Bright Leaf’s Johnston County Legacy

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast, our guest is Justin Raymond, the marketing director for Carolina Packers, the home of the Red Bright Leaf Hotdog.

We talk to Justin about how he came to work at Carolina Packers, all of the different Carolina Packers products, where you can get Carolina Packers, and where they’re going in the future. Listen in.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Best of Johnston County Podcast.

I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on today’s episode, we have the marketing director for Carolina Packers red Bright [00:01:00] Leaf Hot Dog, Justin Raymond, here to talk to us a little bit about all things Carolina Packers. We’re gonna talk a little bit about the history of Carolina Packers, how it started back in 1939 in Smithfield, and it’s still basically in the same location.

We’re gonna talk about all their different products, which I did not know that they had red hots and bologna and sausage, and I just knew it for the hot dogs. So we’re gonna talk a little bit about that. We’re gonna talk about where you can get Carolina Packers hot dogs, and sort of the future. Where do they see it going?

Because I think a lot of people are always questioning, is it gonna expand? Is it gonna get bigger? Is it gonna leave Smithfield? So we’re gonna talk a little bit about all of those things. Before we get to that, I’d like to like you to ask, follow, and subscribe to the podcast wherever you see it, whether it be on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, X or any of the other social media channels of the Best Johnston County Podcast.

The Best Johnston County Podcast comes out every single Monday, and has now for well over two and a half years, so we’re well over 120 episodes, maybe going towards 130, 140 by the time this episode comes [00:02:00] out. So go back and listen to some of our previous episodes. We’ve had the vast majority of the county commissioners.

We’ve had the county manager, Rick Hester. We’ve had lots of small business owners, like the people who own Just Dog People. We had Michael Soler a few weeks ago on dog training. We had local dentist Tim Sims. We’ve had a lot of great guests. If you love Johnston County as much as I do, this is the podcast for you.

Welcome, Justin.

Justin Raymond: Thank you for having me.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s been a lot of fun.

Justin Raymond: We love Johnston County. That’s why we’re here.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s right. We love Johnston County.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: We got some hot dogs here right now.

Justin Raymond: Yes, sir.

Jonathan Breeden: We’re gonna definitely have to eat some hot dogs. This is the first time we’ve done one of these podcasts, two and a half years, with props other than Just Dog People brought several dogs with them.

So this’ll be-

Justin Raymond: We got a different kind of dog.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. We got a different kind of dog here, right? That’s right. We had, we had, we, we had some dogs. Now we’ve got

Justin Raymond: Uh-huh

Jonathan Breeden: some hot dogs. Yeah. So anyways, state your name and what you do.

Justin Raymond: Yeah. So I’m Justin Raymond, the marketing director of Carolina Packers, home of the Bright Leaf Hot Dog.

It’s kinda hard to describe what I do- … but essentially I help tell our story. You know, been around for 85 years, and whether that’s through social media, [00:03:00] the events we do, coming here, doing podcasts, just interacting with the customers, I mean,

Jonathan Breeden: No, that’s-

Justin Raymond: Yeah,

Jonathan Breeden: That’s great. Sounds like a fun job …

Justin Raymond: I even visit local hot dog shops, which I enjoy doing, so.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, that sounds like- Yeah … a lot of fun.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, I’m already fat enough. If I was marketing hot dogs, who knows, who knows how much more weight I would gain. So anyway, how did you get involved with Carolina Packers?

Justin Raymond: So I’ve always been a Bright Leaf Hot Dog fan growing up. I guess it’s just kinda full circle. Just knew somebody that gave me a chance, an opportunity, and I went to ECU, Go Pirates for marketing. And so Carolina Packers brings me on, you know, I’m their marketing director, and I just have a great time, you know, promoting these local products that we’ve been making for 85 years now, so.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, you brought your own griddle, and they’ve been grilling hot dogs here.

Justin Raymond: I did.

Jonathan Breeden: For my staff here today, so we’re gonna have a great lunch. Everybody’s like, “Man, we get to eat these hot dogs.” Yeah. So anyway, so let’s talk about, a little about the history of Carolina Packers. I think it starts in 1939 in Smithfield.

Justin Raymond: So originally founded in 1939, but then we had to change the name to Carolina Packers [00:04:00] Incorporated, so officially founded in 1941.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: But it all started because of this tobacco leaf right here. And so there’s a… You know, tobacco was king back then. So a bunch of farmers need to sell their livestock in the off-season, and they needed a place to bring their livestock. So Mr. Jones and a bunch of area businessmen founded Carolina Packers in Smithfield, and they brought them there. We made our hot dogs, sausage, and all these other products with them.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Right. So he created a market for local farmers.

Justin Raymond: Correct.

Jonathan Breeden: For their thing. And I think I read on your website, CarolinaPackers.com, that they still slaughtered all the way to 1997.

Justin Raymond: Yes, they did slaughter there, but we do not slaughter there anymore.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Justin Raymond: So, we get to work with a lot of North Carolina suppliers to create the products that we do have.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So you still primarily buy North Carolina grown animals.

Justin Raymond: So we work with a lot of suppliers in North Carolina to make our hot dogs and sausage and things like that.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I’m sure it takes a lot of animals to make the number of hot dogs that y’all make. So anyway, what we did have.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: About maybe almost two years ago, one of the first episodes of The Best of Johnston County Podcast, we had Lee’s Fresh [00:05:00] Market out of Benson on.

Justin Raymond: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: And they still have a slaughterhouse there, and have some of the freshest meats around. And so go back and listen to that one. That was absolutely fascinating about all the things that at Lee’s Fresh Market, and it’s just gotten even bigger.

Justin Raymond: Oh, yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Since they were on this podcast a couple years ago.

Justin Raymond: Yeah, they’re a great place to go, and they sell our hot dogs, too.

Jonathan Breeden: And they sell your hot dogs there, too.

Justin Raymond: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. So.

Justin Raymond: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: So they’re great. So anyway, it’s basically still the same company it was?

Justin Raymond: Yeah, so we’ve been in the same place for 85 years. Still make our hot dogs the same way we’ve always made them.

Fresh and local beef and pork, unique blend of seasoning. It’s made Monday, sent on grocery stores on Wednesdays. It’s that fresh.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, my goodness.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And so you only make it one day a week?

Justin Raymond: No, we make it, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, okay.

Justin Raymond: Friday. I was just giving you an example

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, right, right

Justin Raymond: of how, how fresh the product is.

Jonathan Breeden: Because your delivery system is that good. Well, that’s awesome.

Justin Raymond: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s awesome. So, I did not know about all the different products. So let’s talk about

Justin Raymond: Sure

Jonathan Breeden: everybody knows the red hot dog.

Justin Raymond: Sure. Sure.

Jonathan Breeden: And we’ll talk about that

Justin Raymond: Sure

Jonathan Breeden: but let’s talk about some of the other products here.

Justin Raymond: Sure. So we make, we make a lot of products here. So-

Jonathan Breeden: Okay, for [00:06:00] those listening on the podcast, we are pulling things out of his bag here of the different products.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: So if you watch our YouTube

Justin Raymond: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: you can see them. You listen on the podcast we’ve got different stuff here. That’s what we’re talking about.

Justin Raymond: Can y’all see this, or do I need to hold it up higher?

Jonathan Breeden: Well, I got this hotdog here.

Justin Raymond: All right. All right, so we’re known for our hot dogs, but one of the other things we’re really popular for is our red hots. So it’s similar like our hot dogs, but it’s got crushed red pepper. It’s short and fat. People tend to wing it, fry it up, put it on a biscuit with a fried egg and cheese and a little bit of mustard.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: It’s really good.

Jonathan Breeden: It’s not candy. ‘Cause when I saw red hots, I started thinking candy.

Justin Raymond: I mean, it could be, but it’s not as spicy as that. It’s like a warm rolling heat.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: It’s really popular. And of course, bologna. Everyone loves us for our bologna.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Justin Raymond: We make really thick grilling bologna. You can slap on the grill. It might shake a little bit. And also we got also a little less thick slices, like regular bologna as well. Then we’ve been selling these three-pound sticks.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: People are scoring, putting rub on it, sauce, and smoking it. Like everybody’s doing it.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: It started out as a fad, and now we got competitions [00:07:00] going on. People are doing like really creative with these sticks of bologna. It’s really impressive.

Jonathan Breeden: How about that? Okay.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s awesome.

Justin Raymond: Yeah. So make a little pile over here.

Jonathan Breeden: I am getting hungry.

Justin Raymond: All right. One of our best kept secrets, smoked sausage. We’re not keeping it a secret on purpose, it’s just a lot of people know us for our hot dogs when they go to the grocery store, beeline for the hot dogs.

But this is all pork, natural casing, smoked to real hickory wood in our smokehouse. And so when we do events, we bring these to the shows. People try this, they’re like, “Wow, this is pretty good.” This is very versatile. You can eat it with rice, you can eat it with Alfredo, you can slap it on a bun with a hoagie and mustard. It’s real good.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s awesome.

Justin Raymond: Yep. And then bacon as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Got bacon. Yeah. God, I didn’t know you had bacon.

Justin Raymond: We do. It’s hickory smoked and sugar-free, so you can, you know, maybe eat a little extra bacon, you know?

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I’m

Justin Raymond: not telling you to do it, but you could.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Hey, that works.

Justin Raymond: It’s really good. And it’s wider, so it goes really good around jalapenos when you’re making jalapeno poppers.

Jonathan Breeden: All right.

Justin Raymond: Yep. We’re almost getting to the [00:08:00] end here. I know it’s a lot. It’s a lot. So we also make a heat and serve barbecue.

Jonathan Breeden: I didn’t know this either.

Justin Raymond: Pulled pork barbecue. We actually partnered with Hershey’s Barbecue in Burlington to make this. You can just slap it in a pan for about eight minutes and then put it on a bun with some slaw.

It tastes just like you went to a barbecue joint. You probably trick your family that you spent all night, you know, smoking it on a smoker and just

Jonathan Breeden: Okay

Justin Raymond: slap this on a bun. It’s really good.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh man. That’s awesome.

Justin Raymond: And then you can’t have a good hot dog without a good chili. It’s a beefy chili, a really good compliment to our hot dog here.

Also, just a few minutes in the pan, real easy to make. And then last but not least, we also make some beef jerky. We got teriyaki flavor and we also have original. And this is kind of a grab-and-go bag. Good amount of protein, especially, you know, if you’re traveling or working out, so …

Jonathan Breeden: Man, that’s a lot of different products.

Yeah. I had no idea. I really-

Justin Raymond: And I didn’t even bring, I didn’t bring everything …

Jonathan Breeden: I really do. No, I know. I know. I really had no idea-

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: That y’all had all these different products.

Justin Raymond: Yep, yep.

Jonathan Breeden: And it’s fascinating. All made in Smithfield right here in Johnston County. [00:09:00] So do they make every product every day? I mean, you have that many lines. I don’t know how this works.

Justin Raymond: So I would say our hot dogs and bologna and smoked sausage and red hots and all those things are made fresh, but I mean, it varies.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: Depending on, you know, supply and demand, I would say.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Oh, that’s cool. That’s cool. So how many employees do y’all have?

Justin Raymond: So right now I’d say we have about 120 employees at the plant. Everything from the people that make the hot dogs and the food we have, to the salesmen who actually physically go to the stores, place the order, put the product out on the shelf, talk with the customers. The truck drivers who drop off the product, deliver it, and also put their hands on it, and then the office staff too as well.

Jonathan Breeden: So where can you get Bright Leaf Hot Dogs?

Justin Raymond: Great question. So for a while we’ve been from, I’d say Lenoir, Hickory, to the Coasts. Walmart, Food Lion, Piggly Wiggly, Carla Sea’s Fresh Foods, Independence, all those stores. But we’ve been kinda branching out recently with [00:10:00] using distributors, so we actually just got into 50 stores in South Carolina.

Some KJ Markets, some IGAs, so we’re starting to expand, reach those other customers that have been sending us emails and messages really excited to say, “Hey, yes, you can get product in South Carolina right now.” So,

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s good.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And who… I mean, is that a strategic plan by the company, or this just customer demand? I mean, you’ve been in North Carolina just for 85 years, now you’re gonna go into South Carolina. Like,

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, what how did that come about?

Justin Raymond: Yeah, so I mean, we’ve mainly been here for 85 years. You know, have a pretty good size footprint here. But just from demand, and then I guess I would say strategy, and then working with some distributors, we’re able to get our product down there.

‘Cause we do deliver a lot of stuff on our own trucks still and we just like putting our hands on it, but there are areas where customers want Bright Leaf Hot Dogs and other Bright Leaf products that we can’t get to, so then we have to use distributors to get there, so.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: Uh-huh.

Jonathan Breeden: And so by distributor, that means somebody else’s truck is taking it

Justin Raymond: Correct

Jonathan Breeden: to the store, not your truck.

Justin Raymond: Correct. So we still make it in our plant in Smithfield. That [00:11:00] hasn’t changed. We make everything right there on Bright Leaf Boulevard. We actually have a country store there, so you guys can come in and, and check us out. But yeah, a truck literally pulls up to our loading dock, we give them the product, and they take it to places that we can’t go.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s great. That’s great. And you know, you can get Bright Leaf Hot Dogs at a lot of the restaurants around here.

Justin Raymond: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: I know you get them at Char-Grill.

Justin Raymond: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: And Snoopy’s.

Justin Raymond: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: I eat a lot of Char-Grill and I eat a lot of Snoopy’s. But where are some other places you can get them?

Justin Raymond: So I guess this, in terms of Raleigh or Johnston County, or what?

Jonathan Breeden: Well, just, yeah, just in the area.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Johnston County, Raleigh, where, you know.

Justin Raymond: I mean, we’re all over, man. I mean, there’s a lot of places that serve Bright Leaf Hot Dogs. I mean, I live in Clayton, so just, you know, mention Jones’ or Percy Flowers.

They’ve sold over eight million of our hot dogs. Like you said, you got Char-Grill there’s food trucks. I mean, there’s a lot of good local hot dog shops out there that serve the hot dog.

Jonathan Breeden: Redneck Barbecue Lab. Sells,

Justin Raymond: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Bright Leaf Barbecues.

Justin Raymond: Yeah. You can get a hot dog with a side of barbecue. So,

Jonathan Breeden: They do. They do. Redneck Barbecue Lab.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And they sell a lot of Bright Leaf Hot Dogs there.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: They absolutely do. A good, another good Johnston County based company, they came and were on the

Justin Raymond: Absolutely

Jonathan Breeden: podcast probably about 18 months [00:12:00] ago.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: So go back and listen to that one. It’s fascinating, all the different things they’re doing there as well.

So why is it red?

Justin Raymond: Yeah, before I get into that, I just wanna share.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Justin Raymond: So if you wanna find out where you can get Bright Leaf Hot Dogs and our other Bright Leaf products, just go to find BrightLeaf.com. We got a store locator. All you gotta do is just drop in your town or zip code. It’ll show you all the stores, all the restaurants we’re in, so it’s really helpful. And you can also call or email me and I’ll help you out.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Well, and the website.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: As well, CarolinaPackers.com.

Justin Raymond: Yeah,

Jonathan Breeden: It’ll take you there as well.

Justin Raymond: Yeah, yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: The other thing is you can order it online.

Justin Raymond: Yes, sir. Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And they’ll drop ship it right to you.

Justin Raymond: Exactly, yeah. So if you’re not anywhere

Jonathan Breeden: Anywhere in the country

Justin Raymond: that has Bright Leaf, we’ll ship it all over the country

Justin Raymond: All right, if you’re in North Carolina, you know about some Bright Leaf hot dogs. We’re about to throw them on the griddle right here. I’m gonna show you exactly how to cook one, and it’s not hard to do. It’s real easy to do. Now, you don’t necessarily need a griddle like this. You can use a frying pan. You could throw them on the grill, even the air fryer.

There’s a lot of ways to cook a Bright Leaf hot dog Just throw ’em on here. Hear ’em sizzling

[00:13:00]

Say like maybe five more minutes till we get together

Let’s do this

Jonathan Breeden: so if you’re listening to this from somewhere else

Justin Raymond: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: or whatever, or if you wanna just send it to your friends and family and let them know

Justin Raymond: Mm-hmm

Jonathan Breeden: about this red hot dog

Justin Raymond: Mm-hmm

Jonathan Breeden: it’s be that’s a fun thing to do, too.

Justin Raymond: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: I I’ve sort of gotten into that where there’s a rib place like up in Maryland outside of Baltimore that I like to go to. And, you know, one year for my wife’s birthday I had them [00:14:00] ship in dry ice the ribs down here.

Justin Raymond: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: And we just heated them up in the oven. And it was so cool, right?

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: ‘Cause it was a taste of home for her. Yeah. You know what I mean? You could do that with Bright Leaf Hot Dogs.

Justin Raymond: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I guess, to answer your red hot dog question.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I’m curious, why is it red?

Justin Raymond: Yeah, so they’ve been red for 85 years. All we know is that Mr. Jones came from Georgia, and he might have seen something red in Georgia, brought it here, decided to make the hot dogs red just to stand out in a crowded marketplace. I mean, when you go to the grocery store, there’s a lot of brown hot dogs there, so like, boom, oh, there’s the red ones.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: And so we were the original red hot dog, brought it here, then others came along.

Jonathan Breeden: So what makes it red?

Justin Raymond: It’s food coloring.

Jonathan Breeden: Food coloring?

Justin Raymond: Yes, sir.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: All right. So it’s like any other hot dog, I guess, it just happens to be red.

Justin Raymond: Not technically. I’d say.

Jonathan Breeden: It’s better than a lot of hot dogs.

Justin Raymond: Yeah, yeah. But I mean, as far as, like, if the red color wasn’t there, it would look like a regular hot dog.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: It would just taste better.

Jonathan Breeden: It would just taste better. So what is the secret?

Justin Raymond: Aha.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, you can’t give me the menu. Like, you can’t give me the ingredients, but like what is the secret? What makes it [00:15:00] so unique other than its color?

Justin Raymond: I mean, it’s local. I mean, it’s, like I said, it’s made fresh and local with beef and pork and a unique seasoning blend. I can’t tell you what it is exactly. But it’s a flavor you’re not gonna find anywhere else. I mean, and you know, just when you eat that, it’s a bold Bright Leaf flavor. And when you think about North Carolina, you know, it’s sweet tea, barbecue, Bright Leaf Hot Dogs.

I mean, that’s just how it is.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s true.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Do you know how many hot dogs y’all ship every year? Like I’m just curious.

Justin Raymond: I mean, it’s a lot.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I didn’t know if you knew. I, I don’t know. I mean, it’s a lot.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: I was just curious.

Justin Raymond: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: I was just curious, cause I think people would be surprised at how many hot dogs you make.

Justin Raymond: Yeah, I mean, it’s a lot. I mean, like I said, we’ve been here for 85 years, and we could not do it without our customers. I mean, just the, from going to shows and talking with our customers and they’re like, “Hey, it ain’t a hot dog unless it’s Bradley” or, “I ain’t eating it unless it’s a Bradley hot dog.”

I mean, just hearing those things, hearing those stories and being, you know, able to do what we’re doing because of we have customers like that, so.

Have family law questions? Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office [00:16:00] is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.

Jonathan Breeden: So is the, is the, is the business growing? Are you selling more products and, and every, each year? I know you’re expanding into South Carolina.

Justin Raymond: Yeah. I mean, you know, you’ve seen our product line. I actually didn’t even bring all the products that we make.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Justin Raymond: But

Jonathan Breeden: Right

Justin Raymond: that’s quite a bit. But I mean, hot dogs is still our number one, and then we make all those other products. You know, we’re expanding to South Carolina, kinda looking at other ways to kinda reach more markets.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. I gotcha. So I mean, is there any, is there any plans to expand the, the, the different products? Or I know you’re obviously expanding the markets.

Justin Raymond: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: you know, I mean, what, what is the future?

Justin Raymond: I think I mean, the future is still local. Like, we w- we wanna stay locally owned, you know, not leaving. And you know, we’re always kinda looking at the market, you know, listening to our customers, [00:17:00] seeing what products they need, seeing what else we can do.

As far as, like, anything that’s going on right, right now I mean, we might have new products coming out. You just gotta

Jonathan Breeden: Right

Justin Raymond: follow us on social media to find out.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. But- Well, and I guess, I mean, you’re like any other business.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Your costs are going up.

Justin Raymond: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: Your labor costs

Justin Raymond: Very true

Jonathan Breeden: your input costs.

Justin Raymond: Gas.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, gas for these trucks to

Justin Raymond: Yep

Jonathan Breeden: deliver the product. The animals are probably costing more because it’s costing more to feed them. A lot of animal feed is- … you know, got more expensive too. So- … what are y’all doing to try to combat that and keep the prices low?

Justin Raymond: Yeah. I think, you know, we’re always with the customer first mindset, so just trying to work the supply chain just to see how we can keep costs lower. But I mean, it’s a Bright Leaf Hot Dog. We still make it the old-fashioned way. We’re not changing how we make it, so it’s kinda keeping that in mind with everything else we got going on.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And let’s talk about some of the things that y’all do in the community. I mean, you’ve been a tremendous community supporter the whole time. I mean, I, that’s family-owned still-

Justin Raymond: Yep …

Jonathan Breeden: owned right there.

Justin Raymond: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Smithfield, you’re not owned by [00:18:00] some corporation somewhere. Let’s talk about some of the different things Carolina Packers does in the community.

Justin Raymond: Yeah. So like I said, you know, we’re customers first, but we’re also a community first. We try really hard to support our community. One of the things we kinda double down on is, you know, agriculture we can’t make our hot dogs without our farmers, so every year we do, we partner with JoCo Grows Agriculture which Nicole over there would be another good person to have on your podcast.

Right. So shout out Nicole. Get on here.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah.

We’ve had her. She, her episode.

Justin Raymond: Oh, you already had her? I gotta watch it.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Her episode

Justin Raymond: Okay

Jonathan Breeden: will run between us taping this one and your episode running.

Justin Raymond: Okay. She’s awesome by the way.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. She was awesome. She was awesome. So,

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Definitely go back when this one runs, hers would’ve already run.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Go back and listen to Nicole.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: With JoCo Grows. She was great.

Justin Raymond: But anyways, we do a summer series with Nicole and JoCo Grows every summer to kinda show our support for agriculture, our support for farmers, and that’s really important to us.

Jonathan Breeden: So what is that?

Justin Raymond: What are we doing?

Jonathan Breeden: What is the series? Yeah.

Justin Raymond: Yeah. So I can’t really unveil everything ’cause we’re doing a little intro video, but.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: There’s FFA clubs at schools.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: And so we’re gonna kinda go to the schools and kinda shine a light on what they’re doing, ’cause, you know, they’re the future [00:19:00] farmers.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Justin Raymond: So.

Jonathan Breeden: All right. Well, that’s great.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s great.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and you’ve also done this Franks for Thanks?

Justin Raymond: Yeah. Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: What is that?

Justin Raymond: So, Franks for Thanks. So we’re veterans, and then first responders, and then nurses and people that work in the hospital are, all of them are, you know, very important to us.

So through Frank for Thanks, we just kinda go to those places, we’ll cook them lunch, provide lunch, and just kinda show our support for their.

Jonathan Breeden: Right

Well, that sounds like fun.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: How, I mean, are y’all doing one of those a month, one of those a year? How often are you doing them?

Justin Raymond: I mean, it varies. You know, we just try to keep in mind you know, what they do and how important they are to us, and just try to make the time to do things like that.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s cool.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Any other community groups y’all are involved in and you work with? I know you do JoCo Grows. You do the lunches for the firefighters and stuff. What else?

Justin Raymond: I mean, we also do, I mean, a lot of donations behind the scenes, we do that. You know, we have a really good fundraising program, so schools will reach out to us, you know, if they’re doing something.

We’re just always looking for ways to support our community whether it’s, you know, also sponsoring events and things like that, so.

Jonathan Breeden: [00:20:00] Right. Well, and you’ve, you’ve got, you know, you’ve got your store that’s open- Yep … Monday through Friday- … right there on Bright Leaf Cor- Boulevard in Smithfield.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: It has all of these products.

Justin Raymond: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: And it also has merchandise.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Like, you can get shirts and hats and stuff like that, yeah … right?

Justin Raymond: Yes. So we have a country store right at our plant in Smithfield. We probably doubled down about maybe three years now, really turned it into a store. When you walk in you kinda get a real North Carolina experience, ’cause we actually have tobacco barn wood on the wall.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s cool.

Justin Raymond: But yeah, we have all of our product and more there. We also have some local beef from a farm we have in Clayton, and then we have merchandise. There’s local cheeses, jams, jellies a whole lot going on in there, so.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, man. So how can people reach out to you and learn more about Carolina Packers, and maybe have you come and do, like, a cooking demonstration you did for us today?

Justin Raymond: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Or, you know, Frank for Thanks, or any of those type things?

Justin Raymond: Yeah, I mean, guess, there’s, there’s a number of ways. The best thing to do, you know, go to carolinapackers.com. We have a contact page. You can shoot me an email, or just follow us on all of our social media ca- channels, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram [00:21:00] Bright Leaf hot dogs. Just shoot me a message or just comment on one of the videos we got there.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that sounds great.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: That sounds great. Well, the last question we ask everybody on this podcast: What do you love most about Johnston County?

Justin Raymond: Right here. Just kidding. But- bright Leaf,

Jonathan Breeden: I… You hear people say that.

Justin Raymond: I’m not kidding. But, … definitely the people and the views, and the food. I mean, you can’t beat it. Johnston County’s the best.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, it is the best.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: It is the best.

Justin Raymond: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, we’d like to thank Justin Raymond for being our guest on this week’s episode of the Best of Johnston County podcast. Like I said, we mentioned earlier, please like, follow, subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it.

Also, tag us in your Instagram stories, Best of Johnston County, and eat more Bright Leaf Hot Dogs. Visit carolinapackers.com. It is one of the true- I don’t know, genuine Johnston County based businesses that have been forever that people know about all over the place, and they’ve been a tremendous community partner and I really appreciate them coming to be on our podcast.

Until next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden. Did

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to [00:22:00] you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.