How Craft Cannery is revolutionizing small-batch food production
Paul Guglielmo had pasta at his grandfather’s house every Sunday growing up. Each week, he helped recreate his great grandmother’s sauce, which incorporated everything grown in the family’s garden. This ideal meal, and the happiness it brought, was something Guglielmo wanted to share with others. With that simple idea, he started Guglielmo’s Sauce, LLC in August of 2014 and Guglielmo’s Home Grown Marinara Sauce was born.
In between keeping his on-air job as a radio personality and producer, Guglielmo tried getting his sauce onto store shelves. But, as he shared in his keynote address at the New York State Innovation Summit in October of last year, the road to scaling his business required him to tackle things he never thought would be an obstacle. His first and biggest challenge was finding a manufacturer for his sauce. After multiple calls to co-packing plants throughout the Rochester area who all said no, he eventually got his start at a small factory in the Geneva community.
Finding the right recipe for growth
By 2020, Guglielmo realized that what he really wanted to do was help entrepreneurs solve the co-packing problem. He retired from radio and, by April, purchased a new processing facility, which is now known as Craft Cannery.
In the first six months of owning the factory, Guglielmo grew his team from three to ten. Over the first year, he increased production by 100 percent, enabling the company to put more jars in stores and reach $2 million in sales. By 2023, production quadrupled from year-one numbers. Today, the company is closing in on $5 million in annual sales. Guglielmo uses the facility to bring his sauces to more than 500 stores, including Wegmans, Tops, Whole Foods, and hundreds of locally owned small businesses across the northeast. Excess capacity also enables him to support the needs of small-batch entrepreneurs, and the Craft Cannery plant is used to process the products of brands like SalsaCuse.
Craft Cannery also added an in-line metal detector that scans sealed products, expanding the volume and type of contract manufacturing the company can offer to include soups, sauces, dressings, and marinades. Using local suppliers is also an important part of the business. Craft Cannery works with Fleischmann’s Vinegar, Kaplan Container, Niagara Label, Palmer’s, Pittsford Dairy, Sysco Syracuse, and others.
The role of Grow-NY in Craft Cannery’s success
As Craft Cannery carried out its growth plans, Guglielmo found immense support in Grow-NY. This annual business competition attracts innovative, high-growth food and agriculture startups from across the globe, connecting them with funding, mentorship, and customized business development support to help build an enduring food and agriculture innovation cluster in New York State’s Finger Lakes, Central NY, and Southern Tier regions. Armed with data from first-hand experience at Craft Cannery, Guglielmo applied to Grow-NY in 2022 knowing that co-packing was an unmet need. Without a solution, other entrepreneurs who have a unique idea for a food or beverage product don’t have a path to growth. Craft Cannery allows individuals to test their products in market, and supports the demand for small quantities until mass production can be established. Grow-NY awarded Craft Cannery $500,000 to support its continued growth.
“This is a win for all entrepreneurs, aspiring and established,” Guglielmo said of his 2022 win. “If you have a dream of bottling that famous family recipe, or own a restaurant and are looking for a brand extension, or are a regional brand in need of flex capacity from your co-packer, you just won big at Grow-NY. This prize money will give us the opportunity to expand our physical footprint in Bergen, hire additional staff, and purchase equipment to take on more clients.”
Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
For businesses applying to Grow-NY or any other competition, Guglielmo shared this advice. “Be conscious of the criteria evaluated by the judges. Throughout their review, judges analyze several aspects, including the viability of the startup’s business model, the quality and readiness of the startup team, the value that the startup offers customers, and the job growth potential that the startup can bring to the region.
“If you’re thinking you’re not a genius but you want to own your own business, find a problem that needs to be solved,” he says. “I’m just one example of how you can start a small food business in NYS and expand on that idea to find new revenue.”
More than sauce: Building a legacy
When Guglielmo started the sauce business, he asked himself, “How would we ever stand out?” He realized that all the jars of sauce in the supermarket touted similar “better” or “cheaper” messages. And he knew that his grandfather’s sauce was coming from a place of love, and that’s a recipe that’s hard to replicate.
“This little sauce adventure… The whole goal was to put a jar of sauce on the shelf for my grandpa to see,” said Guglielmo.
The initial goal was accomplished more than a decade ago. Now, with millions in annual sales, success in sauce has been proven, as well as the value of a co-packing solution for other entrepreneurs to pave their own way to growth.