Family sells 70-year-old meat company to employees

Godshall Meats in Telford, northwest of Philadelphia, has decided to sell the meat-processing company to its employees.

Third-generation owners Mark Godshall, Floyd Kratz and Ron Godshall said they were motivated to make the transfer as a way to preserve the company’s independence.

Started as a butcher shop in 1945, the company makes many Pennsylvania favorites such as scrapple and Lebanon bologna. Ownership will now move from family members to the company’s approximately 400 employees.

Mark Godshall, president of the company, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the ownership team “wanted to be prepared for the future, one in which folks didn’t have to worry about ownership by a competitor or outside investors, freeing them to do what they do best.”