Robert Kerker Mattingly was born in Zanesville, Ohio in 1921. As he graduated from St. Thomas High School in Zanesville, OH, World War II was looming, and like many young men his age, duty called and he answered. At the end of his service, Bob was able to return home to Zanesville with his wife Bette.

No stranger to hard work, Bob worked at his father's dairy route, and spent his "off" hours doing odd jobs. On the weekends Bob and Bette would load the trunk of the car with pottery (Zanesville was then quite a pottery center), and drive to bigger cities like Columbus and Indianapolis where they would resell the pottery out of the trunk of their car. As hindsight would prove, they were learning valuable lessons of Purchase and Delivery.

With money they had saved from their various endeavors Bob and Bette purchased a seafood market in downtown Zanesville in 1947 and Mattingly Seafood began satisfying customers. That same year they were also blessed with the birth of their only child, Barbara.

On January 3, 1957, just 3 days after welcoming in the new year, The Casino Bar burned to the ground. Not only had Bob lost his investment (uninsured) and his job, but Mattingly Seafood had lost its biggest customer. Many people would have thrown in the towel and quit after such a devastating blow. But Bob kept his head up and continued to run the fish market during the day, and other odd jobs to make ends meet.

Bob's solution to the problem was to work harder…and to work smarter. The first thing Bob did was to get an evening job after leaving the seafood market. He tended bar at the local Rogge Hotel, which provided an immediate boost in his income, and enabled him to keep Mattingly Seafood intact, complete with his 3 hired employees.

Next, Bob began to sell frozen food from his retail store. America was hitting an era of prosperity. Refrigerators and freezers were getting bigger, and many people were also buying free-standing freezers. Bob's concept of selling frozen foods caught-on and the business rocketed skyward. Soon the enterprise was renamed Mattingly Seafood and Frozen Foods to better describe its offerings.

Mattingly Seafood and Frozen Foods soon had to lease a frozen storage locker to maintain the expanded product line and to keep pace with demand. But even that only lasted for a few years. Strong sales growth gave Bob the confidence to buy The Ohio Ice Company building in 1960, which would give significant capacity for the foreseeable future.

The 1960's turned out to be a decade of steady growth for Bob and Bette, and the growing family of Mattingly Foods employees. In 1966 they achieved The Magic Million Dollar Mark in sales, and once again they needed more space. The David Davies meat packing building on State Street in Zanesville was purchased, and through several expansions, has remained the home of Mattingly Foods, Inc. to this day.

Growth during the 1970's paralleled that of the '60's, and by the end of the decade, Mattingly Foods found itself overwhelmed with the minute details of bookkeeping, particularly since so many items were being stocked, and product "turns" were high.

In 1979, Mattingly Foods became one of the first firms of its kind in the foodservice industry to computerize its entire operations, including accounting, inventory control and order process management. Being a pioneer in this field was a bold step, but Bob Mattingly was accustomed to taking such steps. Bob's decision to computerize turned out to be a big success, and foodservice companies from all over the United States traveled to Zanesville, Ohio to see how the system worked and to take Bob's wisdom back to their own companies. Always striving to "do things better tomorrow than we did them today," Mattingly Foods continues to be recognized as one of the technology leaders within the food service arena.

1997 marked the 50th Anniversary of Mattingly Foods. It also marked a point in time where 3 generations of the Mattingly family were active in the business, expanding on Bob's philosophy of building a business around family.

Today, Mattingly Foods specializes in delivering frozen, refrigerated and dry foods to chain restaurant accounts  from their recently expanded warehouse facility in Zanesville, Ohio covering an expansive 19 states.  

Individual restaurant locations such as Bob Evans, Boston Market and Steak n Shake, receive their frozen, refrigerated and dry product at one time, in a custom-designed, 3-compartment trailer, in order to keep "receiving" commotion and disruption to a minimum. Generally, shipments are scheduled on a cycle of 2 or 3 days a week to help ensure maximum product freshness, yet reduce on-location inventory and storage requirements.

The management team at Mattingly Foods averages 30 years of job tenure, and the company prides itself with a loyal staff of over 265 dedicated employees. In fact, the turnover at Mattingly Foods is less than 2%, and most of this occurs only at the entry- level positions.

Mattingly Foods treats its employees as family; and not surprisingly, the employees treat their customers as family. That's how Mattingly Foods will meet the changing needs of its customer and the industry for many decades to come.