NORTH NORWICH – Rea-D-Pack Foods Inc., a long-time sauerkraut processing company and community fixture in North Norwich, was sold earlier this month to a larger competitor that plans to close the plant later this year, company President Rita Ashton confirmed last week.
Ashton said mounting transportation and market challenges were the main reasons behind the sale to Great Lakes Kraut Company LLC, a Wisconsin and New York-based kraut manufacturer. Specifically, the rising cost to ship-in cabbage supplies from western New York and ship-out kraut to customers, as well as a decline in demand for the product, made it logistically and economically difficult to keep Rea-D-Pack open in recent months, she explained.
“Everyday we didn’t know where we stood,” said Ashton. “It was all about competing in the market. In the end, it came down to economics.”
The company was started in 1958 in North Norwich by Ashton’s father, Sheldon Goldstein, whose family had been in the kraut business since the early 1900s.
Originally from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Goldstein established customers in cities like New York and Chicago, selling sauerkraut to delicatessens and grocery stores in ethnic neighborhoods. Ashton said a lion’s share of the hot dog vendors in New York City carry Rea-D-Pack kraut. It even supplied Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s inauguration in 2007.
Goldstein, who died in 2004, was well-known for his contributions to surrounding communities, as well as his outgoing personality and kindness, said North Norwich Town Clerk Loretta L. Smith.
“He was very community minded,” said Smith, who knew Goldstein for years. “He was very kind, thoughtful and generous. He was also selfless, always doing things for someone else. I have nothing but fond memories of Sheldon.”
Goldstein was heavily involved with the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation and the Chenango County Council of the Arts. He also often emceed the annual Colorscape Chenango Art and Music Festival in Norwich.
In North Norwich, he sponsored and organized an annual Sauerkraut Festival each Labor Day from 1985 to 1994 in Galena Park as a way to bring the community together and raise money for Muscular Dystrophy, said Smith, who co-organized the event.
“We wanted to hold it the same day of Jerry Lewis’ telethon,” said Smith. “We always joked that we were his opening act.”
The festival included games, rides, dunk tanks, local musicians and performers, craft booths and of course, sauerkraut. As the festival got bigger, Rea-D-Pack built a pavilion for added space and later donated it to the town for public use, Smith said.
“The community was very important to my dad,” said Ashton. “And he was very dedicated to supporting local businesses and causes, I think, because he came here just starting out, too. But this became his home.”
The plant currently employs five full-time employees and 4 to 8 temps, depending on the time of year. It will stay open likely until sometime in August, when the current batch of sauerkraut is completely shipped off. Ashton said Great Lakes will not keep the business going because it has more logistically sound manufacturing locations and mainly purchased Rea-D-Pack for its book of business.
“We’ll miss our dedicated employees,” said Ashton. “Many of them have been with us for years and years.”
Robert Clapp Sr., who worked at Rea-D-Pack for 47 years, the majority of them as the plant’s general manager until retiring in 2006, says it was a special place to work.
“(Rea-D-Pack) was really productive for what it is – a small, independent, family-owned company,” said Clapp Sr., whose son, Robert Jr., also worked there 20-plus years. “The best part was the boss (Goldstein). Just his attitude toward people. He cared a lot about you as a person. If you needed a buck or two before pay day, he would help you out. That’s unheard of these days. He was just like a dad. The whole family was great.”
Ashton said the company will also miss its customers, with many of whom it developed long-standing relationships.
“When it is all said and done,” she added, “we were able to carry on and keep Rea-D-Pack Foods up and running in a marketplace that was becoming very challenging for us. I know my dad would be pleased.”