CHARLOTTE — A native of North Carolina’s Piedmont has transformed her family’s holiday tradition into a full-time business, and the concept originated in her grandmother’s kitchen.
While growing up in her hometown of Burlington, Becca Wright remembers baking “pennies,” or bite-sized cheesy biscuits, in the kitchen with her dad during busy holiday seasons. Her dad grew up doing the same with his mom, Wright’s “grandbetty,” who invented the homemade snack.
Wright was frequently asked by her family to deliver the freshly baked “pennies” — her grandmother’s spin on traditional Southern cheese straws — to family and friends as holiday gifts. They often raved over the snack, which left Wright questioning why the cheesy biscuit bites weren’t available to purchase in stores.
“That’s when I started hearing all that feedback and I was like, ‘Well, why is there not something like this out there on the market?’” she asked. “You’ve got your Southern cheese straws that are more floury and kind of crumbly. And then you have Cheez-Its, which just don’t have that homemade taste or feel to them.”
Years later, she’s preserved her grandmother’s recipe and turned it into a full-time snack company that’s currently on the shelves of 300-plus retailers across 19 states. Wright’s Charlotte-based business, Piedmont Pennies, sells original and spicy chipotle-flavored cheesy biscuit crackers. She also sells cheesy, buttery and crispy “Penny Panko” in crumb form.
Her journey to reach that scale was long, but rewarding.
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