Fleetwood Coffee was founded in 1925 by Henry and Kate King as an offshoot of their King Dobbs Wholesale Grocery Company. It was named after Fleetwood Drive on Lookout Mountain, the community where the Kings lived.

Fleetwood’s main office and roasting plant was at the corner of 11th and King Street on Chattanooga’s Southside, next door to another Chattanooga-born icon, MoonPie®. Stories abound about the good smells that rose from that block.

The coffee company prospered during and after WWII. When coffee was rationed, Fleetwood remained 100% in-stock with its 385 distributors. Fleetwood achieved over 20% market share across Southeastern states and was, for a time, the region's largest coffee roaster. 

Having prominence among foodservice, Fleetwood was served by Krystal restaurants for over 15 years as its exclusive coffee, and countless “meat and three” restaurant owners from across the region have recounted their success with Fleetwood. 

Weekly volume reached 230,000 pounds–over 12M lbs a year. Primarily offered in canisters and bags, Fleetwood pioneered instant coffee in the late 50’s, securing the original patents for that process.

After a 40-year sustained run, the company was sold in the mid-60’s and then changed hands from Minute Maid to Coca-Cola. Coke eventually divested its coffee brands to other companies, and the Fleetwood brand, despite its rich heritage and dominant past, was sidelined in the early 1970’s. 

Intent on bringing Fleetwood back, the founders’ grandson, George McGee, purchased the lapsed intellectual property rights and assembled a team of coffee experts to re-launch the brand. Fleetwood Coffee was roasted once again by the International Coffee Group, headquartered in Chattanooga.  

With an eye toward quality and growth, Vienna Coffee Company acquired Fleetwood Coffee in 2019–infusing the legendary brand with fresh energy. By early 2020, EZ Stop markets across East Tennessee started brewing and selling Fleetwood Coffee in its stores. The potential for Fleetwood’s future is as promising as its storied history.