Pickle plant moving from Mundelein to Lake Zurich
A pickle manufacturer has gained final approval to move into Lake Zurich from Mundelein.
NorthStar Pickle Co. will occupy a 14,000-square-foot building on Donata Court in an industrial area east of Midlothian Road. Its products are sold to food service companies — not consumers — for distribution to restaurants.
By a 4-0 vote Monday night, Lake Zurich trustees approved a special-use permit for the pickle business. Plans call for the company to start converting farm-fresh cucumbers into pickles in Lake Zurich in early January.
NorthStar is in its sixth year of refrigerated pickle production at its plant on Morris Avenue in Mundelein. President and CEO Jeff Oziemkowski said ahead of the village board’s vote that growth is spurring the move from Mundelein to the larger Lake Zurich building.
“Six years ago, no one had ever heard of NorthStar Pickle before because we didn’t exist,” Oziemkowski said.
Lake Zurich officials say they checked on NorthStar’s plant in Mundelein and did not find any complaints about odor or other matters. Betty Harrison, the village’s environmental quality control supervisor who toured the facility in early October called it a “clean operation.”
NorthStar makes dill, garlic, salt and half-sour refrigerated pickles the food service companies distribute to restaurants in the United States, Canada and Mexico. It also packages neon-green relish that’s produced in Wisconsin and used at Superdawg in Chicago and Wheeling.
Oziemkowski said the company didn’t receive any local or state government financial incentives for the shift to Lake Zurich. He said the company typically has 10 to 15 employees.