After 10 years, popular Kansas City food business with national footprint is closing
After a decade of pickling, preserving and canning, Kansas City Canning Co. is shutting down operations.
Owner Tim Tuohy announced the decision in a social media post Tuesday evening, saying the closing of his company was “effective immediately” and the result of “increased costs, cash-flow problems, innumerable repeated mistakes, and missed opportunities.”
Reached by The Star on Wednesday, Tuohy added that a wholesale partnership with a large retailer had resulted in a “significant chargeback” that added to the company’s challenges.
Tuohy said he plans to fulfill all existing orders and has updated Kansas City Canning Co.’s website with what’s left of the company’s inventory of pickles, jellies and shrubs. “Once we sell everything we currently have on the site, that’ll be the end.”
In addition to selling its own products, Kansas City Canning Co. also offers white-label and co-packing services for other businesses and restaurants. Tuohy said he’ll continue doing that until those customers find new production partners.
“I want to make sure my vendors and customers are taken care of immediately so that this business failure doesn’t affect anyone else,” Tuohy said.
A former teacher, Tuohy started Kansas City Canning Co. in 2014, selling pickled vegetables, preserves, jams, and specialty cocktail products. He eventually moved the operation to a former East Bottoms hamburger stand at 2801 Nicholson Ave. and partnered with a variety of local companies, among them Boulevard Brewing Co. (on unfiltered Hoppy Pickles) and Local Pig (on a tomato jam).
Kansas City Canning Co.’s products were sold in markets and gift shops not just throughout the metro but in more than 40 states across the country.
Tuohy said he was proud that his company had made it 10 years but, “In the end, I overextended myself and our capacity, and the buck stops with me.”
“There’s a world that exists where somebody else takes over the Kansas City Canning Co. brand and operations, and our recipes and products live on,” he added. “It just won’t be me running it.”
