New Hope Mills Purchases Good Simple Foods

Specialty food maker Good Simple Foods, producer of the Lollipop Tree brand, has found a new home in Auburn, where the company has teamed up with former competitor New Hope Mills. Dawn Korbel, now one of the owners of Good Simple Foods, said her family, which also owns New Hope Mills, decided to buy the Lollipop Tree brand last year after the New Hampshire-based company ran into financial trouble.

Lollipop Tree is best known for its expensive and high-end pepper jellies, which sell for approximately $6.50, and dessert breads, which sell for approximately $8.50. “It’s a unique, hard-to-find, really delicious product,” Korbel said. “They have a whole line of bread mixes, brownies, and blondies. One of the goals was to be a hard-to-find, unique, cutting edge line. You are not going to find it in a local grocery store.”

Instead of lining grocery store shelves, Lollipop Tree brands are often found in specialty shops where the products serve as a special treat for consumers, or as a gift for family, friends or co-workers. Good Simple Foods ships its products across the United States and has distributors in every state except Alaska.

Compared with similar items sold by New Hope Mills, products sold by Good Simple Foods using the Lollipop Tree brand can be almost twice as expensive. Korbel said she initially thought the Lollipop brand items were too expensive, especially compared with the prices she is used to seeing for New Hope Mills products, but added she discovered a reason behind the price after sampling some of the food.

“People are glad to pay, and to me that was a shock — how much people are willing to pay,” Korbel said. “These are more the prices you pay at a Williams-Sonoma, and once you taste it, you know why. The ingredients cost more because the ingredients are of higher quality, which is why the products taste so great.”

Despite the company’s popularity, it still ran into financial troubles and was put up for auction in May 2010. The owners of New Hope Mills placed the winning bid of $927,000 and eventually moved the company to Auburn to reduce expenses by using property equipment owned there, instead of renting in New Hampshire. All of the employees in New Hampshire were offered the opportunity to move to New York, Korbel said, but none accepted the offer.

To avoid repeating history, Korbel said several changes are being made to make the Lollipop Tree brand more fiscally responsible while maintaining its taste and quality. Customers will also see that all of the products are being switched over to comply with kosher guidelines.

While the same family owns both companies, Korbel said that the two lines remain separate and that New Hope Mills just produces the products that Good Simple Foods creates and distributes. By moving the company to Auburn, Korbel estimated Good Simple Foods created 50 jobs locally, a number expected to increase as more positions are added.

“We have had to hire more people to fill the gaps because we are growing so fast,” she said. “Basically, we are running two companies out of one building.”

-Citizen Staff Writer Nate Robson

Good Simple Foods at New Hope Mills, 181 York Street, is open weekdays 8AM - 4PM. For more information call 315.252-2676 or visit: http://www.lollipoptree.com/.