America's Greatest Brands

Achievements

In addition to great taste and commitment to quality, innovation is a Jones legacy. When Jones first started making sausage and selling it commercially, most people were grinding their own sausage at home, a very laborious task. Jones provided a convenient way for consumers to put a homemade breakfast on the table — a novel idea in the late 1800s. Homemakers never had to feel guilty about serving Jones products because they were made with the same care they would have put into making it themselves.

Because they are dedicated to delivering fresh, all-natural products, Jones Dairy Farm was one of the first meat packing companies to quick-freeze sausage. In the early days of the company, the Jones family quickly built demand for their products in the northeastern United States. Jones sausage was all being produced in Wisconsin, so a process needed to be developed to facilitate shipping to the Northeast. They found that the new quick-freeze process locked in freshness without the need for chemicals or preservatives, and enabled them to deliver farm-fresh sausage thousands of miles from Wisconsin. Today, the Northeast still remains one of Jones’ key customer bases.

While the company remains traditional and family-owned, they embrace modernization and continually work on product enhancements, line extensions, and new products, often coming up with cutting-edge ideas before the competition. One example is the development of fully cooked and browned sausage with heat and serve convenience. This new sausage line was launched in the early 1980s when microwaves were beginning to become a standard in American households. Another innovation is Jones light breakfast sausage, which contains 50 percent less fat, 40 percent fewer calories, and 30 percent less sodium than ordinary pork sausage. All totaled, Jones now produces more than 200 products, including a growing amount that are made specifically with tastes of international consumers in mind.