King of micro-chips: Tim’s Cascade Snacks celebrates 30 years

March is the 30th anniversary of Tim’s Cascade Potato Chips. Founder Tim Kennedy was born in Pendleton and lives in Athena, Oregon. If you ask Tim Kennedy, Frito-Lay pretty much ruined potato chips in the mid-1980s. “Flat and flavorless” says Kennedy, who in 1986 started his own company to make a thicker, crunchier style of chip. Thirty years later, Tim’s Cascade Snacks is an iconic Northwest brand distributed in 13 states, parts of Canada, Mexico and overseas to Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Though Kennedy retired in 2005, he remains an ambassador for Tim’s Chips and a local celebrity. He recently visited the Seattle Food and Wine Experience in February, signing bags of chips for fans who just had to ask, “Are you THE Tim?” More