Bigger and Better
Rastelli’s corporate headquarters and processing facility are now based in Swedesboro, New Jersey. In 2003, when they moved operations there, the plant was 50,000 sq. ft. In 2015 and 2016, the plant went through an expansion doubling its size to 100,000 sq. ft. All of the company’s meat and seafood processing is now done in this plant. Most of the meat processed there, about 85 percent, is beef – about one-third of which is organic; 8.5 percent of its production is seafood; 2 percent is pork; 1.3 percent is poultry; and the rest is veal, lamb and game. When the expansion is complete (by early 2017) there will be 13 processing lines in the plant.
Because of the variety and quantity of products processed in the plant – between 2,000 and 4,000 different SKUs per week total approximately 1 million lbs. of meat – there is not a consistent daily production schedule.
“We produce so many different items on a daily basis – there is a lot of changeover during the day from one product to the next,” Ray III says. “The production manager has one of the hardest jobs at the plant – no two days are the same here.”
The plant does a lot of small batch processing for what it calls “just in time” business. The orders come in daily and weekly for smaller clients as well as for online orders and require a lot of production line changeover.
The plant runs shifts from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday and 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., Monday through Friday. While the plant features more automation than in the past, there is still a lot of hand cutting and trimming done on the production lines. Prior to the expansion there were 150 employees working in the plant – and an additional 80 to 100 will be needed when the expansion is complete.
A separate room in the new plant is dedicated to ground beef production – both for the Rastelli Craft Burgers line and for other customers. All burgers are ground from solid muscle – chuck and sirloin.
Food safety and quality assurance are ongoing issues of concern at the plant. For every 1,000 lbs. of meat, they perform test and hold procedures on 1-lb. batches of meat to test for E. coli. The boxed meat is also washed with ozonated water as it’s opened, before cutting and trimming begins, and again after cutting as they move on to packaging. Metal detectors are also located at the end of each line prior to packaging.
Because there are so many line changeovers and so many SKUs that require meat cut to particular pre-set weight specs, QA personnel check for product weights at various points on the processing line.
Full Circle
In 2013, the last of the remaining Meat Stop stores in Deptford, New Jersey, closed its doors for a renovation. Months later it opened and its loyal customers were introduced to the new-and-improved Rastelli’s Market Fresh supermarket. The 6,000-sq.-ft. grocery store, featuring a full-service meat counter, is a step back to where it all began.
In July 2014, Rastelli Foods Group opened a second, substantially larger, Market Fresh location in Marlton, New Jersey. The new 35,000-sq.-ft. store is home to a full-service meat counter called the Meat Stop.
The store features a 24-ft. fresh meat counter, as well as a 4-ft. case dedicated to value-added meat products – all made in-house. There are 20 varieties of fresh sausage, meatballs (made in-store), grilling items and a wide variety of steaks including a selection that’s dry-aged in-store for up to 30 days.
There are 13 different chefs working at the Market Fresh store servicing the meat department, catering department and the grab-and-go foodservice area. The store attracts many lunch and dinner customers daily who come in for the store’s made-to-order meals from the Italian, pizza, stir fry, salad, burrito and sandwich kiosks.
With its return to retail with the Market Fresh stores, its success with the online business and continued dedication to its core business as a supplier to restaurants, hotels and other large-scale clients, Rastelli Foods Group plans to stay the course, for now. “Those are the three channels that we see carrying the Rastelli Foods Group business into the future,” Ray Jr. says.
Rastelli’s diversified portfolio delivered $450 million in sales in 2015 – and a 15 percent increase is anticipated in 2016. “I expect that if we stay on a steady path, providing quality meats and seafood to our clients and customers, we will stay on this growth trajectory until it is time to pass the reins to the next generation.”
