Suffolk natives’ Redefine Meals to take over former Entenmann’s plant

Redefine Meals is moving into 107,000 square feet of the former Entenmann’s plant in North Bay Shore, a takeover that could triple production once the facility is fully operational and add about 200 workers. For Bay Shore, the deal brings a new tenant into one of Suffolk County’s most recognizable industrial addresses and gives a dormant bakery landmark a chance to generate payroll again.

Mark Ciaburri and Matthew Riss, who grew up in the Holbrook-Ronkonkoma area and have known each other since they were 4, founded Redefine Meals in 2016 after starting with about $5,000 in savings and working out of a Knights of Columbus kitchen in Ronkonkoma. The two built the company without an investor or formal advisor, turning a healthy-food idea into a business with 390 employees.

Their early growth came from making food for Stony Brook athletes, then opening stores in Lake Grove, Syosset, Bellmore and Commack. Redefine Meals now has 24 stores on Long Island and in Queens and is planning another in Westchester, a footprint that shows how far the company has moved from its earliest homemade-cookie beginnings.

The Bay Shore plant has deep local history of its own. Entenmann’s moved production there in 1961, and the site was associated with about 1,500 workers at its peak in the 1990s. When the bakery shut down in 2014, 178 workers lost their jobs, leaving behind a building that had long been part of Long Island’s manufacturing identity.

Redefine Meals said the Bay Shore facility is already partly active, with office and administrative space on the third floor up and running. Full production is expected in about a year, and the company says the larger space will help it scale the ready-to-eat meals that have become its core business. The company says it delivers across Long Island, New York City and Westchester County and offers more than 60 prepared dishes.

For Suffolk, the move is more than an expansion. It puts a homegrown company into a landmark plant that once anchored hundreds of jobs and gives Bay Shore a shot at reclaiming some of the economic life that faded when Entenmann’s left. If Redefine Meals reaches the scale it is projecting, the old bakery site could again become a place where hundreds of workers report for shifts, and where a familiar Suffolk address helps drive a new chapter in local food production.