A comeback for Illg's Meats, the Bucks County butcher
The family sold its Bucks County farm in 2014. It is now working with a producer on six sausage products.
Illg's Meats, a third-generation German-style butcher in Bucks County, shut down in July 2014, as patriarch Ernst A. Illg sold the 75-acre property in Warrington Township that he had bought in 1964.
The third generation has been instrumental in bringing the company back.
"I grew up in this business," said grandson Kevin Illg, 32, who had been working in sales. "We had to come back. I was adamant about it."
He sat down with his father, Ernest K. Illg Jr., who had been consulting for meat companies, and he finally came around. They brought in a family friend, Trevor Krill as an investor. (The elder Illg is retired.)
The Illgs' products are returning to stores, as the Ridings at Folly Farm (prices from the low $500s) rises on the family's former farm on Folly Road in Warrington Township.
Illg's has no retail butcher shop, but the Illgs are working with a plant in Easton, Pa., to produce six sausage products, all to the old specs: bockwurst, Nurnberger bratwurst, spicy Bauernwurst, frankfurters, beef franks, and smoked Polish sausage.