Loading ...In spite of a tight economy, one of Bedford’s oldest businesses is prospering. Southern Flavoring got its start in 1929 after a mine cave-in left William G. Claytor a paraplegic. Claytor had worked as a mine inspector. After the accident, he and his sisters, Mary Fred Claytor and Katherine Claytor, developed a recipe for a vanilla flavoring that didn’t use alcohol. They developed this as part of a business that William Claytor could run from a wheelchair and the production line was originally in the kitchen of their house on Park Street.
The business later passed to Boyd Claytor, William Claytor’s nephew. Boyd Claytor and his wife, Virginia ran it together. This, by the way, is the Boyd Claytor who donated the property for the Claytor Nature Center to Lynchburg College.
Today, along with selling flavoring to individuals, Southern Flavoring has commercial accounts and sells its product in gallon containers. A production line like Southern Flavoring’s, which can turn out 15,000 bottles in an eight hour shift, is expensive. The bottle capper alone costs $60,000. The line also keeps track of each batch, logging the date and time that it was bottled. A new revenue source for the company is called a “hot pack” operation. The company receives calls from people who have a product and need somebody who has a production line to make it. Southern Flavoring makes the product according to the customer’s recipe.
In addition to food products, Southern Flavoring has a non-food specialties side.
Read the full article by John Barnhart of the Bedford Bulletin, published January 6, 2010: http://www.lcni5.com/cgi-bin/c2.cgi?030+article+News+20100106103353030030001
