North  
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 Laureate
Philip Lance Van Every (Dec. 9, 1913 - July 22, 1980)
Inducted 1992
   In 1913, Phil Lance and his brother-in-law, Salem A. Van Every, founded Lance Packing Company selling roasted peanuts for 5 cents a bag. The firm also began selling peanut butter crackers and around World War I, peanut brittle. 		     




   
 Junior Achievement		    In 1913, Philip Lance Van Every was born on December 9th to Salem and Mary Lance Van Every. Philip attended public schools in Charlotte and Staunton Military Academy in Virginia. 
   Phil Lance died in an auto accident in 1926 and Salem Van Every incorporated the firm. At 19, he joined Lance in 1932 when sales were below a million dollars a year.
   By 1935, Lance had hit $1 million in annual sales and reached $2 million in 1939, when the company changed its name to Lance, Inc. In 1938, the company had begun baking its own crackers.
   In the early 1940s, Lance Inc. was a peanut processor and candy manufacturer. But war time restrictions on sugar meant the firm decided to switch its emphasis away from candy toward peanut butter crackers and cookies. The firm produced products for the U.S. military during WQorld War II.
   On Easter Sunday 1943, Salem Van Every died. At age 29, Philip became president and chief executive office. The firm had annual sales of approximately $9 million. He sought management assistance from the Baltimore-based spice company, McCormick & Company, which was using multiple management techniques. Philip instituted his version of multiple management, which encourages key managerial decisions by committees using executive and worker expertise.
   By 1950, annual sales for Lance Inc. reached $14 million. In 1953, Lance entered the institutional food segment of the business and in 1954 the company began using vending machines.
   In the meantime, Philip Lance Van Every also was engaged in public service — as mayor pro tem (1951-1953) on the Charlotte City Council and then as the elected Charlotte mayor for two terms (1953 - 1957).
   By 1960, annual sales had reached $26 million. Philip had become chairman of the board for Lance, Inc. With the original plant on South College in Charlotte running at full capacity, the company broke ground on a new headquarters and plant in 1961. The company made a public offering on stock in December 1961 and opened its new facility in 1962.
   On March 6, 1970, the last 5-cent Lance product was made. 
   In 1973, Philip Lance Van Every retired from the company, which was then a national operation reaching $80 million in annual sales.
   He served as a board director for American Trust Company of Charlotte. 
   He was married to Pinky Johnson of Anderson, S.C., and they had four daughters — Mary, Caroline, Diana, and Anne. 

 

 

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