This Potato Supplier Keeps McDonald's And Other Major Chains Stocked With Tasty Fries

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Between all the Happy Meals, extra value add-ons, and snack cravings, McDonald's serves a ridiculous amount of fries every day, totaling up to 1.6 billion pounds in the U.S. every year, according to an ingredient statement on the corporation's website. It takes a lot of potatoes to fulfill all those fast food orders, but one Idaho company makes a pretty big dent. Since the 1960s, J.R. Simplot Company has kept McDonald's stocked with fries, and now the company corners a big portion of the frozen french fry market, as a major supplier of spuds to Burger King, Wendy's, Chick-fil-A and other restaurants and retailers across the country.

The company supplying the top-ranked fast food fries was founded in 1929, when J.R. "Jack" Simplot, an Idaho farmer who had dropped out of school at just 14 years old, won an electric potato sorter in a coin toss. His company eventually grew to one of the country's largest suppliers of fresh potatoes, and during World War II, it supplied dehydrated potatoes and onions to the military. The company then developed a process for freezing potatoes that changed the restaurant world. Simplot's 1953 patent led to a 1960s deal with McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, sealed with a handshake. Proving that frozen fries taste as good as fresh ones, Simplot's operations expanded to become a major supplier of the popular item at one of the world's largest restaurant chains.

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As the company shared on Facebook, the Simplot Company processes more than 10 million pounds of potatoes a day, although not all of these are destined for fast food restaurants. Simplot also sells its products to schools, university, hospitals, stadiums, and other businesses.

Even if you try to avoid fast food, you've probably eaten some Simplot fries — in 2022, the company struck a deal with Kraft Heinz to become the sole manufacturer of potatoes under the Ore-Ida brand, which ranked as the best frozen french fry brand in a 2021 Mashed survey. In all, Simplot is a global food business with 18,000 employees and farming, ranching, and even mining operations throughout North America, Australia, Argentina, and China.

Jack Simplot, the man who brought Idaho potatoes to the fast food world, became Idaho's first billionaire in 1967. He was known for driving around Boise in a Lincoln Town Car with the license plate "MR SPUD." He retired in 1973 but served as chairman of the board until the 1990s, when his children joined the board. When he died in 2008 at the age of 99, several Idaho McDonald's restaurants gave our free fries in his honor.