Purity Brand History
The Rego family has a longstanding history in Hawaii. The Regos originally immigrated to Maui from the Azores Islands in the late 1800’s and established their roots here. The Rego family in Hawaii subsequently included Scott’s grandfather, Al. Al was introduced to the cattle raising and meatpacking industry at the Ulupalakua Ranch on Maui. Al worked for the Ranch for 17 years where he learned about sausage making.
Based on Al’s exposure to the meat industry, he and his brother Leonard jumped at the opportunity to buy the Purity Packing Sausage business in the mid 1950’s.The brothers saw the acquisition as a great opportunity to use both Al’s sausage knowledge and Leonard’s proven marketing talents. In fact, Leonard had already used his marketing expertise to successfully build Leonard’s Bakery into a highly regarded source for tasty malasadas.
The two brother entrepreneurs operated the business under joint ownership during the 1950’s thru the 1970’s. The company prospered during this time based on Al’s focus on providing consistently high-quality sausages and Leonard’s marketing savvy. With Leonard’s passing in the early 1980’s, Al assumed sole ownership of the company which he then re-named as Rego’s Purity Foods.
During his tenure as the company owner, Al became somewhat of a legend around Honolulu particularly for his fondness for rubbing silver dollars on a horseshoe and handing them out as “good luck charms”. A number of Honolulu residents still treasure their Al Rego silver dollar collections.
Al turned over the company reins to Scott in 1997 and as the third generation sausage maker, Scott continues to make award-winning sausages for Hawaii.
