Claremont Co-op Reopens Shuttered Meat Packing Facility

By Stephen Cheslik
EAGLE TIMES
MANAGING EDITOR
A long-closed Claremont meat packing house is open again.

After a $1.3 million investment, Granite State Packing reopened in March at the former North Country Smokehouse near the airport, said co-op “member-owner” Peter Colman. It’s “a new model, an alternative way to look at meat processing,” Colman told the Eagle Times.

Previously, Colman used a packing house in Springfield, VT., to process sausage for his company, Vermont Salumi of Barre.

Colman credits Jack Dole of Claremont with the genesis of the idea of creating Granite State Packing. “We were worried about the stability of where we were [processing meat] previously,” Colman said.

Now, through a cooperative formed by potential customers and the packing house employees, Colman says companies like his and farmers have a new option to get their meat processed.

“One aspect that makes Granite State different is it never takes ownership of meat,” Colman said. “If you are there to do long-term processing, it will never be your competitor. It won’t enter the marketplace on its own.”

Granite State Packing is all about “long-term stable processing for its customers and long-term stable employment for its employees,” Colman said.

The co-op now has nine employees processing primarily beef and pork products, cutting portions, making sausage and brining. Currently, the facility doesn’t dry or slaughter beef and pigs.

“Our goal is to add slaughter in that facility. Long-term, we would like to expand to be a one-shot drop your animals off and pick up sausage, bacon and ham,” Colman said. “We would do some extra products with beef, but not the slaughter,” he said.

The co-op is also open to opportunities to provide “value-added” services for other types of animals. In addition to Dole, Colman said Granite State Packing General Manager Chad Pecor and Arion Thiboumery were instrumental in the co-op forming and the plant restarting.

While operating five days a week currently, the co-op is ready to take phone calls from farmers and companies looking to process meat.

A ribbon will be held at 1 p.m., July 12, at the facility located at 471 Sullivan Street in Claremont.

Those interested in joining the co-op or doing business with Granite State Packing can call 603-825-4972.