbecues.”
Everett has quietly led Bush Brothers since 2015, as the 100% family-owned firm has grown into an estimated $1 billion (annual revenue) business. With Bush’s controlling more than a third of America’s overall canned bean market–selling canned chili starters as well as pinto beans, black beans, kidney beans, cannellini beans, chickpeas, and more to over 100,000 retailers—Everett wants to take the company from being known as America’s Baked Bean Company to just America’s Bean Company.
“We are achieving that,” says Everett during a rare interview. “It’s still a journey for us.”
Family Affair: A.J. Bush founded the company in 1908 and began canning tomatoes. Years later, the family began growing other vegetables, including corn, spinach and, most famously, beans.
Bush Brothers
Market tailwinds are surely helping. Bush Brothers has found itself at the nexus of a perfect storm brewing at grocery stores. With meat prices rising, affordability has become a prime focus for upcoming midterm elections, and beans are inexpensive. Bush Brothers cans cost an average of $2.50 each. As the basis of a whole meal, they are high in protein and fiber, and low in cholesterol. The trifecta makes beans ideal for GLP-1 users as well as other Americans seeking healthier living.
“Beans are having a moment,” says Everett. “[Consumers are] looking for fiber. They’re looking for versatility and convenience. We provide all that.”
As for the metaphorical bean counting, Forbes estimates the business is quite profitable with EBITDA margins of 12.5% compared to big food companies like Conagra at 8%, or other competitors that are struggling currently to not lose money, like Kraft Heinz losing 14% or JM Smucker losing 2%. Bush Brothers declined to comment on financials.
It adds up to a substantial fortune that Forbes estimates is worth over $1.35 billion. Everett shares ownership with approximately 100 family members, across four branches and six generations. That includes his fourth-generation cousin, Jay, who has been the company spokesperson alongside Duke the talking golden retriever since 1994.
“We’re proud to be family-owned,” says Everett. “We want to remain family-owned and that has been a consistent theme from second generation to third generation to fourth generation, now to fifth generation.”
Still, Everett has to deal with regular calls from investors who are interested in acquiring the business. He says it’s always “an easy answer.”
“We’re not for sale. We’re not interested in that. We continue to be proud of our heritage and our family legacy,” he says. “We’ve been successful because a lot of people have contributed to our success, and we want to make sure that we stay committed to them.”
That’s whymore than 60 of his family shareholders, employees and directors have been trained in family business governance at Kellogg School of Management, and why Everett and the board brought in the company’s second-ever outside family CEO in 2019, Al Williams.
“The family wants this thing to go on forever,” says Williams. “And the employees embrace what the family started.”
It all began in 1897 as A.J. Bush & Company general store at the base of the Great Smoky Mountains in Chestnut Hill, Tennessee—where Everett’s great-grandfather, a former teacher, sold staples and accepted bartering as a form of payment. He began canning tomatoes in 1908 as horse and buggies bruised the fruit too easily while transporting shipments over great distances, and through the decades, the family expanded to canned vegetables, including green beans, corn and spinach. Bush Brothers even became a major supplier of rations to the U.S. Army during World War I and II.
Can Do: Though A.J. Bush’s general store was founded in 1897, the family didn’t start producing its signature baked beans until 1969. The space now welcomes visitors as a corporate museum and cafe.
Bush Brothers
Its signature baked beans didn’t arrive until several decades later, in 1969, after the idea struck third-generation grandson Condon Bush, who had been running one of the family’s canning plants in Wisconsin. The facility was busy during summertime (when vegetables are ready to preserve during peak season), but didn’t have as much to do in the winter, and, as Everett recalls the family lore, “he was afraid that plant was going to get shut down under his watch.” So he started tinkering with a baked bean recipe inspired by a dish of navy beans simmered in sauce that his mom made, and brought the cans to grocery stores.
The baked beans sold alongside the business’ other cans for decades. It wasn’t until cousins Condon Bush and Jim Ethier took on more leadership at the company and doubled down on beans in the 1990s, and put Condon’s son, (fourth-generation great-grandson) Jay and four-legged Duke on nationwide commercials (“Roll that beautiful bean footage.”), that the brand became famous.
After summers spent working on the family’s eastern Tennessee cattle farm and inside the canning plant, Everett joined Bush Brothers in 1993 to work in the IT department just as it was becoming America’s top baked bean company. He was part of the team that installed the business’ first computers and taught employees how to use spreadsheets. Then Everett moved into supply chain and plant operations roles and he saw the power that beans had—for customers and the bottom line.
“We needed to focus back on a much narrower product portfolio, and that’s how we committed to beans,” he recalls.
As Bush Brothers hit an estimated $300 million in annual revenue, Everett joined the board in 2007 and became director of human resources in 2008. During that time, he says he learned the lesson that the business couldn’t stagnate. “There’s a need to continue to grow in order to thrive,” says Everett.
By consistently demonstrating leadership, he kept moving up through the ranks. Five years later he was promoted to vice president and director of shareholder relations as he cofounded and served on a governing council for the family. The family also created a vehicle for their investments, called a private trust company, where Everett is a founding board member and chairs the investment committee.
“You have to be actively involved, not necessarily through employment, but through governance,” says Everett. “We have spent the last 17 years really establishing a strong family approach.”
His dream, he says, is “that this business is in the family for the seventh and eighth and ninth and tenth generation.”
To get there, growth must be a focus. To that end, Everett says he’s now preparing Bush Brothers for its future expansion. Bush’s tried to sell bean dips and hummus but ended the lines. For the past decade, Bush’s has also been focusing on expanding its line of organic beans, which led to its 2022 acquisition of can brand Westbrae Natural Organics. Now Everett is looking for potential acquisitions that could broaden the family’s portfolio.
“If you’re not eating beans at every meal,” Everett says, “there’s an opportunity to grow.”