The Iconic Potato Company Supplying Fries To McDonald's, Burger King, And Beyond

Waffle, shoestring, steak, curly, crinkle-cut, sweet potato, Belgian, traditional, or beyond –- however you like your fries, they all start as the same starch: potatoes. Yes, those unassuming lumps buried in the dirt just need a little bit of polishing, chopping, frying, and seasoning to become the irresistible food we munch on alongside our burgers and sandwiches. And most of those fries come from one Idaho-based potato farmer, known as the J. R. Simplot Company.

The potato business in general is extremely lucrative and predominantly made up by just a handful of companies, one of which is Simplot. This supplier has famously been selling french fries to McDonald's since 1967 and continues to do so today. Simplot is also known for selling fries to Wendy's, Trader Joe's, Whataburger, Jack-in-the-Box, and Burger King, which was still buying the product as of 2024. In recent years, Simplot has also begun selling waffle fries to none other than waffle fry icon Chick-fil-A (although you may still want to upgrade your Chick-fil-A fries). You might even find Simplot's fries at Yankee Stadium.

The J. R. Simplot Company was founded in 1929 when John Richard Simplot won an electric potato sorter in a coin toss. Even before then, though, he'd had years of experience in the agriculture industry. Simplot figured out how to dehydrate potatoes and onions to help feed the military during WWII, and by 1946, he'd begun experimenting with frozen french fries. This simple idea would eventually make him a billionaire and lead to the notorious handshake agreement with McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc. That agreement was the beginning of a nearly 60-year-long business deal in which Simplot would provide the potato varieties McDonald's uses for its french fries. In all its years of business, Simplot never took on any partners for the company, so, when he died in 2008, the company's assets remained in the Simplot family.

Simplot offers a wide variety of french fries from the four kinds of potatoes it harvests: gold potato, redskin potato, russet potato, and sweet potato. When it comes to fry cut types, the company's list spans a mile long, with everything from chips, chunks, crinkle-cuts, and steak fries to triangles, shoestring, waffle, and straight (though we named tater tots as the best on our list of 25 kinds of fries ranked). There are even sweet potato fries in every cut imaginable. So, the next time you grab a portion of large fries from McDonald's or Burger King, try to picture the long journey that little potato has taken — from Simplot to your eager hands.