For 32 years, Bertolino Foods CEO Leo Bertolino has called Peabody home.
Now, his business is also calling Peabody home.
For 50 years, Bertolino Foods had been located at Boston’s New Boston Food Market. But the business was forced to vacate in order to make way for a new development.
Bertolino didn’t have to go very far to find an empty warehouse in the perfect location, practically in his own back yard.
“It’s less than a mile from my house and it takes four minutes to get home, three if the light is green, compared to many Friday nights when it would take more than an hour and a half commute to get home from Boston,” Bertolino said. “Peabody is a great home, a great space, and just a great town. Logistically, we are right off Route 1 and 128. It’s the right spot for our company.”
Bertolino said several factors were at play in the move, namely size and price, “knowing there was nothing closer to Boston that could match it.”
The project has been in the works for a year in the design and construction of an advanced manufacturing facility, as well as a premium test kitchen. There is a massive freezer and a refrigeration unit, both of which have the capacity to store two million pounds of food products. Presently, the freezer contains 1.2 million pounds of food at a temperature of -15 degrees Fahrenheit. The new building also includes personal touches focusing on the history of the company, which currently employs 125 people with plans to top out soon at 140-150.
The Bertolino Foods story began in 1961.
Leo’s father, Frank, and his father, Giuseppe, both fishermen, immigrated to the United States from Sicily in 1956.
Frank parlayed his entrepreneurial spirit into a meat-cutting business in 1961, the Frank Bertolino Beef company located in Boston’s North End.
In 1969, he moved to the New Boston Food Market where the company grew to become a successful manufacturer and distributor of high-quality food products, including beef, pork, veal and lamb.
In 2019, the company merged with Adams & Chapman Co., a company founded in 1867, to add all-natural and organic turkey, capons and chicken to its line of products.
“It goes hand in hand with what we do and allows us to put everything on one truck,” said Leo Bertolino, a 1982 graduate of Revere High.
The company, which was recently named the 2020 Certified Angus Beef Value-Added Products, Processor of the Year, sells to a large number of retailers, supermarkets and food service providers. The most popular products are Bertolino shaved steak and ground beef burgers.
In June 2020, Bertolino Foods was established following the merger of F.B. Packing Company, Frank Bertolino Beef, and Adams & Chapman Co. In addition to the brands associated with those entities, the company also counts Certified Angus Beef and Bell & Evans among its well-known brands.
Bertolino went into the business right out of high school, learning the job by watching his father.
“I grew up being dragged around by my father to learn the business,” said Bertolino. “For me, going to school was going nowhere. I started from the ground up so I could understand all parts of the business, but now I am looking to drag everyone else with me.”
One of those people is Bertolino’s son, Michael, the company’s vice president of Sales and Purchasing.
“He is doing a fabulous job, he is really hands-on,” said Leo. “A lot of what I learned from my father has rubbed off on me, but Michael is doing a fantastic job for us. I love millennial thinking, but have to admit, I’m still 80 (old school)-20.
“We now have three generations, but the company has been built around my father Frank,” said Leo, adding that when he isn’t in Florida, Frank spends much of his time in the new test kitchen.
“His best recipes are his meatballs, soups and sauces,” Bertolino said.
“He makes the best vegetable soup I have ever had,” added Marketing Manager Kristi Cunningham.
Bertolino said the company has seen its share of challenges with the pandemic, namely the loss of most of its food service business, difficulty getting products, and skyrocketing costs.
“COVID isn’t going away today or tomorrow,” Bertolino said. “The concerns I hear from my retailers are consumers want to know where the products are made and who has touched them. It’s trending and that’s why we are seeing a greater demand for case-ready products.”
The move is ongoing with production lines being relocated one by one. Bertolino said.
As far as the future goes, Bertolino said he is guided by his father’s words.
“He always said, ‘it’s easier to sell what people really want, than to sell them what they don’t want.'”
