New Barilla pasta plant in Avon starts cooking

Listen to this article

See corrections and amplifications below.

Barilla Group of Italy will get a chance to say “Buongiorno” to the region today as the world’s largest pasta maker unveils its 300,000-square-foot facility in Avon.
Chairman Guido Barilla is slated to attend Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony and pasta party, as is Barilla America president Kirk Trofholz, and more than 300 guests.
The roughly $96 million plant is Barilla’s second in the United States and will serve the Northeast, making 21 different types of pasta.
Barilla has invested $87 million in the Livingston County facility. Jacobson Warehouse Co., a contract warehousing firm with headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, invested $8.5 million.
Barilla has hired 69 staffers and Jacobson employs 28 workers. Plant Manager Carmine Simone has been a member of the Barilla team for some nine years, most recently working in Italy.
When fully operational, the pasta plant and its warehouse will employ 121 area residents: 93 with Barilla and 28 with Jacobson, Barilla’s distributor. The facility has been making pasta since this summer, starting with trial runs. The Rochester Business Journal was allowed to tour the plant this week and see the pasta-making process.
Trains drop off the semolina wheat-that comes from Barilla’s plant in Ames, Iowa-which is transferred to a silo on-site. It then is transported inside the plant, mixed with water and moved to either the short-cut or long-cut pasta line where the pasta is made.
The automated lines are next to each other and run most of the length of the 100,000-square-foot manufacturing side of the building, which is loud from the workings of the machines and smells like pasta.
Pasta several feet long hangs from the machine in the early production stages of the long-cut line. After it is made, the pasta undergoes a drying process-a four-hour process for short cut and a six-hour process for long cut.
Smaller pasta then shoots out of several dryers, after which it travels to be weighed and boxed in Barilla’s red and blue packaging.
Currently, one long-cut line-for pastas such as spaghetti and angel hair-and one short-cut line-for pastas such as campanelle and orzo-are operational, but two more lines will be added within the next two years.
Patrick Rountree, director of the Livingston County Industrial Development Agency, said it is especially sweet that a company of Barilla’s size and reputation has chosen Upstate New York, an area that has not been inundated with new manufacturing-type opportunities over the past decade.
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” Rountree said.
Since the Barilla deal, Rountree’s office has received an increased number of calls from site selectors representing firms, including another food company looking for a shovel-ready site.
Founded in 1877 in Parma, Italy, Barilla is Italy’s largest food manufacturer. The company has production plants in Europe, Asia and the United States.
Barilla sells its products, including pasta, sauces, breads and biscuits, in more than 100 countries.
The local plant–built in an Empire Zone–is being constructed in two phases. The first phase of production, which was completed this summer, will produce 50,000 tons of pasta annually.
The second phase of production, slated to be completed in July 2009, will allow for up to 100,000 tons of pasta to be produced annually.
There is no material difference between any of Barilla’s plants, Trofholz said, adding that Barilla duplicates the production lines and quality control procedures of its production facilities in Iowa and Foggia, Italy.
The process of picking the Avon site started for Barilla more than two years ago when it hired Deloitte Development LLC, an arm of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, to help with site selection. They dubbed the proposed facility “Project Allegro” and began scouting a location.
Trofholz said the company was looking for a location that provided a hometown feel, similar to Barilla’s beginnings in Parma, Italy, along with the right mix of benefits.
In addition to the Empire Zone benefits, Barilla can apply to the state for a Jobs Now capital grant of up to $600,000 that would be used toward the land purchase and facility construction costs. The Livingston County Industrial Development Agency also can apply to the Department of Transportation for up to $877,500 in a combination grant/low-interest loan through the Industrial Access Program. The company is eligible to receive up to $750,000 from the Governor’s Office of Small Cities for capital costs.
Other draws to locating in Avon included its proximity to major markets. More than 50 percent of Barilla’s U.S. sales are in the Northeast. Also, the site is close to Fairport-based LiDestri Foods Inc., Barilla’s sauce bottler.
[email protected] / 585-546-8303

Correction published Oct. 26, 2007
An article about the Barilla Group of Italy’s new Avon plant that appeared in the Oct. 19 issue incorrectly stated the amount the company invested in the plant. Barilla invested $75 million.

10/19/07 (C) Rochester Business Journal