We look good for being over 100 years old.
For over a century, Beck has been creating custom flavors for clients we call friends. With world class scientists, cutting-edge technology, and unmatched customer service, we have the capabilities of any competing flavor house with the responsiveness and personal attention of a family. Want cherry? We’ll ask why you want it, how you want to use it, and who will be enjoying it, then we’ll help you create a custom cherry consumers can’t resist. We invite you to become part of our story.
The Beck Flavor’s family provides the ultimate strategic partnership for our customers through innovative and quality custom flavor solutions.
We may be in the business of delivering custom flavor products for the food and beverage industry, but at the heart of our business is people. It’s been that way since 1904 when our founder, Jacob Beck, treated each of his customers as friends, and that same philosophy has been passed down for four generations.
We give you the attention you deserve by listening to your ideas and delivering your product in days instead of weeks. We know you by name, we take care of your unique needs, and we build lasting relationships because we appreciate you trusting us with your success.
In 1904, Jacob Beck owned a soda fountain on State Street in East St. Louis, where he made vanilla flavoring for the cola he served. Jacob started selling that same vanilla extract to a grocery store next door, then to a small dairy down the street.
Jacob’s sons, Norman and Howard, grew up learning about the flavoring business. Norman moved away to the west coast and began selling vanilla there, while Howard graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a chemistry degree. Howard then continued to expand Beck Flavors in the Midwest.
After WWII, Howard sold vanilla to Dairy Queen, a new creamery at the time that wrote check number 4 to Beck Flavors.
Dairy Queen requested fruity flavors to create slushy beverages, so Beck helped them develop syrups for what became the wildly popular Mr. Misty drinks. Since gallons of the liquid flavoring was expensive to ship, the Beck team pioneered a way to make lighter-weight powdered flavors.
Howard began selling vanilla to bakeries, including Mrs. Fields, a national bakery that eventually made and sold cookies in malls across America.
Howard’s children entered into and began working in the family business.
Flavored coffee became popular in Colorado. Beck Flavors worked to expand that trend by providing flavor options for coffee companies across the country. Flavored coffees grew Beck’s business in the coffee and tea category substantially.
In 1998, Danisco entered into an agreement to acquire Beck Flavors. Beck becomes a division of Danisco Cultor, a Danish food production company.
Gloria Jeans franchisees recognize Beck Flavors for their contribution to their success with the company’s prestigious “Supplier of the Year” award.
In 2010, the top two flavorists and a leading flavored coffee expert explore re-starting Beck Flavors. They collectively restart the company in St. Louis.
In 2015, Matt Carr and Paul Tripi buy into Beck Flavors as owners. In 2021, Matt and Paul bought out Charley Beck, making them the sole owners of Beck Flavors.
Beck World Famous Certified Flavorists, Kevin Berdak and Rick Gibson achieved 25 years of service. This award has been given to less than 100 people by the National Society of Flavor Chemists.
The St. Louis facility began producing flavors in a new, state-of-the-art SQF certified facility.
In 2020, a new St. Louis facility allowed Beck to have 5X the manufacturing footprint than the previous building. Matt and Paul incorporated many employees ideas into the design and build of this facility. The new building became the office location for all of our liquid flavor manufacturing teams, operations management, procurement team, and our QA and regulatory teams.
Named one of the 2020 Fastest-Growing companies by Inc. 5000
#2095 on the 2020 List
#59 in Food & Beverage Category
#25 in Missouri
#14 in St. Louis
At Beck, we care about what’s best for the communities in which we live and work, our environment, protecting our environment, serving our customers, and empowering our people.
The flavor industry has undergone incredible changes and advancements in the past century. Our goal is to continue shaping the future of flavor offerings while maintaining and even improving our planet and its people.
Beck Flavors works hard to make the us a better place. We support the Adopt-a-Highway initiative in St. Louis. We have adopted Schuetz Road, where we collect litter at least four times per year to help with the beautification efforts. We also support Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, University of Missouri Scholarship Fund and the St. Jude Foundation.
At Beck Flavors, we are committed to helping reduce waste and minimizing the carbon footprint for our company and our customers. This same emphasis is placed on companies who provide ingredients and everyday supplies. We use fully recyclable packaging on all our products, and we’ve instituted a general office recycling program for ink/toner cartridges, batteries, and paper. We’ve recently upgraded to LED lights that are extremely efficient, have a longer lifespan and consume up to 90% less power than incandescent bulbs which lowers power costs. These are just a few of our current and expanding initiatives.
The health of the food and beverage industry is important to us and our customers. We support many industry organizations to ensure the future of flavors.
For example, somewhere on the planet right now, there is a coffee farmer who is feeling the effects of climate change on their farms, or losing their crop to diseases or pests. Our partner World Coffee Research brings the same spirit of innovation and discovery to the challenges coffee farmers face in the field that we bring to flavor development. uses advanced and applied research in coffee genetics and agronomy to create new varieties, agronomic approaches, and market opportunities for farmers to become more resilient and profitable, especially in the face of significant threats like climate change. As a member of World Coffee Research, we’ve made a commitment to support agricultural innovation to empower and improve the livelihoods of coffee farmers and their families.
The heart of our business is people. We don’t just think we have the best people, we know we have the best. We are committed to supporting each Beckster like family with an inclusive and fun work environment. We respect the diversity our people bring to the organization through their unique ideas, opinions and contributions. Whether we gather around the Beck Bar to celebrate a major win or help cheer each other up during a difficult time, we are a unified culture.
