Mr. Kanan has been chairman since he bought King Nut Company in 1989 from the original founder. He also was President and Chief Executive Officer through 2003. He has been a food industry executive
his entire professional career having had a lengthy career prior to King Nut in accounting, sales and administration at Home Juice Company and finally as an executive officer at Ever Fresh Juice, Inc. and John Labatt, Ltd.
Mr. Kanan has been President and Chief Executive Officer since October 2003. Mr. Kanan joined King Nut in 1991 as its National Sales Manager and has also been Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
Mr. Kanan has been Executive Vice President in charge of Sales and Marketing since 2003.
Mr. Kanan joined King Nut in 1991 as a Regional Manager of Sales and Marketing.
Mr. Valenza has been Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since 2006. Before that he was Vice President and Corporate Controller.
Paul Storsin is our Vice President of Quality Assurance and Food Safety. Prior to this, Paul worked at Aladdin’s Baking Company as their Director of Quality and Food Safety since 2019 and also with Orlando Baking Company as their Director of Quality and Food Safety since 2012. Previously, he held quality management positions at Case Farms as well as Park Poultry.
Mr. Smith is our Vice President of Engineering. Mike joined King Nut as a machine operator while in college in 2001.
Mr. Rosenberg is our Vice President and Corporate Controller. He started with King Nut in November 2005 as our Accounting Manager. He moved up quickly to Assistant Controller, Controller then Director and Corporate Controller.
Sonia LeBron is our Vice President of Human Resources. Sonia comes to us from LANXESS Corporation, a multi-national German company and originated from their USA office in New Jersey where she was their HR Director covering multiple plant sites in chemical engineering and manufacturing. In prior roles, she was the Global HR Business Partner for Hershey Company in Hershey, PA.
Mr. Babka is our new Vice President of Manufacturing and Plant operations. Prior to this, Jay was in executive level manufacturing and plant operations at Bakemark, American Nuts, More Than Gourmet and Custom Culinary. Jay also had an earlier career in production management at Pepperidge Farm. Jay brings over 26 years of experience in Operations that include roles in Planning, Warehouse, Distribution, Production, Safety and Process Improvement. Additionally, he has over 19 years of food manufacturing experience.
Ownership: 100% owned by Kanan Enterprises; Michael Kanan–Chairman; Martin Kanan –President and CEO and Matthew Kanan– Executive VP & Chief Marketing Officer
Employees: Approximately 375
Annual Sales/Revenues: Kanan Enterprises is a privately held company and does not disclose sales figures.
Production: 3 shifts; approximately 500 million annual packages produced.
Union: Plant Employees are all members of the Teamsters Union.
Headquarters: Solon, OH (suburb of Cleveland) Headquarters, manufacturing and main warehousing: 350,000 square feet spread throughout 3 buildings in Solon. Factory outlet store in Solon.
Products: Peanuts, Nuts, Dried Fruits, Trail Mixes, Snack Mixes, Pretzels.
Brands: King’s Delicious, Peterson’s, Summer Harvest Brands and Nature’s Basics plus numerous private label products.
Supplies for: Airlines, Supermarkets, Warehouse Clubs, Corporate Gifts, Convenience Stores, Ice Cream Toppings, Food Ingredients, Vending, Food Service, Private Label, Co-Packing and various other Retailers.
Airlines Customers: Delta, American, Southwest, JetBlue, Hawaiian, Korean, Spirit plus many other regional and international carriers.
At King Nut Companies maintaining the highest level of quality in every aspect of our job also includes striving for environmental sustainability. In April 2008 we began an aggressive reduction of energy usage as well as recycling as much of our waste as possible. We believe it is the duty and responsibility of ALL American corporations to help ease the strain on our environment. We hope our actions will serve as a model for other companies, both domestic and foreign, to take the initiative to reduce waste and energy consumption and leave a little bit smaller environmental footprint. Here’s what we’ve been able to do at the administrative & plant levels since the program’s inception:
All of our oil used for roasting is recyclable
Below is a breakdown of goods recycled from February 2020 through January 2021:
King Nut Companies annually celebrates Earth Day where employees plant trees and other plants. Several employees also volunteer to clean up trash and waste along our properties here in Ohio.
These are simply a few actions we take to help improve our community and use less of the earth’s precious resources. King Nut Companies will continually search for ways to improve source reduction and increase energy efficiency that will enhance our environmental sustainability.
Rev. January 2021