Southeastern Mills

What Southeastern Mills does

Southeastern Mills is a private U.S. consumer packaged goods manufacturer operating under parent company Homegrown Family Foods LLC, headquartered in Conover, North Carolina. The company produces shelf-stable dry food mixes — primarily gravies (approximately 13 varieties including brown, country, onion, sausage-flavored, au jus, and reduced-sodium options) and baking mixes (4+ varieties including a cheddar garlic biscuit mix) — marketed under the SEM master brand and the Crockery Gourmet sub-brand for seasoning mixes. The company was founded in 1941 and employs 251-500 people.

The business model is a multi-channel branded CPG distribution play. Revenue is generated through grocery retail shelf placement (with an online product locator to drive in-store traffic), a direct-to-consumer e-commerce site (semills.com), and the Amazon marketplace, with shipping restricted to the continental United States. The primary customer segment is long-tail home cooks and families purchasing through retail and DTC; a secondary food-service/industrial channel exists but its contribution is undisclosed. There is no app, no public API, and no disclosed AI/ML or data-platform capability. Distribution is entirely U.S.-domestic, leaving international expansion as an unaddressed opportunity. The company does not disclose revenue, funding, M&A activity, or leadership changes.

Name

Southeastern Mills

Legal name

Homegrown Family Foods LLC

Website

https://semills.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1941

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

Southeastern Mills is a private, 1941-founded U.S. CPG manufacturer of shelf-stable dry gravy and baking mixes sold under the SEM and Crockery Gourmet brands via grocery retail, Amazon, and a DTC website, primarily serving home cooks and families across the continental United States.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Rome

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Product Sales (Direct-to-Consumer): Southeastern Mills generates revenue through direct sales of their gravy and baking mixes via their e-commerce website. Customers purchase products at listed prices with shipping costs based on order weight and destination. Free shipping offered on orders over $75.
2. Retail Distribution: Revenue generated through distribution partnerships with grocery stores and retail chains across the United States. Products are stocked in various retail locations and found through the company's product locator feature.
3. Marketplace Sales: Products sold through Amazon marketplace, enabling reach to Prime customers and those preferring online grocery shopping.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Southeastern Mills (SEM), doing business as Homegrown Family Foods LLC, produces and supplies dry food mixes including gravy mixes, baking mixes, and seasoning mixes. The company manufactures products under its own Southeastern Mills (SEM) brand and the Crockery Gourmet sub-brand for retail grocery, food service distributors, and direct-to-consumer e-commerce. Its portfolio spans beef, turkey, chicken, pork, country, peppered, and specialty gravies, alongside biscuit, pancake, and muffin baking mixes.

Product overview

Southeastern Mills is a consumer packaged goods company offering a portfolio of dry mix products organized into two main categories: Gravy mixes and Baking mixes. The gravy line includes 13 varieties such as Peppered Gravy, Country Gravy, Classic Brown Gravy, Peppered Gravy with Sausage Flavor, Biscuit Gravy, Roast Beef Gravy, Roast Turkey Gravy, Roast Chicken Gravy, Roast Pork Gravy, Reduced Sodium Brown Gravy, Onion Gravy, Sausage Flavored Country Gravy, and Au Jus Gravy. The baking line includes 4 core products: Blueberry Muffin Mix, Buttermilk Biscuit Mix, Buttermilk Pancake Mix, and Country Biscuit Mix, plus the Cheddar Garlic Biscuit Mix variety. All products are dry mixes designed for quick preparation, offering 'made from scratch quality' with convenient preparation times of typically 10 minutes or less.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Crockery Gourmet: Seasoning mix brand line including Pork Seasoning Mix, Chicken Seasoning, and Beef Seasoning Mix, used in slow cooker recipes.
• SEM

Products and services

• Classic Brown Gravy Mix
• Country Gravy Mix
• Peppered Gravy Mix
• Peppered Gravy Mix with Sausage Flavor
• Biscuit Gravy Mix
• Roast Beef Gravy Mix
• Roast Turkey Gravy Mix
• Roast Chicken Gravy Mix
• Roast Pork Gravy Mix
• Reduced Sodium Brown Gravy Mix
• Onion Gravy Mix
• Sausage Flavored Country Gravy Mix
• Au Jus Gravy Mix
• Buttermilk Biscuit Mix
• Country Biscuit Mix
• Cheddar Garlic Biscuit Mix
• Buttermilk Pancake Mix
• Blueberry Muffin Mix
• Crockery Gourmet Seasoning Mixes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Bear Creek Country Kitchens: Bear Creek produces dry soup mixes, pasta dishes, and meal kits for grocery retail—an adjacent but directly comparable dry-mix convenience brand targeting the same home-cook convenience occasion as Southeastern Mills.
• Knorr (Unilever): Knorr produces dry gravy mixes, sauce mixes, and soup/a jus-style dry products sold across grocery retail globally—directly comparable to Southeastern Mills' gravy line in both product format and consumer use case (weeknight dinner convenience).
• Pioneer Brand: Pioneer produces baking mixes and gravy-style dry products distributed through grocery and farm supply channels, with comparable SKU breadth in the dry-mix convenience category and overlapping home-cook consumer targeting.

Broad incumbents

• Betty Crocker (General Mills): Betty Crocker is a category-leading baking mix brand (pancake, biscuit, muffin) sold nationally across grocery. It overlaps directly with Southeastern Mills' baking line but at materially larger scale and brand awareness.
• Pillsbury (General Mills): Pillsbury is a major baking mix brand competing in pancake, biscuit, and muffin categories—the same convenience-baking segments as Southeastern Mills—but with national distribution and significantly larger marketing investment.
• McCormick & Company: McCormick is a broad seasonings, spices, and gravy/sauce mix manufacturer with national grocery presence and a far larger product portfolio. It overlaps directly with Southeastern Mills' gravy and Crockery Gourmet seasoning lines but operates as a multi-category incumbent rather than a focused dry-mix specialist.
• Heinz (Kraft Heinz): Heinz dominates the mainstream jarred and dry gravy category with national grocery distribution and significant marketing scale. While format differs (wet vs dry), the brands compete directly for the same 'weeknight gravy' occasion that Southeastern Mills targets.
• Lipton Recipe Secrets (Unilever): Lipton Recipe Secrets is a mainstream dry soup and dip mix line sold nationally in grocery. While concentrated in soup mixes, it shares Southeastern Mills' dry-mix format, grocery distribution model, and weeknight-meal convenience positioning.

Regional players

• Tony Chachere's: Tony Chachere's is a Louisiana-based seasoning and dry-mix brand with strong southern regional positioning, comparable to Southeastern Mills' southeastern US roots. Both brands target comfort-food occasions with shelf-stable dry mixes and overlap in seasoning use cases.
• White Lily: White Lily is a southern-heritage baking brand (flour, mixes) with regional consumer loyalty in southeastern markets. It is comparable to Southeastern Mills in geographic brand strength and product overlap in baking mixes, though it is a more flour-centric product line.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/southeastern-mills

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Southeastern Mills