Katherine’s kitchen

Katherine Anderson believed when Andy’s Seasoning was struggling under millions of dollars in debt. She believed when the family business faced foreclosure. And she believed when others might have looked at the numbers and decided the company had reached its end.

Her son, President and CEO Pastor Larry W. Lee, remembers it clearly.

“Now here I am a man of faith, and I’m a pastor, and there were times when Mom said that things were going to be alright,” Lee said Monday during a celebration of Andy’s 45th anniversary. “She was steadfast. She never wavered one time. She would say, ‘I prayed about it and God let me know that it’s gonna be alright.’ Sometimes she was the only person who believed it — but guess what, she was right. And here we are today.”

Monday’s celebration at Andy’s corporate headquarters brought together dignitaries, longtime employees, family members and supporters to honor the company’s past while looking toward its future.

But again and again, the story returned to Katherine Anderson.

Reuben Anderson was recognized as the founder of Andy’s Seasoning. His wife, Katherine, was remembered as the visionary and natural business leader who carried the company forward after his death.

“When Mrs. Anderson assumed leadership with the untimely passing of her husband in 1996, the company was two million dollars in debt,” Board member Charles Stout said.

The financial problems had roots in the company’s earlier expansion. By the late 1980s, Andy’s had acquired its current space on Chouteau, along with the enormous expenses that came with growing the business.

The company was eventually on the verge of foreclosure. But Katherine Anderson refused to see the situation as the end.

“She said, ‘I’ve prayed about this situation. As long as we continue to do what we said we would do, we will be fine,’” Stout said. “We can all agree that her heart, her strength of character and her bravery in the face of danger were admirable.”

Decades later, the results of that conviction are visible in the company she helped preserve.

Last year, Andy’s reported $35 million in annual revenue. The St. Louis company has expanded its manufacturing operation and developed relationships that have taken its products far beyond the city where it began.

Stephen Westbrooks, president and CEO of the St. Louis Development Corporation, said that local commitment matters.

“It is a company that has continued to grow here, manufacture here, invest here and build its future here,” Westbrooks said. “That matters a great deal to the economic development of the city of St. Louis.”

He called Andy’s “a St. Louis success story,” pointing to the importance of companies that begin locally, create jobs, become part of the community and repeatedly choose to reinvest.

It began in Katherine Anderson’s kitchen.

“My stepfather had this idea of developing a product that he could sell,” Lee said of Reuben Anderson in a short film produced by Rocking Horse Film Studios for the anniversary celebration.

Reuben had a meat rub that became a seasoning salt. He also created a barbecue sauce that was once sold throughout the St. Louis region.

But Katherine’s recipe for fried fish would ultimately become one of the company’s signature products.

“My mother’s recipe for frying fish — what she used every Friday night — that is now our yellow fish breading,” Lee said. “It started off as something we did at home.”

The recipe might have remained a family tradition if not for Katherine’s brother-in-law, food chemist German Anderson.

After tasting her fish, he asked a question that would change the family’s future.

“He said, ‘Kathy, what do you put in your fish? It’s really good. Have you ever thought about selling it?’”

She hadn’t.

German took the recipe back to Dallas and reformulated it so it could be produced in larger quantities.

“That began the history of the yellow fish breading — which is sold all across the country,” Lee said.

The business that began with a family recipe now has 13 products packaged five different ways. Its recent growth includes a $4.5 million, 17,000-square-foot expansion.

Its reach also extends into one of the world’s best-known restaurant brands.

Andy’s supplies breading to Tyson Foods, which supplies chicken to McDonald’s. Kendall Neal explained that Andy’s must meet the standards of both companies while producing a formula developed for McDonald’s.

“It is a McDonald’s product. It is not Andy’s product. It is their formula,” Neal said. “It is not Andy’s — we are just privileged to make it and provide it for Tyson.”

The scale of the operation would have been difficult to imagine 45 years ago, when Andy’s was being mixed and packaged by hand.

“Everything was manual,” Lee said. “Andy’s started in the kitchen and moved to the basement. That was 45 years ago. They actually mixed, stirred and packaged and gave us our start.”

Among those early employees were Lee’s cousins Millicent Jameson and Lawrence Lee, along with his deceased brother. They were the company’s first three employees.

Today, the family business is preparing for its third generation of leadership.

Neal, who works in receiving and logistics, has been with Andy’s for 31 years. He has watched the company grow under three CEOs, including his aunt.

“I’m a little biased because she was my aunt, but she was an extraordinary person,” Neal said. “If common sense had a Ph.D., she would be a doctor.”

He acknowledged that Katherine did not have the credentials some might associate with a successful business leader.

“She didn’t go to Harvard. She didn’t have the best high school education, but what she did have was that she put God first.”

That faith, along with an extraordinary work ethic, became part of the legacy she left to the family business.

The anniversary celebration recognized longtime employees, board members and contributors, including Pastor Lee’s brother and President Emeritus Michael Lee.

St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer and Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, were among the dignitaries who offered congratulations.

11th Ward Alderwoman Laura Keys presented a resolution recognizing Andy’s for 45 years of quality, job creation and continued investment in St. Louis.

But the most meaningful recognition came from those who knew Katherine personally — and watched her keep believing when the future was uncertain.

“It seems like every step in her life brought us to this point,” Neal said.

Forty-five years after Andy’s began in a family kitchen, that point is a growing manufacturing company with a global reach, deep St. Louis roots and a third generation preparing to carry the business forward.

And at the center of that story remains a woman who, when the company was nearly lost, simply believed it would survive.

She was right.