It didn’t start with the cows. It didn’t start with milk or ice cream. It started with company founder, William Kemps, and the principles he learned from his parents on their 80-acre farm in the late 19th century.

William Kemps and Walter Lathrop joined together to form the Lathrop-Kemps Ice Cream Company, at 222 Fifth Street, Minneapolis. It is considered the birthplace of Kemps.

The Lathrop-Kemps Ice Cream plant was producing 30 tons of ice per day, and averaged 260 gallons of ice cream per hour.

The Kemps Ice Cream Company is sold to its St. Paul competitor, Crescent Creamery.

American ice cream consumption dropped from nine quarts per person per year in 1929, to five quarts a year in 1933.

Dairy consumption surged when the U.S. entered World War II.

Crescent, Kemps, and Marigold Dairies of Wisconsin merged and became one company – Marigold Foods.  The merger would modernize and expand each brand.

From 1961 to 1967, Marigold Foods doubled in size.

Marigold Foods formally changed its company name to Kemps.

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the country, purchases Kemps.  With more than 12,500 members, DFA helps farmers find more value in their products through Kemps distribution and diverse array of products.

Kemps purchases Cass-Clay, the leading dairy in North Dakota.

Today we’re still living by the same values and delivering the same high quality dairy products as William Kemps did when we were founded, back in 1914.