Purveyors of Pickles, McClure Brothers About to Unveil Latest Crunchy Treat

The pickle path is proving to be deliciously lucrative for a pair of metro Detorit brothers.

Joe McClure, 33, of Royal Oak and his brother, Bob, 35, of Berkley put their names behind their pickles and founded a company, McClure Pickles, that for the past eight years has been offering crisp crunchy surprises to the tune of $2 million-plus in annual sales, the Detroit Free Press reports.

But they’re not sitting on their pickle laurels.

They’ve expanded their product line to include Bloody Mary mix and potato chips and in April they’ll add a hybrid of the two – Bloody Mary-flavored chips.

The idea came from listening to their employees. There are 23 employees and they produce between 3,000 and 4,000 pickles a day, using a time-tested family recipe.

When one of the workers suggested the Blood Mary-flavored chips, the McClure brothers decided to try it out for a taste test.

Employees had been right before, such as the time a worker suggested adding the small bits of cucumbers that break off during pickle-making to juice for the Bloody Mary mix.

“The key is we don’t rule ruthlessly, but we keep things rigid. We keep things tight. It’s not a dictatorship,” Joe McClure told the newspaper. “We’re certainly up for any suggestions that come our way. If it makes sense, we incorporate it, great. If not, we won’t.”

That’s part of the reason for the low turnover at the business, which also includes facilities in New York where four of the 23 employees work.

“We pay them a fair wage,” Joe McClure said. “We try to make them as much a part of the company as possible. We want them going home at night and not shaming the company in any way.”

These aren’t ordinary pickles. They’re gourmet, artisan pickles that caused cooking and decorating diva Martha Stewart to gush, “It's rare to find a line of prepared foods in which every item is delicious. McClure's is one..."

The brothers grew up using their great-grandmother Lala’s recipe to make pickles in their family’s humble kitchen, according to the company’s web site, They learned the nuances of pickle-making from their grandfather and parents. The manufacturing facility is located in Royal Oak, and a small research-and-development lab is located in Brooklyn, NY, where small batches are produced.

They use as much Michigan produce as possible, but when it’s out of season, they speak directly with growers to learn more about how it was produced. The cucumbers are hand-sliced and the pickles are hand-packed.

The pickles are available nationwide at trendy retailers like Williams-Sonoma, Whole Foods, The Fresh Market, Macy’s and others.