Since the 1800s, the Piedmont had long been the most industrialized Tar Heel region and continued to do so in the following century. During the mid-twentieth century manufacturing jobs started providing the majority of employment for North Carolinians.
In Seagrove (southern Randolph County), Alfred Spencer and Ivey B. Luck started Mountain View Canning Company in 1947. A year later H. Clay Presnell joined Spencer and Luck on their entrepreneurial adventure. In 1953, the owners changed the company name to Luck’s Incorporated and increased the number of local food products to be canned (Pinto beans were the company’s most famous product). After merging with American Home Products in 1967, Luck’s Incorporated produced twenty-four meat and vegetable items.
During the latter half of the twentieth century and the first years of the twentieth century, North Carolina’s manufacturing sector revealed signs of deterioration, and such signs were seen clearly in Randolph County. There, several companies closed plants: B. B. Walker Company, Black and Decker, and Luck’s Incorporated. ConAgra Grocery Products purchased Luck’s in 2001 and in the following year closed the Seagrove plant.
Eight months later, Seagrove Foods, Inc., reopened the closed plant.