The complete package: Rochester area food manufacturers talk bags, bottles and jars

From the protection of the product to making a positive first impression, the importance of packaging cannot be understated for brands and consumers alike.

We checked in with three Rochester-area companies of different sizes, that are home to some of the area’s most beloved brands, to find out what’s new on their ends.

The Pierogie Guy

Buffalo chicken is the most popular flavor of pierogi (a traditional Polish dumpling) at The Pierogie Guy, a family-owned and operated business since 2006 that is based in Rochester and has organically grown throughout the years.

“When people try our stuff, they go nuts,” said Mike Marion, business development specialist, for The Pierogie Guy (a registered trademark of Surfer TPG, Inc.).

The brand has gone from a very small scale, farmer’s market audience to now also being available in local and regional grocery stores and dairies (including Tops Friendly Markets and Pittsford Farms Dairy & Bakery), restaurants (including the Genesee Brew House and Prison City Brewing), a stadium (NBT Bank Stadium – home of the Syracuse Mets) and, most recently, a social club (the Syracuse Polish Home).

With that growth, the packaging has changed too. During the pandemic The Pierogie Guy went through an entire packaging redux with the help of Lockport’s Bison Bags.

“Our original packing was a sleeve with a resealable top that had our sticker with the logo on it,” Marion it. “It fit the brand in the sense that everything is handmade, including these packages. But we wanted to upgrade the packaging to align with scalability.”

The new packaging is more colorful and color-coded – orange belongs to Buffalo chicken, navy blue to potato cheddar, green to cheesy spinach, and brown to mushroom sauerkraut (to name a few).

“The color gives it a more professional look,” Marion said. “And, like the old packaging, the new packaging also has a window on the bag so you can still see the product and still see what you’re getting. We think that resonates with our customers and differs from other packages in this space that just have a picture of the product on the packaging.”

The Craft Cannery

In April, the Craft Cannery broke ground on its $1.5 million expansion in Bergen, Genesee County. In 2022 the private label manufacturing business won a $500,000 prize in the annual  Grow NY Competition, a sizable portion of which is going toward the construction project.

“It’s my happy place,” said Paul Guglielmo, owner & CEO of the Craft Cannery, about the expansion area, which increases the cannery’s footprint by nearly 7,000 square feet and will add a full-time food service packaging line for bulk-food service in gallon jugs and buckets, in addition to a new glass bottling line.

Guglielmo says the expansion is about 80% complete and is on track for an early October opening. The HVAC and electrical work are happening right now.

“It’s beautiful,” said Guglielmo about the new space. “We are very busy, and I thank God every day we need more capacity.”

Guglielmo and Tom Riggio, Craft Cannery co-owner, purchased the manufacturing facility in 2020. The business is one of just a handful of USDA cannery manufacturing plants in New York and specializes in taking recipes from individuals, restaurants and well-known brands and adjusting them for large production.

One of the brands produced and packaged at the cannery is Guglielmo’s own Guglielmo Sauce, a line of gourmet marinara sauces (like Spicy Chunky Veggie, Rosa and Sunday) inspired by his family’s recipe and available at retailers including Wegmans.

“It occurs to me and more every day what a lucky break it was to find a problem that needed to be solved, which is giving brands access to small-scale manufacturing,” said Guglielmo, about the roots of the Craft Cannery. “You just can’t find it easily throughout the country.”

FIFCO USA/Genesee Brewery

FIFCO USA, parent company of the Genesee Brewery and Labatt USA, is nearing completion of phase two of its major modernization and upgrade project for its Rochester brewery. The project is creating a world-class packaging facility for their brands, as well as adding capabilities and capacity for innovation to attract new contract manufacturing clients.

“Most of the equipment is here and we’re waiting on one piece of equipment that’s coming from France,” said Mike Lachut, project manager and plant maintenance manager, FIFCO USA/Genesee Brewery, about this phase of the project, which features the first packaging line the company will have in one building, on one floor.

Lachut says installation of the equipment for the new canning line at the 146-year-old Rochester brewery is planned for the week of September 9, with the remainder of the equipment tentatively being installed in early October and the first saleable products projected to roll out in December.

“It gives us more flexibility to create and to innovate because we will not be limited by space in the same way that we have been in the past,” said Mary Beth Popp, vice president, communications, FIFCO USA/Genesee Brewery about this phase of the modernization project.

The new canning line will increase the brewery’s efficiency, allow for the opportunity to build on the line down the road as innovations surface and will help meet increasing demand for canned products and canned products of various sizes.

“The industry has shifted dramatically,” said Popp, about packaging preferences. “It used to be skewed toward bottles and now it’s moved dramatically and very quickly to cans. We still have bottles, but it’s just not as large of a piece of our business as it was before. That has created a lot of demand for our current canning lines.”

FIFCO USA’s portfolio includes Seagram’s Escapes, Lipton Hard Iced Tea, Labatt USA, Genesee Brewing Company, and Magic Hat. FIFCO USA also brews beer and alcoholic beverages on behalf of other companies.

Over the last 15 years, the Genesee Brewery has undergone $215 million in modernization and upgrades, including the installation of a world-class brewing system in 2018.

Caurie Putnam is a Rochester-area freelance writer.