The husband-and-wife team behind New England Cranberry.
Often in life, work dictates where we go. Not so, however, for Allison Goldberg and her husband, Ted Stux, co-owners of Lynn-based New England Cranberry.
In 2003, Goldberg and Stux were living in Chicago, but with an eye toward moving to the North Shore, where Goldberg grew up, to raise a family. Contrary to conventional thinking, instead of searching for work that would warrant the major move, Goldberg and Stux set their move in motion, planning to then buy an existing local business. The couple happened upon the online sale listing for New England Cranberry, and the rest fell quickly into place. In a matter of days, Stux made the trip to Boston alone-his wife was nine months pregnant at the time-and bought the company and a historic house in Lynn’s Diamond District.
“It was like, ‘surprise!'” Goldberg laughs. “All of a sudden, we had had a baby, a house, and a business.”
The couple carefully plotted their next steps based on the company’s best-selling products: cranberry-pepper jelly and cranberry chutney. They’ve since expanded their line to 30 jarred products, from cranberry-mango-pepper jelly to cranberry maple syrup. “When we bought the company, it was jellies and jams,” Goldberg says. “We’re much more of a condiment company now,” with offerings like dried cranberries and cranberry-studded chocolates. Most recently, organic lemonade and iced tea-lemonade drinks joined the mix and, like the company’s other products, are available nationally, online, at Whole Foods, and at North Shore specialty shops like Shubies and Tender Crop Farms.
Goldberg and Stux hadn’t worked together before, but the division of labor came naturally. “Ted is the operations and numbers guy. He does a lot of the heavy lifting,” says Goldberg. She handles marketing and development, which means testing recipes on family and friends. “By some small miracle, it’s worked out very well.”
Most of their business is holiday-driven, but the couple, along with their two children, ages 4 and 7, will take a brief break from work to enjoy Thanksgiving with family in Swampscott. “With all the tumult and insanity of work, it’s a nice time to settle back and breathe a sigh of relief,” Goldberg says. “We take stock of everything and realize we’re very lucky.” -Margaret Loftu