Brindisi Seeks Local Companies in Push to Unite Brooklyn Food-Makers with Central New York Co-Packaging Plants – NYC’s Local Food Industry is Booming but Lacks the Space to Bring Foods to Marketplace

August 21, 2013

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Brindisi made recent trip to Brooklyn, met with Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and food companies hungry for upstate co-packaging opportunities; local packagers sweet on idea

Brindisi: Mixing NYC ‘foodies’ with upstate plants is recipe for success

(Utica, NY) – Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi announced today a continued push to help local co-packaging businesses across Central New York expand and add jobs by bridging the gap in food preparation and packaging that exists between downstate and upstate. Brindisi is asking any relevant companies who might be interested in his co-packaging effort to contact his office as soon as possible to join in on his effort.

Brindisi explained today how many Brooklyn-area local food entrepreneurs are just entering the food sale market. He said they often lack the initial capital to invest in a commercial kitchen or a food manufacturing plant. For companies like these, seeking out a co-packaging facility is the key to building a brand and making money. Co-packaging is the process of preparation and packaging of foods on behalf of a contract for a specific company to sell, usually the company that created the recipe for a certain type of food.

For many companies in New York City, the issue comes down to space. Some of these companies have taken their co-packaging, or also called contract packing, to other nearby states like Pennsylvania because they will do whatever it takes to bring their products to a hungry market anxious to buy and eat more local foods. Moreover, some companies have left New York State altogether in the search for more nearby plants.

Brindisi explained how this desire to be more local has ‘foodies,’ as they are called in Brooklyn – people who are well-known for paying close attention to what they’re eating and where it came from – looking to accomplish this contracted preparation and or packaging directly within New York State. For Brindisi, this common desire has him stirring the pot all in an effort to mix downstate business needs with upstate business resources.

“Right now, Brooklyn is running out of room to make and package food,” Brindisi said. “Food entrepreneurs are taking the giant leap to start food-based businesses but when it comes to the manufacturing and packaging of the edible product, there are fewer and fewer co-packaging sites to consider. Surprisingly, Brooklyn foodies are looking to relocate outside of New York State now because of this missing link and that should leave a sour taste in everyone’s mouth.”

According to New York City officials, the artisanal food industry has experienced a major boom in the past few years and ‘foodies’ are producing a variety of goods including: baked goods, sauces, condiments, cheeses, spreads, candy, soda, meats, rubs and more.

Brindisi recently traveled to Brooklyn, meeting with the Brooklyn Chamber and several companies hungry to find an in-state opportunity for co-packaging.

Brindisi, working with an Assembly colleague in Brooklyn, also put together a survey for companies interested in co-packaging partnerships upstate. Brindisi has received nearly 70 responses thus far. Brindisi is trying to match these downstate companies with upstate co-packagers, talking to several local companies who have expressed a real interest in the Assemblyman’s plan, some of them include: Eva Gourmet, DeIorio’s, Matt’s, Smith Packing and some others.

Brindisi is asking any other companies interested in this effort to contact his office directly because he is compiling a local list of sites that he’ll take back to Brooklyn soon as his effort continues.

“I want companies who have the capacity, the space and the desire to grow here in the Utica-Rome area to contact my office and add their name to a growing list of companies looking to take a bite out of this delicious market,” Brindisi said.

Brindisi presented his plan, with full support, today at the annual Chamber Alliance meeting in Rome at the Savoy. The Chamber Alliance is a consortium of ten other area chambers representing businesses across the area.

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