Our History

In 1937, Bill Henry and Fritz Cox pooled their money together and started distributing Tom’s peanuts and crackers to small grocery outlets. After a few years Fritz bought out Mr. Henry’s share of the company and named the company the Fritz M. Cox Company. In 1947 the company bought its first vending machines. The machines sold only crackers and peanuts, but they were in the vending business.

In 1956, the Fritz Cox Company was the first company to introduce a glass front snack machine to East Tennessee. Pat Stokes of Metal Stamping Company in Conway, Arkansas invented the machine and brought them to Tennessee. Fritz recalled that the telephone “rang off the hook” with people wanting a glass front machine in their business. “People would put their dime in the machines just to see the product fall”.

In 1972 Mr. Cox moved the business from Chapman Highway to its present location on Massachusetts Avenue. In 1978 Fritz sold the business to two of his employees, Sam Davis and Floyd Moore. At the death of Sam Davis in 1992, the business was sold to Hugh Jordan and the name changed to Jordan Distributing Company, Inc.

Since 1937 the company has had only three owners. The name has changed, warehouses have been added, the delivery trucks have gotten larger and more than 600 vending machines are presently on location. But some things never change – and that’s our philosophy and our commitment to service. Our philosophy will always be the three P’s, principle, price and product. “Do what you say you’re going to do, and deliver fresh product at a fair price”. That’s our company commitment, and by the way, our employees have an average of 14 l/2 years of service and they strive to carry on that same tradition of integrity.