Empire Kosher Sold to Natural Foods Giant
Image by getty images
The Hain Celestial Group has bought Empire Kosher Poultry, Inc., the largest kosher poultry producer in the United States.
Hain Celestial, one of the country’s largest sellers of natural and organic foods, had owned roughly 20 percent of EK Holdings, Inc., Empire Kosher Poultry’s parent corporation, before announcing on Wednesday that it had purchased the remaining 80 percent.
“Empire expands our Farm to Table product offerings, a growing category that appeals to those seeking ‘the pure foods trend,’ including our core natural and organic consumers,” Irwin D. Simon, the president and CEO of Hain Celestial said in a news release. “We plan to expand the product offerings into deli, fresh prepared foods and other grocery categories.”
Simon is the son of a kosher butcher from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.
Empire generated over $100 million in net sales in 2014.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
