Our Story
In 1946, Earl Henson, Homer Green, Harrison Williamson, Ben Hurst, and Chester Smith started the Louisville Pecan Company in Louisville, Alabama. This insightful new company began with five small crackers, one sheller, and a few blowers. However, most of the work was done by hand. In the early 1950's, Mr. Henson formed a partnership with a Mr. F. L. Fackler which bought out the other gentlemen's shares. A division in labor grew out of this new partnership – Mr. Henson "cracked", while Mr. Fackler "sold". By the mid 1950's the company had expanded to a 12 cracker plant and was growing, as was the country as a whole. A brilliant new packaging concept and market was discovered by Mr. Henson's wife, Mary, in the mid 1960's. This new packaging concept was to package pecans in small portions (1 lb. packages) and the new market was fundraising. This discovery has become a major portion of the Louisville Pecan Company's sales base.
In 1971, Mr. Fackler retired, selling his half of the business to Homer & Rhonda Henson (Earl Henson's son & daughter-in-law) which made the Louisville Pecan Company a family business. This tradition continued even after Earl Henson’s death in 1987 as his wife, Mary, continued as a partner with Homer until her death in 2003. Today the company is still owned and operated by Homer & Rhonda Henson. Louisville Pecan Co., Inc. has seen growth in both the company and types of products offered by the company over these many years.
By 1989, a new 12,500 square foot shelling plant had been built with a 3000 square foot frozen storage unit to keep pecans fresh year round. Also, in the 1990's, milk chocolate, white chocolate, crunchy praline, roasted & salted, and other candy varieties were added to the natural pecan line. Today, the Louisville Pecan Company continues to expand its' facilities as well as the pecan products offered, and is now expanding with an updated web page which promises to bring Louisville Pecans to you anywhere on the net.
While the Louisville Pecan Company does not grow pecans, they have had over 60 years of experience searching the southeast for the best pecans for their products.
