Gold looking to cut the mustard in new market

Gold Pure Food Products Co., one of the country's best-known manufacturers of horseradish and among Long Island's best-known private companies, is about to launch its first new product in six years -- and it is not going to be hot!

That's because it is a mustard -- not a horseradish. Gold currently sells mustard -- the dark kind with the brown seeds in it -- solely to restaurants.

Gold, whose headquarters and manufacturing operations are in Hempstead, plans to sell the new mustard, which it calls New York Deli Mustard, in supermarkets. The first jars are expected to be in Shop Rite stores in the New York area this week, co-owner Marc Gold said.

"We always had this item in restaurants and delis," Gold said of the product. "But we said we should make a retail item out of it."

"Ideally," Gold said, "it would be great to get this out nationally. But we don't know if it's going to sell in the Midwest. People might say, 'It's not the plain yellow.' "

One of the selling points about New York Deli Mustard, Gold said, is that it is being sold as a healthy food item, with 30 percent less sodium than the restaurant version.

The 78-year-old company, which is now being run by the fourth generation of the Gold family, is, of course, best known for its wide variety of Gold's horseradish products.

But Gold, whose sales are "significantly" above $10 million annually, according to Marc Gold, faces enormous competition in the mustard category, said Ron Tanner, a spokesman for the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade in Manhattan. About 400 new mustard products are introduced to the market annually, said Tanner. Big players include Gulden's and French's.

Since Gold is a large company, it needs to sell in volume, which means its products need to be in supermarkets, Tanner said. "It's harder to break into the supermarkets than the smaller stores," Tanner said. But, said Marc Gold, the company is confident. "If you go into a deli, this is the kind of mustard you're going to get," he said. "Now you'll be able to get it at home."