King Nut history

He sold the business to Donald Kelling in 1934.

1937: King Nut Company Founded King Nut Company was founded in 1937 in Cleveland, Ohio by Earl Balliette and his brother in law/engineer and consultant Mike Krempa.

Founder Earl Balliette pre-maturely died in the early 1950’s and his wife Edna Balliette who had always helped as a book keeper, now ran the business alongside her brother.

When Earl died in 1952, Edna Balliette took over the company, assisted by her brother, Michael Krempa.

The company continued to grow and in the early 1970’s, they purchased a new state of the art manufacturing plant in the Cleveland suburb of Solon.

The latter had been owned by Fairmont Snacks Group since 1988.

1989: Peterson Nut Sold In 1989 Peterson Nut sold their business to Ed Kelley who was most known as the modern day founder of the Steak and Shake restaurant chain.

Martin Kanan went after business with the major airlines aggressively, and, after five years, King Nut landed its first airline contract with US Airways in 1994.

By 1995, King Nut had contracts with five national airlines, which accounted for 150 million bags of peanuts and pretzels a year.

By 1996, King Nut's snacks were in vending machines throughout the country and sold at major retailers, including Revco, Finast, Drug Emporium, and Stop-N-Shop.

Another son, Matthew, joined the company in 1997.

In 1998, King Nut Company, whose contracts now included American, Delta, and America West, in addition to other carriers, supplied 250 million bags of peanuts to the airlines.

In 2000, King Nut's front panels advertised the Weather Channel, the Winter Olympics, and Kenneth Cole.

In 2001 King Nut moved into an 89,000 square foot facility to handle their growth.