Reliable income in consumer staples does not require buying the same 10 mega-cap names every financial news outlet recommends. Deeper in the market, a handful of overlooked companies are paying and growing dividends backed by business models that larger competitors cannot easily replicate.
One of the three tickers featured here hits especially close to home for me. As a resident of North Carolina, I've personally watched this business show remarkable resilience in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Marzetti
Marzetti (MZTI 0.20%), formerly operating as Lancaster Colony, has raised its cash dividend annually for 62 consecutive years. That alone puts it in rarefied air. But the forward story is what makes Marzetti genuinely exciting right now.
In February 2026, the company announced a $400 million acquisition of Bachan's, the Japanese barbecue sauce brand founded on a multigenerational family recipe. Bachan's grew from zero to $87 million in net sales between 2019 and 2025, a compound annual growth rate of 48%. CEO David Ciesinski said Marzetti plans to broaden Bachan's distribution, support product innovation, and extend the brand into new channels and adjacent categories.
This is Marzetti's playbook: Identify small, culturally resonant food brands with cult followings and then plug them into Marzetti's massive retail and foodservice distribution network.
NASDAQ: MZTI
Key Data Points
Marzetti's dual-channel engine is the real moat. On one side, it supplies branded dressings, dips, and flatbreads to grocery retailers. On the other, it operates as a critical foodservice partner to restaurant chains, formulating proprietary recipes that those chains depend on. The Bachan's deal deepens the company's push into the sauces category at a time when global and Asian-inspired flavors are dominating consumer food trends.
The quarterly dividend sits at $0.95 per share, with a 2.4% yield, and the company has also been repurchasing stock. This is quiet, compounding wealth creation at its finest.
2. John B. Sanfilippo & Son
Most investors cannot name the largest processor and distributor of tree nuts and peanuts in the United States, but John B. Sanfilippo & Son (JBSS +1.33%) holds that title. The company sells under the Fisher, Orchard Valley Harvest, and Southern Style Nuts brands and has paid dividends for 14 consecutive years, including special dividends when business warrants it.
The big move is the company's push into protein bars. Sanfilippo is executing one of the largest capital expenditure initiatives in its history, with 85% of bar-production equipment already on-site from European manufacturers. New bar production lines go live in July 2026, which CEO Jeffrey Sanfilippo called "a transformational time for our company."
NASDAQ: JBSS
Key Data Points
This is a nut company using its supply chain dominance in raw materials to vertically integrate into one of the fastest-growing snack categories in America. The nut and snack industry is riding secular tailwinds from protein-focused, plant-based, and better-for-you eating trends, and Sanfilippo sits at the center of that shift with direct control over its raw material sourcing.
The company's recipe portfolio expansion and private-label relationships with major grocers give it distribution leverage that start-ups entering the bar space simply cannot match.
The regular annual dividend is $0.90 per share, with a 1.2% dividend yield, supplemented by periodic special dividends that reflect management's commitment to sharing cash flow with shareholders.
3. Ingles Markets
Ingles Markets (IMKTA +1.30%) is a 197-store supermarket chain headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, and operating across six southeastern U.S. states. It pays a quarterly dividend of $0.165 per share ($0.66 annually), backed by a business model that is as much about real estate as it is about groceries. The dividend yield is 0.8%.
Ingles owns two-thirds of the real estate on which it operates, including neighborhood shopping centers anchored by its supermarkets. This strategy, pioneered by founder Robert Ingle in the 1960s, provides cost control, customization flexibility, and long-term property appreciation that renting retailers cannot access.
NASDAQ: IMKTA
Key Data Points
The company also owns a fluid dairy processing facility that serves its own stores and outside customers, creating a vertically integrated supply chain advantage in fresh dairy, one of the highest-frequency purchase categories in grocery.
Three stores that were closed temporarily after Hurricane Helene are expected to reopen in 2026 and 2027, providing a built-in revenue recovery catalyst. With nearly no borrowings on its $150 million credit line and over $366 million in cash, Ingles has fortress-level liquidity relative to its peers.
Chairman Robert P. Ingle II has kept the company focused on affordable pricing and customer service in smaller southeastern communities that national chains underserve. Helene rocked the community of Western North Carolina, and as a North Carolina resident, I'm happy to read that Ingles is up and kicking.
For income investors, the dividend is modest, but the asset-backed balance sheet provides a margin of safety that most grocery operators cannot offer.
