 |
|
|
The History of Catania-Spagna in a Timeline |
|
Loading image. Please wait
1900 - 1901: Giuseppe Basile decides to leave his homeland of San Pier Niceto, Sicily in search of the American dream. Giuseppe left with just a few dollars and 21 kegs of olive oil hoping to make a profit and return home to Sicily. Giuseppe's wife became pregnant and the Basile's decided to make the United States their new home. Giuseppe hand filled gallons of olive oil and sold them door to door in his Italian neighborhood of Lynn MA. Starting a business that would one day become Basile packing.
  
1900 - 1901 Giuseppe Basile decides to leave his homeland of San Pier Niceto, Sicily in search of the American dream. Giuseppe left with just a few dollars and 21 kegs of olive oil hoping to make a profit and return home to Sicily. Giuseppe's wife became pregnant and the Basile's decided to make the United States their new home. Giuseppe hand filled gallons of olive oil and sold them door to door in his Italian neighborhood of Lynn MA. Starting a business that would one day become Basile packing.
1902-1933 Giuseppe's reputation of loyalty and quality grew throughout the Italian community and he found his small business expanding to other neighborhoods, and into the streets of Boston's North End. Giuseppe would take the train with 12 - 1 gallon cans of olive oil in a sack and sell door to door in efforts to expand business.
1933 At the age of 15 Joseph O. Basile began his life long career and legacy in the oil business by helping his father along with his brothers Carmen and Frank deliver orders and build business in the Boston area after attending school. Joseph soon quit school to help his father full time.
1935 Business began to spread by word of mouth, and the company began to sell to Italian specialty stores as well as the door-to-door business which was growing.
1937 Basile Packing had earned enough money to purchase its first packing machine that filled and sealed the bottles of oil. Catania also purchased its first company truck to help expand the business beyond the Boston area.
1937-1942 Through hard work the Basile's were able to expand their business into the New England area as well as New York State. In 1941 Giuseppe passed away leaving Joseph to take responsibility as salesman, factory worker, loader, and driver. Money was short and Joseph found himself sleeping in his truck on long hauls to Vermont, and New York, it was this dedication to success that gave Catania its reputation, and helped build business.
1942 Joseph was drafted into the U.S. Army to fight for his country in WWII.
1945 Joseph returns to the states as a young war vet realizing all of his hard work was lost and he had to work twice as hard to re-establish business and build his company back up. Joseph rented a small building in Boston's West End on Leverette St. Joseph did everything he could to re-establish business including offering oil on credit.
1945 Three companies Catania Imports, Basile Packing and Spagna Olive Oil merged to create Catania-Spagna Corporation.
1945 Catania-Spagna purchased the brand La Spagnola for $50 from Boston Spaghetti, and now had a prominent brand in the retail business.
1947-1949 Catania-Spagna moved multiple times in this two year period to accommodate for the growth of the business.
1949 Catania-Spagna purchased their first tank truck and installed its first bulk tanks to store oil within their facility. This allowed them to buy in bulk and bring oil in by rail resulting in a more competitive price for their products.
1950's The 50's brought fierce competition, and Catania-Spagna shrunk to a three man operation Joseph Basile, Mike Marchesi, and Charlie Alvino. With these three men's dedication to the company they were able to survive the tough times on the brink of failure and keep the company afloat.
1957 Things began to turn around and Catania-Spagna began to sell a full line of foodservice grocery items directly to restaurants. Catania-Spagna moved to Kent St. in Somerville MA. This facility gave them direct access to the rail road and they could now bring rail cars of oil directly into the building where the oil was stored in large processing tanks.
1960's Joseph's children Joseph, Anthony, Robert, Ann, and Angela continued the Basile tradition and began to work for the family business learning all angles from the ground up. This marked the third generation of Catania-Spagna.
1972 Catania-Spagna bought the Marconi brand from Pat Archie, owner of Marconi Olive Oil. The Marconi name is still used today in Catania-Spagna's retail olive oil, organic oil and specialty oil lines.
1972 Catania-Spagna made a strategic purchase and marketing decision to sell LaSpagnola Blended Olive Oil at a competitive price. The marketing and promotion boosted sales and put the LaSpagnola name on the map as a force in the retail division.
1979 Catania-Spagna made the decision to eliminate the full line foodservice of groceries and focus on the business' core, the oil business.
1979 The success of the marketing efforts of 1972 allowed the purchase of 14-18 Kent St. The two buildings were connected and Catania-Spagna was now working out of a larger facility to accommodate the growth of the company.
1984 Joseph O. Basile, semi-retired handing the reigns of the company over to his children. Joseph D. took over as president, Anthony was head of Sales, Robert was head of Operations, and Ann and Angela ran the office.
1988 Joseph D. Basile the eldest son of Joseph passed away. The family pulled together and took over the responsibilities to keep the tradition and company going through the hard times.
1994 Catania-Spagna moved to Ayer MA. To a brand new state of the art 50,000 square foot facility custom built for Catania-Spagna's needs as a vegetable and olive oil company. A new fully automated packing machine was also put in place which allowed the packing process to run more efficient.
2000 To keep up with demand Catania-Spagna doubled the capacity of the EPSI filler and introduced their new line of organic oils following the health trend of the current time.
2003 Catania-Spagna doubled its size with a 50,000 square foot addition allowing for more warehouse space, production lines and bulk tanks.
2003 Catania-Spagna's patriarch founder and backbone of the company Joseph O. Basile passes away, but not before he was able to see what his many years of hard work had come to. "In all of my wildest dreams I never thought I would live to see something like this." (Joseph O. Basile)
2005 Catania-Spagna's organic line expanded to the retail division of the company.
2008 A Fully automated retail filler that has the ability to package both plastic and glass bottles is installed to accommodate for the growing retail business.
|
|