On the eye of World War I, two brothers, William and Joseph Flowers opened the first ice cream company in Thomasville, Georgia. They soon discovered the town needed something more – fresh bread; the closest bakery was more than 200 miles away. In 1919, they opened Flowers Baking Company utilizing the latest and most sanitary machinery capable of producing 30,000 loaves of bread per day. Within ten years they were shipping quality-baked products by rail as far west as Alabama and south into Florida.

In 1934, William Sr., died unexpectely. William Howard Flowers, Jr., at the age of 20, took charge of Flowers Baking Company including 25 employees, 7 routes and $90,000 in annual sales. Today, Flowers Foods is a dynamic baking company with sales exceeding $1.5 billion serving the Southeastern, Southwestern and Mid-Atlantic States. The Flowers brothers operating strategy from the beginning was to invest in efficient, technologically advanced bakeries, to offer excellent baked food products, to build strong brands and to provide extraordinary service to customers.

Click on the images below to view .pdf files of the inductee’s biography and plaque.