Wesson

What Wesson does

Wesson is a heritage American cooking oil brand, founded in 1899 and currently wholly owned by Richardson International, a Canadian family-owned agribusiness that acquired the brand and its Memphis production facility in February 2019. The company manufactures and sells a focused line of plant-based cooking oils — Canola Oil, Vegetable Oil (soybean-based), Corn Oil, and Best Blend — alongside Wesson Mayonnaise. All products are positioned as free from trans fat, chemicals, preservatives, coloring agents, and cholesterol, with high smoke points (Canola at 468°F; Corn and Vegetable at 453°F) suitable for frying, baking, sautéing, vinaigrettes, and marinades. The core technology is the proprietary blending, quality assurance, and bottling process executed at a 280,000 square foot Memphis, Tennessee facility, with ingredients sourced from North American growers via Richardson's grain and oilseed supply chain.

Wesson operates a consumer packaged goods business model, generating one-time retail sales through US grocery stores; pricing is set by retailers (not publicly disclosed) and supported by a product locator on the brand website. The primary customer segment is home cooks and individual consumers (persona-based segmentation), with a secondary commercial segment — restaurants, caterers, and industrial food operations — served through the Richardson Food & Ingredients food service division. Go-to-market is product-led and content-driven: an extensive recipe library on purewesson.com, an active Instagram presence, an email newsletter, and recent connected TV and content creator partnerships (notably the November 2025 holiday campaign). Marketing has been progressively modernized through a 2022 brand refresh and the 2024 'It Starts With Wesson' 125-year milestone campaign, both aimed at sustaining relevance in a mature, commodity-adjacent category without a disclosed venture, equity, or public-market financing history.

Name

Wesson

Legal name

Wesson (brand owned and operated by Richardson)

Website

https://purewesson.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1899

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Wesson is a heritage US plant-based cooking oil brand (founded 1899) producing canola, vegetable, corn, and blended oils, owned by Richardson International since 2019 and distributed through US grocery retailers to home cooks, with a parallel food service channel via Richardson Food & Ingredients.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cooking Oils

NAICS

Fats and Oils Refining and Blending (311225)

SIC

Fats & Oils (2070)

akta.pro primary industry

Industrial Frying Oils & Foodservice Oil Blends Manufacturing (AFAKAEAI)

Keywords

• Plant-based cooking oils
• Canola oil
• Vegetable oil
• Corn oil
• Consumer packaged goods

Headquarters

HQ city

Memphis

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, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Retail Cooking Oil Sales: Sale of plant-based cooking oils (Canola, Vegetable, Corn, Best Blend) through retail grocery stores and online product locator. Revenue generated from consumer packaged goods sales.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Wesson manufactures and sells plant-based cooking oils—Canola Oil, Vegetable Oil, Corn Oil, and Best Blend—along with Wesson Mayonnaise, for home cooking and food service use. Products are blended and bottled at a 280,000-square-foot facility in Memphis, Tennessee, and sold through US retail grocery stores. The oils are formulated to be free from trans fat, chemicals, preservatives, coloring agents, and cholesterol, with high smoke points suitable for frying, baking, sautéing, and other cooking methods.

Product overview

Wesson is a family of plant-based cooking oils and related products. The core product line consists of four cooking oils (Canola Oil, Vegetable Oil, Corn Oil, and Best Blend) and Wesson Mayonnaise. All products are marketed as heart-healthy alternatives, free from trans fat, chemicals, preservatives, coloring agents, and cholesterol. The products are primarily positioned for home cooking, baking, and food service use. The company also maintains a robust recipe collection demonstrating product usage across various cuisines.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Wesson Canola Oil Heart-healthy plant-based canola cooking oil with a high smoke point of 468°F, suitable for stir-frying, baking, and deep frying. Free from trans fat, chemicals, preservatives, coloring agents, and naturally cholesterol free. Sold in 40oz bottles through US retail grocery stores.
• Wesson Vegetable Oil Soybean-based versatile cooking oil with a smoke point of 453°F, suitable for salad dressings, marinades, baking, and deep frying. Free from trans fat, chemicals, preservatives, coloring agents, and naturally cholesterol free. Sold in 40oz bottles through US retail grocery stores.
• Wesson Corn Oil Corn-based cooking oil with a high smoke point of 453°F, ideal for full-flavor dishes and high-heat cooking. Free from trans fat, chemicals, preservatives, coloring agents, and naturally cholesterol free. Sold in 40oz bottles through US retail grocery stores.
• Wesson Best Blend Wesson's most versatile cooking oil blend, suitable for a wide range of favorite dishes and cooking methods. Free from trans fat, chemicals, preservatives, coloring agents, and naturally cholesterol free. Sold in 40oz bottles through US retail grocery stores.
• Wesson Mayonnaise Classic Wesson mayonnaise product used in various recipes including dips, spreads, and fried foods. Referenced across the Wesson recipe collection.

Quantifiable outcome

• Canola Oil smoke point of 468°F, Corn Oil and Vegetable Oil at 453°F
• +1 more outcomes

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

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Richardson InternationalcoreOthers · 23 February 2019Richardson International, a family-owned agribusiness of over 100 years headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, acquired Wesson in 2019. Richardson is committed to maintaining the Wesson brand through investment and innovation. Richardson sources grains and oilseeds directly from growers, building strong connections from farm to consumer's table.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Mazola: ACH Food Companies (ABF) corn oil brand competing head-to-head with Wesson Corn Oil in retail and food service, with comparable positioning around pure and versatile cooking oils.
• LouAna: Cargill-owned retail and food service cooking oil brand with overlapping vegetable, canola, and blended oil SKUs targeting the same home cook and foodservice customers as Wesson.
• Pompeian: Independent US olive oil and cooking oil brand competing for the same pantry-staple shelf space, increasingly overlapping with Wesson as consumers rotate between premium and commodity oils.
• Crisco: B&G Foods-owned cooking oil and shortening brand directly competing with Wesson in the retail baking and frying aisle with overlapping vegetable and canola oil SKUs.

Broad incumbents

• Cargill: Global agribusiness that owns LouAna and supplies refined oils and food service customers; competes with Richardson International vertically and overlaps with Wesson at the retail brand and B2B oil levels.
• ADM (Archer Daniels Midland): Diversified agribusiness refining and trading edible oils, providing both ingredient competition to Richardson and indirect competition to Wesson through private-label retail supply.
• Bunge: Major global oilseed processor and supplier of refined vegetable oils competing with Richardson's oilseed operations upstream and indirectly with Wesson-branded output downstream.
• ACH Food Companies: Subsidiary of Associated British Foods owning Mazola and a portfolio of cooking oil and baking brands, giving it broader scale and R&D resources than Wesson as a single-brand unit.

Emerging players

• Ventura Foods: Foodservice-focused oils, sauces, and dressings supplier that competes with the Richardson Food & Ingredients division serving the same commercial and industrial customers.
• Chosen Foods: Premium avocado oil brand capitalizing on the clean-label, plant-based cooking oil narrative that Wesson also targets, increasingly relevant as a substitute product on the same shelf.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/wesson
• Facebookfacebook.com/purewesson
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wesson-oil-co

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

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 Wesson