has multiple issues . please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article s tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on wikipedia . see wikipedia s guide to writing better articles for suggestions . august 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message this article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information . please remove or replace such wording and instead of making proclamations about a subject s importance use facts and attribution to demonstrate that importance . august 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message bush brothers & company type corporation family owned industry food processing founded chestnut hill tennessee usa 1908 founder a.j. bush headquarters knoxville tennessee usa key people 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 . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 incorporation and expansion 1.2 properties lost to tennessee valley authority 1.3 expansion and change 1.4 bush s best baked beans 1.5 acquisition of dubon 1.6 jay bush and duke 2 recent years 3 brands 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit in 1904 a. j. andrew jackson bush partnered with the stokely family to open a tomato cannery in chestnut hill tennessee . 2 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 . 3 4 incorporation and expansion edit bush cannery chestnut hill tennessee 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 . 5 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 . 6 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 . 7 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 . 8 and in 1930 bush brothers opened a new plant in lafollette tennessee where it processed blueberries in addition to tomatoes . 9 as the company continued to grow the original cannery in chestnut hill became insufficient to meet its needs . bush brothers constructed a new building nearby in 1929 which would become the company s main canning facilities for many years . 10 in 1933 bush brothers began offering pork and beans canned under its chestnut hill label . the success of their product led to a contract with armour and company and to a wide array of canned meats . the company also started up a canning line for tony dog and cat food which it would continue to sell until the 1980s . 11 by 1935 bush brothers were seeing significant expansion and were highlighted in newspaper articles for canning ten million cans of vegetables a year operating two thousand acres of company owned farmland and contracting with five hundred farmers to supply vegetables . 12 properties lost to tennessee valley authority edit in 1942 the tennessee valley authority announced the closing of the douglas dam floodgates within the year . 13 the end result would be the flooding of the french broad river bottom where bush brothers had a number of farms . after several months of negotiation bush brothers & company agreed to sell seven prime tracts of their farmland to the tva as well as the oak grove canning plant . 14 in october 1944 bush brothers attempted to offset some of their farmland loss by purchasing the blytheville canning company in arkansas . 1 however the plant was in bad shape and struggled during its first four years of bush ownership . claude bush moved to arkansas in 1948 to oversee the facilities and eventually managed to turn it into a profitable business . 15 expansion and change edit following a.j. bush s death in 1946 bush brothers & company made the move from private label to branded presence . they began offering their goods under the newly developed bush s best logo and label . with the advents of supermarkets and television advertising the 1950s proved very profitable for the company . during this time they continue to offer a variety of canned vegetables particularly green beans . 16 they also began offering the dry bean products for which they would eventually become known . in 1952 the company introduced their great northern beans with plain sauce . this was followed in 1953 by mexican style beans in chili gravy . 17 claude bush became president of the company in 1959 following the death of his older brother fred . bush brothers & company had amassed a substantial amount of cash and accounts receivable under fred and claude felt the money would best be put to use expanding the company s business into new areas . 18 the 1960s saw the purchase of several canning plants including shiocton kraut company shiocton wisconsin hyde park canning company muskogee oklahoma an unused canning plant in augusta wisconsin and valley canning sweet potato plants in ville platte and cecilia louisiana . 19 bush brothers & company also created its own truck line tennessee truck lines in 1962 . 20 in 1965 claude became chairman of the board and brother in law c.j. ethier succeeded him as president . 21 bush s best baked beans edit the year 1969 proved to be a tough one for the canning industry due to overproduction and low prices . as the family stockholders considered their options and discussed strategies for riding out the tough times ahead claude s son condon bush hit on the idea of offering a new product that would appeal to a wide audience as well as keep his augusta plant busy during the off season . inspired by the company s earlier success with pork and beans condon decided to develop a baked bean product based on his mother kathleen s secret recipe . the experiment proved far more successful than the bush family had ever imagined . sales of bush s best baked beans went from ten thousand cases in 1969 to a hundred thousand in 1970 eventually hitting close to a million cases in 1971 . 22 baked beans became a very popular dish during the united states bicentennial and so bush brothers decided to devote all of their resources to bush s best baked beans sales . their campaign was a success with sales increasing by 173 % in 1976 and an additional 34 % in 1977 . 23 in 1978 claude stepped down as chairman of the board and c.j. ethier replaced him . condon was elected as the new president of bush brothers & company . 24 acquisition of dubon edit in 1979 bush brothers acquired the dubon brand of canned foods when that company was sold following bankruptcy . canned vegetables such as carrots peas and beets are sold primarily in the louisiana and new orleans areas as a regional brand . 25 throughout the 1980s bush brothers continued to make its transition to a branded producer of table ready products . however the shift was slow and fraught with tension as the family had trouble agreeing on the best course of action . after the death of c.j. ethier in 1989 and claude bush in 1990 jim ethier c.j. s son convinced condon president and ceo and allen bush vice president of sales to consult with dr. leon danco of the center for family business . under dr. danco s guidance bush brothers & company reorganized its board of directors to include members from outside the family and the company . 26 the restructured board included jay carr the hershey company bob johnston gerber products company bill trubeck white & case and clay mathile the iams company . 27 with the new board in place the company turned to the task of hiring professional sales managers . office space in chestnut hill was filled to capacity and the prospect of recruiting young urban managers to such a rural location seemed unlikely . in 1991 bush brothers & company moved its company headquarters to knoxville tennessee . 28 in 1992 jim ethier was elected president and coo of bush brothers & company . condon bush moved to the position of ceo and chairman of the board . 29 the restructured and reorganized company developed an overarching strategy in 1993 . according to jim ethier the first strategic plan defined the process that would enable us to get out of products where we were losing money as well as away from business processes that no longer made sense . it was a defining step in the re architecting of the company . 30 among other things this plan involved consolidating the company s subsidiaries into a single entity and team narrowing the company s focus to its most successful products and placing a new emphasis on customers satisfaction through a primary excellence goal peg organization . 31 jay bush and duke edit in 1993 bush brothers & company hired a small advertising company in atlanta georgia to develop a new advertising campaign for their line of baked beans . the new ad focused on the secret family recipe and introduced jay bush condon s son as the company s spokesperson . the ad performed well in test markets in 1993 and was released nationally in may 1994 . 32 33 in the summer 1995 a new ad paired jay up with a mischievous talking golden retriever named duke . the campaign was huge hit for bush brothers who saw a dramatic spike in baked bean sales . 34 the popularity of the company s baked beans can be directly attributed to the success of the jay bush and duke commercials ; as well as its catchphrase roll that beautiful bean footage to market their products which are made according to the secret family recipe with specially cured bacon brown sugar and a secret blend of spices . all the while jay is able to keep duke from selling the secret family recipe another running gag in the ads . as a result of the ad campaign the duo became celebrities 35 and sales of the company s beans increased from a 48 % national market share to 80 % . 1 the popularity of the commercial inspired the company to publish a children s book duke finds a home published in 2006 . 32 in