The company was founded in Elmira in 1880 by Frederick Jennings as Jennings Seed Co. In 1920 Arthur Banfield, Lester Baker's late uncle, bought out Jennings and renamed the company Banfield-Jennings. Lester Baker and his wife Thelma joined Banfield in the West Water Street, Elmira, business in 1935. The business moved to Railroad Avenue in Elmira in the 1940s. In 1960 Lester and Thelma took over the company and moved to State and Gray streets in Elmira when the city built the Centertown parking lot. The Elmira Urban Renewal acquired the company's building in 1977 and the firm moved to its current location on the Miracle Mile in Horseheads.

Banfield-Baker has expanded its wholesale business into the surrounding areas of Binghamton, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania. The company continues to serve an ever expanding retail business to the twin tiers of New York and Pennsylvania. Banfield-Baker is currently owned and operated by Bruce and Douglass Baker, the sons of the late Lester and Thelma Baker.