Lyman Orchards is expanding and moving its pie-making operation from Middlefield to two locations in New Haven to allow for room to grow that part of the company.
The company said that the wholesale bakery business has become the largest part of the operation at Lyman Orchards and they ran out of room to grow at the Apple Barrel Farm Market in Middlefield.
In 2020, Lyman Orchards started looking at the possibilities of building a new facility near Middlefield, where the orchards are location, or buying an existing building, and the pandemic and the impact on building supplies and available contractors made building unfeasible.
Then the company then started looking at available buildings and purchased the assets of Something Sweet out of bankruptcy during an auction in September 2021, according to Lyman Orchards.
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Something Sweet had been operating two bakery facilities in New Haven for 27 years, according to Lyman Orchards, and they purchased the two manufacturing facilities, one of which is located on Sargent Drive and another on Grand Avenue in New Haven.
The Grand Avenue location will be for cream-filled pies and baked cakes, which had been made there by Something Sweet, Inc.
Lyman said it hired back around 20 employees, most of whom worked for Something Sweet.
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The Sargent Drive location will be the new home for the pie production that had been operating out of the Apple Barrel Farm Market in Middlefield and hand-made fruit-filled pies and other related products will be made there.
“This acquisition is very exciting for Lyman Orchards, as it enables us to continue supporting the growth of our wholesale bakery operation, it lessens our dependency on weather, and enables us to keep our current production staff fully employed,” Lyman Orchards said in a statement.
Lyman Orchards is a family-owned company and said it was important for the manufacturing facility to be located near the farm to minimize the impact on our employees.
