Bush’s Best
Canned beans from Bush Brothers & Company, family-owned in Tennessee since 1908
✅ Made in USA
Our assessment
Company details
Where Bush’s Best products are made
Dandridge, Tennessee
The company’s Tennessee plant sits at 3304 Chestnut Hill Road in Dandridge, a few miles from the spot where A.J. Bush opened the original cannery in 1908. The business never left the county it started in.
Augusta, Wisconsin
The second plant is at 600 S Bush Brothers Drive in Augusta, Wisconsin — the company literally has a street named after it — in the middle of northern bean-growing country.
Two plants, both American
Bush Brothers lists exactly two manufacturing facilities on its own site and neither is offshore. Distribution is national, and the company states that outside the US it sends only a few products to Canada.
Bush Brothers & Company publishes the street addresses of both of its manufacturing plants — Dandridge, Tennessee and Augusta, Wisconsin — and lists no facility outside the United States. It states that it is family-owned and privately held, that its stock is not available to the general public, and that distribution beyond the US is limited to a few products sold in Canada. That is a straightforward domestic manufacturing footprint, which is why this profile carries a Made in USA label. Note that Bush’s Best does not publish sourcing origin for every ingredient, so this label speaks to where the beans are canned rather than where every input is grown.
The story
In 1908, A.J. Bush opened a modest cannery in Chestnut Hill, Tennessee — a general store and a bean-canning operation in a small East Tennessee community. Four generations later the company still bears his family’s name and is still owned by it.
What made the business was the Secret Family Recipe behind the Bush’s Best baked beans, which Bush Brothers has never disclosed and describes only as proprietary. The product line has since widened well past that one can: Grillin’ Beans, Chili Beans, Chili Magic starters, hominy, bean dips, blackeye peas, and reduced-sodium and organic versions of most of the staples.
The company has stayed deliberately private. It does not accept unsolicited product or advertising ideas, its stock is not available to the public, and it does not publish an annual report. What it does open up is the original site: the Bush’s Visitor Center in Chestnut Hill includes A.J. Bush’s original general store, a theater, exhibits and a café, in the town where the whole thing started.
Corporate offices are in Knoxville, Tennessee, about forty miles west. The beans themselves are canned in Dandridge, Tennessee and Augusta, Wisconsin.
Why they matter
Shelf-stable canned goods are a category where a familiar American label very often sits on a can filled overseas. Beans are cheap, heavy and easy to source globally, and the packaging rarely tells you much. It is exactly the kind of product where a buyer’s assumption and the truth tend to diverge.
Bush’s Best matters because the answer here is unusually easy to check. The company names both of its plants and their street addresses on its own website, and both are in the United States. There is no third facility hiding in the footnotes.
It matters as well that the company is still family-owned after 118 years in a food industry that has consolidated into a handful of multinationals. Bush Brothers & Company chose not to sell and not to go public, and the consequence is a business that has stayed in East Tennessee rather than becoming a line item in someone else’s portfolio.
Shop Bush’s Best products
Browse Bush’s Best baked beans, chili beans and pantry staples available now in the Buy American store.
Frequently asked questions
Where are Bush’s Best beans made?
At Bush Brothers & Company’s two plants: 3304 Chestnut Hill Road in Dandridge, Tennessee, and 600 S Bush Brothers Drive in Augusta, Wisconsin.
When was Bush’s Best founded?
1908, when A.J. Bush opened his cannery in Chestnut Hill, Tennessee. The company has been family-owned ever since.
Is Bush Brothers & Company publicly traded?
No. The company states that it is a family-owned corporation, that its stock is not available to the general public, and that because it is privately held its annual report is not made public.
Can you tour the factory?
Not the plants themselves, but the Bush’s Visitor Center in Chestnut Hill, Tennessee shows how the products are made and includes A.J. Bush’s original general store, a theater, exhibits and a café.