The story
Founded by J. R. Simplot in 1929.1
Simplot was founded in 1929 by 20-year-old John Richard Simplot near the agricultural community of Declo in south central Idaho. During the early 1940s, the business expanded, providing the military with dehydrated onions and potatoes during World War II. The firm was incorporated as the J. R. Simplot Company in 1955.
Simplot made billions from the commercialization of frozen French fries by one of its scientists, chemist Ray L. Dunlap. By the early 1970s, it was the primary supplier of French fries to McDonald's. By 2005 it supplied more than half of all French fries for the fast food chain. Simplot also produces fertilizers for agriculture, the mining of which has been a cause of recent environmental concerns.
Simplot is now one of the largest privately owned companies in the world (ranked 54th in Private Companies by Forbes magazine in 2020), with $7.6B in revenue and 13,000 employees. It has branches in Australia, Canada, Mexico, China, and several other regions. One of the major plants is in Caldwell, Idaho.
J. R. Simplot retired from his role as president of his company in 1973, but remained actively involved for numerous years thereafter. He later relinquished his position as chairman of the board in 1994, and held the title of Chairman Emeritus until his passing at age 99 in 2008.
In 2022, Simplot acquired the Ore-Ida potato processing facility in Ontario, Oregon; Kraft Heinz retains ownership of the Ore-Ida brand, which is now produced by Simplot under a long-term agreement.
In 2025 Simplot acquired the Belgian Clarebout Potatoes.
From Wikipedia’s article on Simplot, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5