BREAKING! Best Kosher, Wilno, Shofar And Sinai To Close: Sara Lee Exits Kosher Beef Market

Details:

Sara Lee to stop making kosher meats, close Chicago plant
By James P. Miller

Sara Lee Corp. said late Wednesday that it intends to shutter its kosher hot dog and meat-processing facility in Chicago by Jan. 30, a move that will cost 185 workers their jobs, because the Downers Grove consumer-product giant has decided to exit the kosher meat business.

Sara Lee will also close an outlet store at the Chicago facility on Pershing Road.

As part of its exit from the kosher meat business, Sara Lee said it will also discontinue distribution of products made under all its kosher meat brands, including Best's Kosher, Sinai Kosher, Shofar and Wilno nameplates.

[Hat Tips: PS, JWB.]

Comments

[yabed]

Will that make the market even tighter? Now all the Kosher places will try to buy from trh Glatt Kosher places.

What will this do for the supposed 'meat shortage'? There are 2 Kosher plants (Hebrew National and A to Z) and 4 glatt plants (ALLE, International, A&H, 999).

[Archie Bunker]

Any idea why Sara Lee is bailing out of kosher?

[Dr. Dave]

Well could it be all the whispers in Chicago that Best is not really kosher and shouldn't be trusted?

As always, Jews bearing Loshon Hara are our own worst enemies

[Archie Bunker]

http://www.suntimes.com/business/1289067,CST-FIN-sara19WEB-w.article

Sara Lee -- which owns Hillshire Farm, Jimmy Dean and Ball Park brands -- has been trimming brands to focus on areas of business in which it believes it can be most profitable. It sold its sauces and dressings business in September.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D94I9QF80.htm

Sara Lee, also known for Jimmy Dean brands and Hillshire Farm, said the news follows an announcement in July that it would close a North American production facility. It said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing at that time that it would record a non-cash pretax impairment charge of between $20 million and $25 million related to the closure. It has since taken that charge.

The decision to stop making the brands is based on Sara Lee's strategy of focusing on categories where it has competitive advantage, CJ Fraleigh, Sara Lee's chief operating officer, North America, said in a statement.

Fraleigh said the company will provide affected employees with severance pay and help finding a job.

Sara Lee said it plans to decommission the plant's equipment and sell the plant, along with the property.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Soroh Layeh was such a nice Jewish girl.

Seriously, it's a matter of supply and demand. Eventually someone will step up to the plate. Maybe Hebrew National, one could hope.

[Anon]

--Seriously, it's a matter of supply and demand. Eventually someone will step up to the plate. Maybe Hebrew National, one could hope.--

You also need to factor in the barriers to entry which can completely screw up the ordinary rules of supply and demand. The barriers to entry to the beef industry (includng the barriers for an existing player to expand its production) are huge. You are talking about many millions of dollars invested for many months before you start to realize any income.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Anon: You're absolutely correct. I heard Purdue wanted to start a kosher line years back, but the rabbis kiboshed it.

Marcel Proust wrote about it in "Recherche du Temps Purdue."

[Dr. Dave]

Yochanan -you just may have won the All -England Summarize Proust Competition

Can you do it in four-part harmony?

[Just a Goy]

US faces kosher meat shortage
By Dumeetha Luthra
BBC News, New York

The Orthodox Jewish community in the United States is facing a shortage of kosher meat after the country's biggest producer was forced to halt operations.

In some communities shops have been out of kosher beef for weeks.

LD Itzkowitz looks at his meat counter and grimaces in resignation. The shelves at the KRM grocery store in Brooklyn he manages are half empty, and prices have increased by as much as 25%.

"We're scrambling. I don't know how we're going to manage. There's a major shortage. Prices have gone up astronomically because we've lost a major supplier," he said.

Early this month, Agriprocessor in Postville, Iowa, filed for bankruptcy. It had supplied more than half of the country's kosher meat until May when a raid by customs officials found hundreds of illegal immigrants employed there.

Following the raid, production declined and the company has now halted work at this and another plant.

Added to this, a third separate meat producer has been hit by fire.

I have to survive, it is difficult but I will survive. The competition is so big I have to sell some things at cost.
LD Itzkowitz
Manager, KRM grocery in New York
Customers are feeling the pinch. Prices had already increased because of the general economic malaise. The sharp cut in supply - in the case of kosher beef down by more than 65% - has pushed them even further.

No choice

Kosher meat is becoming, for some, a luxury item.

"Meat is just too expensive - first because of the gas prices, and then because of Agriprocessor. I've stopped buying it altogether," said Kraisil Spitzer, a ustomer at KRM.

"I go to the deli counter and the choice isn't there anymore. Not all the items are there. I've noticed it, especially in this last month," said Yakob Schwarz, who was doing his regular shop in the store along with his wife, Yenty.

Orthodox Jewish communities across the US are struggling.

New York has the largest Jewish population so the shortages here are not as harshly felt as in smaller communities.

Even so, Mr Itzkowitz has had to make his own arrangements three times for animal slaughter to try to bolster the supply of kosher meat.

"If I didn't my showcases would be empty. But this is only a temporary and sporadic solution," he said.

KRM got its supply almost entirely from Agriprocessor. Another smaller butcher in Brooklyn, Yossi Lisauer, sued a different supplier but because this distributor is now selling to so many more customers, Mr Lisauer's shelves are also bare.

The economic downturn had already squeezed his profits and he cannot afford to lose customers by raising prices, Mr Lisauer says.

"I have to survive, it is difficult but I will survive. The competition is so big I have to sell some things at cost."

There is no clear certainty when the problem will be resolved. Other producers have started increasing output, but the logistics of producing kosher meat does not make that an easy task.

"There is a potential for a tremendous shortage...You need a religious workforce and a regular workforce. It's no easy task," says Professor Joe Reigenstein, who specialises in kosher food at Cornell University.

Distribution is spotty, meaning while some places are relatively untouched, others are suffering severe shortages.

The fear is that production will not be back to normal for a couple of months at least and perhaps not until the Passover holiday next April.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7739203.stm

Published: 2008/11/20 11:37:32 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

[maven]

Yochanan just won the "best posting to any blog ever" award with today's entry.
Thank you for making my day, I'm now going to reread my old copy of "Du côté de chez Rubashkin". Glatt Kosher madeleines, anyone?

[KG]

"...according to [Sara Lee spokesman Mike] Cummins, Sara Lee’s effect should be negligible. 'It was a fairly small brand,' he told BNET, 'and we were a processor. There’s not going to be less meat out there; other companies will have the opportunity to buy that meat.'"

-from BNET
http://industry.bnet.com/food/1000295/sara-lee-ditches-kosher-meat-amidst-supply-crisis/

[Yochanan Lavie]

Thanks, Maven.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Thanks, Dr. Dave.

[Randy Shiner]

Yochanan:

I agree with the others. Best posting to any blog ever - the Golden Calf Literary Awareness Award to you.

While I'm here, can anyone explain to me why some people won't eat some types of packaged Kosher? I presume it's because the hechsher isn't "up to standards", but frankly, I am fed up (so to speak) with trying to figure it all out.

[Randy Shiner]

Yochanan:

I agree with the others. Best posting to any blog ever - the Golden Calf Literary Awareness Award to you.

While I'm here, can anyone explain to me why some people won't eat some types of packaged Kosher? I presume it's because the hechsher isn't "up to standards", but frankly, I am fed up (so to speak) with trying to figure it all out.

[rose]

It will affect me a lot! I buy a lot of hotdogs and pastrami and corned beef there. Also, my synagogue gets Best/Sinai for all its committee meetings and deli dinners. Who knows why some people turned against it. The orthodox in Chicago mostly won't eat it because they lost CRC certification more than 10 years ago. (they have other certification now). I always thought it was for no good reason and i trust their certifiers.