By M. D. Drysdale

The former Randolph Co-op space may once again become a center for healthy, Vermont-made products—and jobs and retail activity as well.

Cathy Baumann Bacon confirmed Tuesday that she had that day signed a lease-purchase agreement with Jesse "Sam" Sammis to convey the former co-op space, on the first floor of the former Merrimaid’s building on Pleasant Street.

If all goes well, including a zoning variance, Bacon hopes to consolidate in Randolph a specialty foods business that has flourished for 10 years and is now spread out through manufacturing, warehousing and distribution centers in several Vermont locations.

Her company, Hillside Lane Farm, recently formed a corporation with Molly Creelman of Hanover, N.H., who also produces specialty foods. The new Freedom Foods Corp., Bacon said, will use the entire 7000-square-foot space to mix and package their products, store materials, and market and distribute them.

It will also help them provide services to dozens of other small producers of Vermont specialty foods. She estimated there are 300 of them in the state, and said that Randolph could become the center for that activity.

Bacon’s request for a variance is on the agenda of the Randolph Development Review Board (DRB) on Tuesday, Aug. 26. The property is zoned Commercial and without a variance would not be permitted to be used for "the full use of the facility the way we need to use it," Bacon explained.

The DRB hearing will be at 7 p.m. at the Langevin House at VTC in Randolph Center.

Bacon said the new business might be expected to employ 15 to 25 people eventually, and will include a specialty foods retail store, which she hopes to open in a month. It would include foods produced by Freedom Foods and also from other cooperating food producers.

The facility will also house separate areas for the preparation and packaging of different kinds of food products—a gluten-free room, a dry mix room, two wet-mix rooms, a candy room, and a baking room, as well as machinery to package and label them.

Bacon began her adventure in Vermont foods 10 years ago with innovative cheese spreads which she sold at the Randolph Farmers Market. She has since expanded significantly, now offering an on-line store of about 20 categories of products, including flavored maple syrups, vinegars and dressings, granolas and cereals, butters, mustards, breads, relishes, candy, and other items, some of them combined into various gift assortments. (See www.hillsidelane.com)

She will get some help in remodeling the interior from her father’s firm, DuBois & King, and she is very appreciative of the planning help she has received from Julie Iffland at Randolph Area Community Development Corp.

Both Iffland and Sam Sammis used the same word in reacting to Bacon’s purchase of the building.

"I’m excited," said Iffland.

"This is very exciting for Randolph," said Sammis, who bought the space after the co-op bankrupty and then offered it to the Town for offices.

"I really hope the town is able to support this," Bacon said, referring to the zoning variance.

 

Former Randolph Co-op
May Become
Specialty Foods Hub