| PJ RITTER PHOTO COLLECTION In February 1967 Curtice-Burns expanded outside New York State when it purchased the P.J. Ritter Company, headquartered in Bridgeton, New Jersey. Along with Indiana-based subsidiary Brooks Foods, P.J Ritter made branded tomato ketchup and specialty bean products under the Brooks label. P.J Ritter/Brooks products were sold in one-third of the U.S. market. Acquiring them allowed Curtice-Burns to further diversify regionally in the United States and decrease its weather and national oversupply risks by adding branded commodity products and growing areas to its portfolio. [From Answers.com] On the WSNJ-AM radio program "Off the Cuff", host Mr. Paul Hunsberger interviewed, Paul J. Ritter III, whose great-great-grandfather started one of the canneries that had defined Bridgeton, the P. J. Ritter Company. “You know a lot of people in the area remember that delicious aroma in the air of cooking tomatoes,” Mr. Hunsberger said. “That smell was prosperity, Paul,” said Mr. Ritter, 46, a lawyer who works at a local insurance company. “They said the river ran red during the summertime,” Mr. Ritter said, recounting the peak years of the family business, which made ketchup and packed asparagus. It was sold in 1969 and closed in 1976. “Many folks would go swimming on a summer day in the river, and they’d come out covered in red tomato skins.” [From the New York Times - May 13, 2007] |
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Many thanks to P.J. Ritter III for all these great
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