Baumer Foods, maker of Crystal Hot Sauce, won’t return to Orleans

The Associated Press - The Baumer Foods bottling plant, where Crystal Hot Sauce and dozens of other condiments were made, won’t reopen in New Orleans after suffering significant damage from Hurricane Katrina.

President and owner Alvin Baumer Jr. said he does not have a new site selected for the 250-employee plant. Another casualty of the storm: Baumer’s iconic Interstate sign.

The left side of the art deco and neon sign, which features a smiling cook stirring a huge pot of strawberry jam, was ripped away. With the company’s 60-year-old bottling plant inundated with as much as 5 feet of water, Baumer had to turn to private-label bottlers for help.

Four different companies are bottling the hot sauce along with Baumer’s relatively new product, Hickory Liquid Smoke, and two steak sauces.

Even before Katrina, Baumer had been seeking a new location for the plant. He said Tuesday that he would not reopen the site and will continue using private bottlers until he can build a new plant or buy and retrofit an existing building.

Though he wouldn’t discuss locations, Baumer said the site would not be in New Orleans, where the company has operated for 81 years.

For now, most of Baumer’s 250 employees are scattered to the winds. He has been trying to contact them and thinks that if he can get a plant up and running and the employees can find a place to live, most would return to the area.