Ore-Ida's primary production facility is located in Ontario, Oregon, near the Idaho border where the company was originally founded in 1949.[3][4]
History
Francis Nephi Grigg, one of the Grigg brothers who founded the "Oregon Frozen Foods Company" that evolved into Ore-Ida
In 1934, entrepreneurs Francis Nephi Grigg and Golden Grigg began growing sweet corn in eastern Oregon. Their first company, "Grigg Brothers", became the largest distributor of sweet corn in the United States.[1][5][2] In 1949, with financial backing from their brother-in-law Otis Williams, the brothers rented a frozen food plant located in Ontario and converted it into a potato-processing facility. The three purchased the facility around 1952 after the plant went into foreclosure.[1][5][6] The company was officially founded that year as the "Oregon Frozen Foods Company".[6][7]
The company initially produced and sold frozen corn and French fries.[1][5][8] In 1953, Nephi, Golden, Otis, and Ross developed Tater Tots, bite-sized "logs" formed from seasoned slivers of potatoes, which were leftovers from French fry production.[1][3][9] The name “tater tots” can be attributed to Clora Lay Orton after the brothers created a contest with their friends and employees to create a name for the potato “logs".[10] Tater Tots are today considered the brand's most well known product.[9][2][4]
In 1960, the company built a second plant in Burley, Idaho.[6][11] The company's name is a syllabic abbreviation of the first few letters of Oregon and Idaho and the original logo consisted of the outlines of Oregon and Idaho with Ore-Ida superimposed in italicized letters.[1]
After going public in 1961,[1][12] the Ore-Ida brand was acquired by the H. J. Heinz Company in 1965.[1][11][13] The Heinz company coined Ore-Ida's long-time advertising slogan: “When it says Ore-Ida, it’s All Righta.”[11]
McCain Foods purchased Ore-Ida's foodservice division in 1997, acquiring five of the company's plants, including the Burley location.[2][14][15] Ore-Ida's division headquarters were located in Boise until 1999, when a new frozen foods division was created based at Heinz's corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[14][16]
