Shank’s Extracts has true historical roots, dating back to 1899 when Jacob Shank created a compound flavoring of the vanilla bean. Jacob, a Lancaster County pioneer pharmacist, created this innovative concoction to improve the taste of his medicines—and established a separate business to offer it to people for food flavoring. The business was sold in 1959 to Paris “Peppy” Rohrer. One of his customers, Lillian Lehman, purchased it in 1967.
Then, in 1978, Lillian’s son Jeffrey Lehman started at the business and guided Shank’s through significant organic and acquisition growth, as well as broadening its product line to include Private Label and Industrial products. Shank’s has been headquartered in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (USA) since its inception. The facility contains approximately 110,000 square feet for operations, sales, customer service, manufacturing, packaging, and distribution.
Currently, Shank’s Extracts supplies vanilla extracts, other extracts, natural and artificial flavors, food colors, syrups, emulsions, and sauces to a wide range of industrial, private label and grocery customers worldwide.
