History: Marion-Kay Spices was started in 1922 by 16-year-old Missouri high school dropout Bill Summers, who founded the company using money he made selling silver cleaners to a church group. Summers moved his business from Springfield to St. Louis in 1928, where he survived the Great Depression years by selling vanilla extract. Sales soared in […]
History: Evansville-based ZeroCarb Lyfe was launched by co-founders Omar Atia and Mohamed Aly in April 2020. But the company’s origin story begins in 2006 when Aly, who is diabetic, developed a chicken-based pizza crust as an alternative to carb-heavy traditional crusts. Atia, who was born in Chicago but grew up in Indianapolis, has engineering degrees […]
History: Chicago resident Martin Kretchmar founded American Licorice Co. in 1914. The Kretchmar family still runs the business, with CEO John Kretchmar (a great-grandson of Martin) at the helm since 1995. Sour Punch candy, a treat that combines sweetness and acidity, was launched by American Licorice in 1990. Headquarters: In 2005, American Licorice Co. took […]
History: El Popular’s origins date to 1925, when company founder Vicente F. Garza migrated to the United States from Monterrey, Mexico. He brought with him family recipes that would one day give his future company a nationwide presence: chorizo, mole sauce, chocolate and queso. In his new home city of East Chicago, Garza established the […]
History: Kylie and Paul Garcia started selling products in 2022 to gardeners looking for pet- and pollinator-friendly options that were free of harsh chemicals but typically available only to commercial growers. Initially, BugHut offered three products that were repackaged biologics sold commercially by DakotaBIO, which is owned by Kylie’s parents. Over the past two years, […]
History: DeBrand Fine Chocolates founder Cathy Brand-Beere grew up in a family deeply involved in confectionery arts. She began working with chocolate when she was 8. “I always loved the creative process of making fine chocolates and dreamt of opening a ‘real chocolate shop’ when I grew up,” she wrote on the company’s website. In […]
Nicey Treat owner Jeff Patrick was inspired by fond boyhood memories of visiting his grandpa, who worked for Quality Check Dairy in Seymour and kept his freezer stocked with frozen confections.
History: Renee Gabet was a single mother looking for a new career in the early 1970s when she found success selling homemade jewelry at art fairs and Western-themed events. Remembering her love for frequenting the perfume section of Fort Wayne’s Wolf and Dessauer department store as a girl, Gabet developed a cowgirl-themed fragrance—with the help […]
Today, Shelbyville is the North American headquarters for the company’s six manufacturing plants in the United States.
Capriole products are distributed at Whole Foods, Needler’s Fresh Market, Goose the Market, Fischer Farms and Blooming Foods.
History: Warsaw Cut Glass traces its roots to 1911, when Chicago’s Johnson-Carlson Cut Glass Co. met with the Warsaw Chamber of Commerce to expand the company’s glass-cutting operations. Johnson-Carlson’s Chicago factory could not keep up with demand, and company officers decided Warsaw was a good second location. A year later, Warsaw Cut Glass opened for […]
History: Gosport Manufacturing was founded as Hoosier Tarpaulin in 1944 by Mortimer King and quickly became one of the largest American-produced tarp companies in the country. Mortimer’s son, Joe, took over operations in 1957, buying the company outright in 1981 and renaming it Gosport Manufacturing Co. Product details: Gosport offers tarps, athletic covers, truck covers and other […]
Company history: Easley Winery opened in 1974 as one of the first post-Prohibition commercial wineries in Indiana. Founders Jack and Joan Easley planted their initial vineyards in Crawford County in 1972, one year after the Indiana Small Winery Act made it possible for wineries to sell directly to the public. Mark Easley, son of Jack […]
Company history: Anchor Industries was founded in 1892 by Louis Daus, and it originally operated as a supply house that sold oil, groceries, paint and other supplies to steamboats along the Ohio River. Daus later added canvas goods to the lineup, and the company today is best known for its commercial tents that are used […]
History: Clabber Girl traces its roots to 1850, when brothers Francis and Herman Hulman opened Hulman & Co., a dry goods business, in downtown Terre Haute. Within a few years, Herman Hulman developed his first baking powder recipe—a mixture of sour milk and baked fireplace ash called “clabber”—and worked for more than 40 years to […]
As a young boy working in his father’s candy store in the 1970s, Mark Tarner got an early taste of the sweet life.
Company history: St. Elmo Steak House was founded in 1902, becoming famous for its spicy shrimp cocktail sauce. Guests began requesting that the restaurant bottle the sauce so they could take it home. Several years ago, St. Elmo did just that and has since launched St. Elmo Foods, where fans of the steakhouse can buy […]
Company history: In 1970, Carl Dillman and his wife, Sue, began selling oven-baked apple butter to the former Colonial Room Restaurant in Brown County. Carl delivered the apple butter jars to the eatery while driving his milk route for Bloomington-based Johnson’s Creamery, where he worked for 37 years. As demand grew for the apple butter, the […]
History: Batesville Services traces its roots to 1884, when it was founded as the Batesville Coffin Co. in the small town of the same name. John A. Hillenbrand purchased the company in 1906 and renamed it Batesville Casket Co. It grew to become one of the largest producers of caskets, cremation products and memorial keepsakes […]
Company history: Engineer Leigh Sargent launched Zipp in 1988. At the time, he was working in motorsports, specializing in the modification, manufacturing and aerodynamic design of Indy 500 cars. He applied his knowledge about speed to bike wheels. Zipp’s first product was a disc wheel that was manufactured alongside auto-racing parts. In 1999, entrepreneur Andy […]
