The Story of Camellia
Lucius Hamilton Hayward founded L. H. Hayward & Company in 1923. L. H. was from Meridian , Miss. He moved his family to New Orleans around 1920 and established himself in business as a wholesale supplier of fresh fruits and vegetables. During the 1920's the company served the local grocery stores and the French Quarter markets with produce grown on farms in Louisiana and Mississippi. L. H. died in 1941 leaving the business to his son, Gordon and three daughters, Bessie, Marjorie and Dorothy.
Gordon ran the business for the next five decades until he died in 1991. Today the business is owned and operated by his two sons, Ken and Rick and two of their sons Connelly and Vince. The four generations of Haywards have seen many changes over the years bringing the company from a small wholesale produce supplier to the manufacturing packager of CAMELLIA BRAND dried beans, peas and lentils.
The economic conditions of the thirties were tough for everyone, especially for a small business struggling to keep afloat in a cash poor economy. Gordon Hayward recalled that many hours every week were spent collecting on accounts that had to sell the fruit and vegetables before they could pay him. Then the wartime conditions of the forties brought more jobs and improved economic conditions for the country as a whole.
L. H. Hayward & Company became one of the major suppliers of produce to the Army and Navy bases in the area during World War II. It was during this time that the company established itself as the supplier of the best quality of beans and peas. Immediately after the war with the advent of the supermarket concept for grocery stores and the packaging and canning of more fruits and vegetables the company decided to specialize in dried beans, peas and lentils. In 1947 CAMELLIA BRAND was trademarked and the first packaged products were introduced. Today the company packages nineteen varieties of beans, peas and lentils in six different sizes ranging from one pound to one hundred pounds.
In 1927 L. H. Hayward purchased a three story, fifteen thousand square foot warehouse at 519 S. Front St. in downtown New Orleans. This building ideally located along the river front near Canal Street and the Mississippi River served as the company's headquarters until 1974. By the early 70's the warehouse district was being transformed and modernized with new high rise office buildings and hotels. Rail and truck access to the area was becoming limited. Today the company operates out of it's warehouse, packaging and office facilities in an industrial park in Harahan, a suburb of New Orleans.