The History Leading Up to Burris Foods
I recently spent the day at the Milford Museum looking for Burris Logistics information and photos – turns out the Executive Director moved here to Milford as a child when her father (Ken Furnish) came to be a Plant Manager for Shorgood! One of the items she gave me was a document (attached) with the fascinating history of the poultry industry in Sussex County (Milford).
We are part of that history: “Sussex Poultry started operation in November of 1941 on six acres of land along South Marshall Street in Milford, formerly the site of a meatpacking plant owned by Charles S. Ingram.”
“On May 19, 1950, the Pack brothers merged Sussex Poultry Company with the Eagle Poultry Company of Frankford. Both companies were New York dress style or old-style processing plants which could not economically be updated to a new evisceration process. (Fun fact: the old-style sent chickens to market with entrails still in the body not separately as we have come to expect) The operation and physical plant were so large they became unwieldy and costs were prohibitive. Eventually, they gave way to operations that were more manageable and efficient.
During this transitional period, Burris Foods of Milford, a newcomer to the processing business began buying chickens from Sussex Poultry (New York dress style) and transporting them down Marshall Street to eviscerate and repackage them for Acme Market customers who preferred chicken ready-to-cook with no preparation.
The full story is attached below.
