BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:The proof is in the pickle

When Kurt Kreugermann escaped communist-controlled East Germany and relocated to Glendale with his wife, Helga, in 1961, he brought with him three generations of experience in the pickle and sauerkraut business.

“My husband, Kurt, he knows about pickles,” Helga Kruegermann said.

Kurt Kruegermann’s grandparents founded Kruegermann’s Pickles & Sauerkraut in 1896. His parents took over from there and by the time Kurt Kruegermann and his brother were offered the operation, they had little choice but to accept.

Brine was in their blood.

Fast forward 48 years and Kurt Kruegermann has handed down the family secrets to the next generation: His two sons, Greg and Karl Kruegermann, now run the family business out of the same Atwater Village factory their parents bought in 1964.

Though they are both graduates of Glendale High School, the brothers are best known in the city for the distinctly German delicacies found at delis, specialty stores and major grocery stores throughout the region, Greg Kruegermann said.

“Man, you see our stuff all over Glendale,” he said.

The gourmet pickle chips served up with the knockwurst at Schreiner’s Fine Sausage, just like the jars of sauerkraut juice sold at Virgil’s Hardware Store, are cleaned, cut, processed and jarred by the Kruegermanns.

At local supermarkets, including Whole Foods and Vons, pickle lovers in search of the Kruegermann name have tough choices to make: from two types of cornichons (sweet or sour) to garlic-laced jumbo spears and old-fashioned red cabbage. Kruegermann sells 13 varieties of pickles and an array of cabbage products derived from a century-old recipe.

But as much as Kruegermann products are true to their German roots, they have strong local ties, Greg Kruegermann said.

“My dad, Kurt, still grows spices and herbs in his garden in Glendale that we use in some of the products — thyme, tarragon and bay leaves, too,” Kruegermann said.

Boxes of California cabbage are trucked in from the Edna Valley — near San Luis Obispo — and fresh cucumbers come from a family farm also near San Luis Obispo, Karl Kruegermann said.

“We like to work with family farms that use environmentally conscious practices,” Kruegermann said.

Over the years, family has been a constant component of the Kruegermann operation. But as small, family-owned businesses in the food supply industry have crumbled under corporate competition, Kruegermann Pickles & Sauerkraut has found a comfortable niche in the market.

“We’re a slow-speed family operation,” Greg Kruegermann said. “We are the micro-pickler extraordinaire.

“It’s a lost art. It’s old school. People ask if we’ve caught up with the times. I tell them we’re up to ’07 — 1907.”

Though their product may be old school, the factory — just east of the Golden State (5) Freeway near the Los Angeles River — has grown from a single-family residence in 1964 to a 21,000-square-foot facility. It’s complete with a high-speed labeling assembly machine and an industrial pasteurizer that can process up to 1,000 jars of sauerkraut per hour, Kruegermann said.

In one room of the factory, dozens of 500-gallon plastic barrels serve as holding tanks, where shredded cabbage ferments for two to three weeks. A couple gallons of spilt brine coat the concrete floor.

Not too far from where stacks of recycled boxes are stored, is a soon-to-becompleted playroom for Greg Kruegermann’s three children, Michaela, 10, Kristina, 6, and Eric, 4.

These three represent what would be the fifth generation of Kruegermann’s Pickles & Sauerkraut. But Kristina, a first-grader at Mountain Avenue Elementary in La Crescenta, has other plans.

“I want to be a fashion designer or a news reporter,” she said.

The family business, she said, is all Eric’s.