Azar & Co. still going strong after making sausage in Jacksonville for more than 70 years

When the pandemic first hit in 2020, people's dining habits changed. Rather than going out to restaurants regularly, many people headed to grocery stores to cook for themselves.

At that time, about 70 percent of Azar & Co's business was providing their sausages to local and regional restaurants.

“When restaurants shut down our business went down substantially, by about 40 percent. I was really nervous at first,” said Phillip Azar, president of Azar & Co. “But business started tapering off after a few months, and groceries started ramping up."

Azar & Co. was an essential business, which allowed them to keep operating their plant near Jacksonville's downtown area. Suddenly the focus was on grocery store accounts. However, even though none of their two dozen employees got COVID-19, people were still nervous about going to work. They lost about a third of their staff.

It's a company that's used to pivoting. The family-owned meat-processing company traces its roots back to Azar's grandfather.

John P. Azar owned a small grocery store in Jacksonville back in the 1950s, giving credit to neighbors who paid their bills each week. Initially, John Azar made sausage in the back for family and friends and created recipes for Azar Sausage Company.

Over time, the grocery store became a state-inspected plant, which provided sausage to dozens of restaurants and local neighborhood grocery stores, as well as big chain grocers.

Today, the company supplies major grocery chains such as Winn Dixie and Rowe's grocery, but mostly serves small local grocery stores and meat shops, such as Carroll’s Meat Shoppe and Star Meat House. Still, most of the business involves supplying restaurants.

Marcia Pledger: How an enterprising Jacksonville businessman navigated through the pandemic

Marcia Pledger: Jacksonville-based Training on Wheels tech company shares lessons from the pandemic

Across the country, there was growing concern about the safety of workers in meat-processing and similar factories and plants. That was something that was top of mind for Azar & Co too.

Meat and produce companies were in the news a lot at the beginning of the pandemic, due to shortages with both supplies and people. Nationwide, people in the industry spent billions of dollars to reverse the pandemic's trajectory, protecting meat and poultry workers while keeping food on American's tables and the farm economy working, according to the North American Meat Institute.

In part because of labor shortages, Azar spent about $300,000 on updating equipment in the last year, said John Azar, head of sales and marketing — processing that hadn't changed since the 1960s.

New technology has helped employees to do more with less in a much shorter period of time. Company officials said new equipment has sped up production to the point where a few hours are gained each day.

Pride in working at a family-owned business

John Azar offered a tour of the plant while explaining how new 2022 machines work and how they drastically changed business operations, making daily tasks much easier and more efficient. He also introduced me to employees, including members of the fourth generation, Braden and Raymond, who today handle the packing and smoked meats part of the operation.

Todd Keeler, a butcher with 25 years of experience, said he joined Azar eight years ago. He spent half of his career working at Publix and half of his career at two family-owned businesses. He prefers working for a small family-owned business.

“This company has been around since 1954, and I just love the family atmosphere,” said Keeler, who started cutting meat after leaving the Army. “Everyone is pretty friendly and Phil and John are very easy to work for. Phil is the serious one and John is the character.”

Andrew Spink, research and developer chef and category buyer at Gate Petroleum Co., said that Gate started a partnership with Azar several months ago as part of the company's two-year mission of making efforts to work with more local businesses.

"Moving forward we plan to discontinue another company's sausage and replace it with Azar's sausage," he said. "It's going to replace our breakfast sausage used for patties."

Moving forward

Azar's history in Jacksonville runs deep. From the founder's son, Raymond, officially creating Azar Sausage Co. in 1960, to starting a wholesale division in the late 90's called, Azar & Co., the business continues to evolve.

But some things don't change at all.

John C. Azar, grandson of the founder by the same name, said his company remains committed to supporting all sorts of businesses, individuals, and charities. From large barbeques, hot dog vendors, local diners, and churches, he said Azar Sausage takes pride in feeding people in Jacksonville and the region for the last several decades.

"Working with family has its challenges," he said. "We all have the same goal, but we might take two different roads to get there. But at the end of the day, it’s all about family."

Marcia Pledger is the Opinion and Engagement Editor for the Florida Times-Union. She can be reached at mpledger@jacksonville.com.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Family business Azar & Co embraces technology to make sausages