Company Brings Hot Sauce Production Back to Louisiana 18 Months After Katrina
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A year and a half after Hurricane Katrina flooded its New Orleans factory, Baumer Foods Inc. is bottling Crystal Hot Sauce in Louisiana.
One production line is packing 6-ounce bottles in the St. John the Baptist Parish city of Reserve, company vice president Marwan Kabbani said Wednesday.
Baumer had to turn to private-label bottlers for help after as much as 5 feet of water inundated its 60-year-old plant in New Orleans. Competitors in Baltimore, North Carolina, Tennessee and elsewhere bottled the hot sauce, two steak sauces and a relatively new product, Hickory Liquid Smoke.
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Most of the corporate staff came from the Metairie office on Tuesday to watch the first bottling line.
"It's like being in the desert without any water for a long time, and then you see a well, and all you can say is 'wow,"' Kabbani said. He chuckled.
Before the hurricane, Baumer ran four bottling lines for 24 hours, five days a week, employing more than 220 people. It posted $54 million in sales in 2004.
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Kabbani wouldn't discuss present profits. He said Baumer plans to have three more lines functional by April or May and do away with the third-party packers.
He said the storm let Baumer revamp and modernize its packing process to be more productive, but a permanent packing schedule has not been solidified.
Baumer signed a 15-year lease with the Port of Louisiana a year ago for its new plant, the former home of Constar Plastics Inc. As an incentive to move, St. John Parish government will pay $10,000 a month for 16 months toward the company's rent.