Baldor Specialty Foods Acquires Golden Packing; Renames it Golden Meat Co.

April 21, 2025

NYC meat purveyor will give Baldor a more integrated meat processing arm, while the food distributor can bring Golden Meat products to a much wider set of customers.

Andy Hanacek

Baldor Specialty Foods, a food distributor in the northeast and mid-Atlantic U.S., has acquired meat company Golden Packing, according to a release from the company. Baldor announced it will also change the name of the company to Golden Meat Co.

The acquisition is expected to provide increased center-of-the-plate protein options for Baldor’s customer base, the release noted. It also gives Baldor the opportunity to vertically integrate meat processing, bringing together Baldor’s sourcing with Golden’s meat-cutting/butchering services — passing on labor savings and product delivery consolidation to its chef customers.

Mark Pastore, who has more than 30 years’ experience building foodservice and retail meat programs for companies such as Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors, joins the company as vice president of business development. He is expected to lead protein sales expansion and grow Golden Meat’s visibility on the East Coast. Kevin Lindgren will shift roles to director of Golden Meat Co. from director of protein merchandising at Baldor, and John Winters DiMarco joins Baldor as protein business development manager, while Daniel Nguyen has become senior protein supply planner.

In 2020, David Bernstein, great-grandson of Golden’s original owner, and Jerry Zwernemann revived the Golden Packing business, which traces its history back to the 1920s in New York City’s Meatpacking District. Since then, the company has built its customer base to more than 150. Bernstein and Zwernemann — as well as the 35 employees at Golden — will stay on to operate the business under Baldor’s ownership. Golden Meat Co. will offer dry-aged and fresh meats, prime and high choice, and will custom-cut and portion to meet customer needs.

About the Author

Andy Hanacek | Senior Editor

Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.