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Contract manufacturer accelerates its packaging operations

New facilities and equipment investments drive LiDestri Foods’ operations in Rochester, NY, and Fresno, CA.

Pasta sauce bottles enter a labeler at left, then exit labeled at right. Filled, capped, and labeled bottles accumulate on a high-speed bottling line at LiDestri’s Rochester, NY, facility.
Pasta sauce bottles enter a labeler at left, then exit labeled at right. Filled, capped, and labeled bottles accumulate on a high-speed bottling line at LiDestri’s Rochester, NY, facility.

Many U.S. businesses understandably wish to forget about the years 2008-2009 and the deep recession, but for Fairport, NY-based LiDestri Foods, Inc., those difficult times proved to be a springboard for success (see sidebar story), in part thanks to rising sales of pasta sauce, which makes for economical meals in households across the country.

By 2011, LiDestri’s Rochester, NY, facility was rebuilt, with multiple new and updated packaging lines, including an 1,100 bottle/min pasta sauce line that fills glass jars in sizes ranging from 6 oz to 45 oz.

Alan Davis, LiDestri’s Vice President of Business Development and Contract Manufacturing, explains that the company purchased its Rochester facility—more than 1 million sq ft in all—from Eastman Kodak. LiDestri consolidated operations from several different facilities to the former Kodak building. The facility is divided into two buildings, a 625,000-sq-ft location for manufacturing, packaging, and warehousing, and a 400,000-sq-ft building primarily for distribution and additional warehousing.

The larger, South-side plant is used primarily for the manufacturing of sauces, and includes the high-speed glass line and a new line that Davis describes as a smaller “boutique line that runs 30 to 50 bottles per minute.” The North-side plant produces spirits, oils, vinegars, cooking lines, and syrups. Altogether, the Rochester location houses 11 manufacturing and packaging lines, many of which are new. The site also includes a still-developing innovation center that involves customer collaboration on recipe and project development, as well as investigating new product and packaging technologies.

LiDestri derives about 70% of its work from contract manufacturing, with the remaining 30% including both private label and its own brands, including Francesco Rinaldi pasta sauce and Santa Clara salsa. Packaging equipment and material vendors are selected based in part on existing business relationships and specific project needs and requirements.

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