North Norwich kraut factory to close later this year

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.

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“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.”