Georgia Fruit Cake Company, Inc.

International quality. Fourth-generation family business. Monde Golf Medal Award winner-London.

In 1917, at the ripe old age of 10, Ira S. Womble, Sr. became an apprentice to an Italian immigrant named Savino Tos. Tos, a pastry-maker, had relocated from New York City to Claxton, Georgia in 1910 to enjoy a slower paced life. Womble learned quickly from Tos but left Claxton during the Great Depression to become a manager of a federal bakery in Clearwater, Florida. It was during this time that Womble met automobile magnate Henry Ford. Ford took an instant liking to Womble and his baked goods. Ford built a bakery in Richmond Hill, Georgia for Womble in order to experiment with soy-derived bakery goods. The automobile giant so loved Womble’s finished products, that for years he had his birthday cake delivered from Richmond Hill to Dearborn, Michigan via the Silver Meteor train. In 1948 Ira Womble, Sr. decided to move the bakery back to his hometown of Claxton where Ira, his son Ira S. Womble, Jr., and grandson John Womble are still baking fruitcake to this day.
Present Since 1954, when the Georgia Fruitcake Company picked up its first military contract (one order for 52,000 lbs. of cake and another for 64,000 lbs.), this family owned business has counted on the military as one of their main customers. Since then they have added a mail order system and an on-line service that is available to the public. Of course everyone is welcome to stop by Claxton, visit the facilities and make a purchase right at the counter.

The Georgia Fruitcake Company offers three main varieties of their cakes: the vacuum-sealed canned Georgia Fruit Cake, the vacuum-sealed canned bourbon fruitcake (The Womble’s Fruit Cake), and the 11 lb. loaves which are cut and wrapped in one-pound cakes and two-pound cakes and are sold in an assortment of size combinations.