Enterprise Diversified . .
By RAY HOWE
75 Miles of Peanut Crackers
Tli;if*s wlial loanee turns out every 8 hours,
in the highest rook stoves in the South; the
success story of a modest AOrfli Carolina
venture.
Allhough the package of Lance
crackers you're eating is less than two
inches tall, the people who make them
can figure daily production by the
mile. With three long ovens, each over
■400 feet in length. Lance, Inc., is able
to turn out a ribbon of crackers ap¬
proximately three and a half feel in
width and 75 miles long on each
eight-hour shift.
About 35 years ago the founder of
the business thought in terms of miles,
too. But those were the weary ones he
walked carrying a basket over his
arm while peddling little peanut butter
crackers door to door in Charlotte.
Ilow It Started
P. L. Lance, a Charlotte wholesaler,
started it all when a customer turned
down an order for peanuts and he
found himself left with an oversupply.
He decided to roast them and sell
them. He ground them up and made
peanut butter, and then he made pea¬
nut butter sandwiches and peanut
brittle in his own kitchen. He formed
a partnership with his son-in-law, S. A.
Van Every, and the business got un¬
derway.
When Mr. Lance died in 1926 a
corporation was formed, a building
was purchased and Lance, Inc., moved
into the location where it still stands
on Charlotte's wide South Boulevard.
Four times the building was en¬
larged and now it’s a U-shaped struc¬
ture with loading platforms in the open
area.
There is the equivalent of a com¬
plete turnover of Lance products in
that loading area every day now as a
fleet of tractor trailers carries them
away to 26 states while covering five
million miles annually. The products
are distributed to retailers by some
600 full-time independent dealers
who keep the home office in close per¬
sonal contact with hundreds of grocery
stores, restaurants, soda shops and
other direct outlets.
Generally recognized as the largest
concern in its field. Lance puts out
products which are familiar to every¬
one in the south and southwest. The
latter area is served by a plant es¬
tablished in 1948 in Greenville, Texas.
Of all the products, however, the
’money cracker’ is the Toastchcc, two
square cheese crackers with peanut
butter between them. In addition there
are sweet crackers with jelly, peanut
butter or marshmallow fillings, date
bars, fig cakes, frosted cakes, potato
chips, roasted peanuts, cream filled
candies, chocolate coated crackers,
butter cookies and many others.
They Make It All
Practically everything needed is
made in the Lance plant in Charlotte
—the peanut butter, the crackers, the
icings, the fillings. Each of two roasters
handles a ton of peanuts an hour and
grinders and mixers convert them to
peanut butter at the same speed.
It’s a production line operation, and
at places it looks like Rube Goldberg
might have contributed some of his
unorthodox inventions. Conveyor belts
carry the dough through the ovens
THE STATE. APRIL 12. 1952
