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A MAN AND HIS PASSION
The History of KARL EHMER
 In 1932, Karl Ehmer started his first butcher shop on 46th Street and Second Avenue in New York City, NY. Due to the depression, Mr. Ehmer was forced to make product at night and work a full time job uptown during the day. Mrs. Ehmer ran the shop during the daylight hours. In the 1940's, as times improved, Mr. Ehmer began to look for a larger manufacturing facility and found one in a German community in Queens, called Ridgewood. From this facility he manufactured products for six stores.
As immigration from Germany skyrocketed and more stores opened, Mr. Ehmer saw an opportunity for growth - he offered partnerships to the store managers. He would open these locations with his money and their entrepreneurial skills. The requirements to become a Karl Ehmer storeowner were the desire, knowledge, and stamina to operate a store.
As his chain of quality butcher shops grew, Mr. Ehmer moved to a new location in Ridgewood and built a "state of the art" plant He also went on to raise pigs on his Hudson Valley farm in upstate New York. This gave him the ability to raise his own pigs, send them to his manufacturing facility. and distribute the products to his own branded Karl Ehmer Quality Meat stores.
By 1970, there were over 30 Karl Ehmer Quality Meat stores in existence. In July of that year, Meat Processing Magazine did a cover story based on the uniqueness of Karl Ehmer's operation and products. Maintaining a chain of quality meat stores was especially impressive at a time when supermarkets were beginning to dominate the marketplace. When asked then how his chain of service markets survives against this rising trend of supermarket shopping. Mr. Ehmer was quoted as saying, "First, we produce a high-quality product. We make no attempt to be competitive in price with mass manufactured lines. Our products are made to recipes developed many years ago, which result in distinctive flavors that our customers have come to expect. And they know they have to pay a little more for this quality." By the late 1970's, there were over 50 Karl Ehmer Quality Meat stores, including the states of Florida, Pennsylvania, and upstate New York.
Mr. Ehmer continued to operate the business well into his 80's, which was during the recession of the late 1980's and early 90's. During these years the amount of Karl Ehmer Quality Meat stores dwindled back to a little over 30, due to attrition and demographic transitions where Karl Ehmer stores had been very successful in prior years. In 1993, his two grandsons, who were with him for over 20 years, took over the reigns.
Mr. Ehmer's two grandsons have worked in every facet of their grandfather's business. Their experience began in upstate NY as farm hands during their high school years. They went on to work in the slaughterhouse, serve customers in the retail locations, manufacture products in the Ridgewood facility, and today are President and Vice President of the company. As they began the restructuring process, they continued to satisfy the needs of over thirty independently owned Karl Ehmer Quality Meat stores, and have supported the successful establishment of new store locations. Along with the chain of retailers, Karl Ehmer, Inc. is also reaching across the country to find those locations where Karl Ehmer products still satisfy that specific market niche.
As the Ehmer organization embarks on this new national strategy with its current leadership, it continues to maintain its standard of excellence. In a note from the "Crumb Crusted Ham with Madeira Sauce" recipe found in the November '97 edition of Food & Wine Magazine, it says, "This recipe calls for a top-quality ham from the meaty upper leg. It shouldn't be too sweet or too salty, or one that's been sectioned and reshaped Karl Ehmer makes a superior ham using an old German smoking recipe". In the words of Mr. Ehmer, the company remains "Still the Best Butcher on the Block"!
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