Tradition, craftsmanship, honor and timing (and a little help from Lady Luck) propelled Colavita USA to the pinnacle of Italian food purveyors in America

by Laura D. C. Kolnoski Photos By amessé photography

Colavita US A, a company now selling in 76 countries, began generations ago in a quaint hilltop village in the Molise region of Italy. There, one family of Colavitas operated a stone mill, crushing homegrown olives to produce fine extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). Another Colavita family harvested and milled durum wheat into semolina grain, producing fresh pasta. The Colavita Olive Oil and Colavita Pasta companies are still family owned and operating in the same Italian town, but over 20 years ago, they joined the also family-owned Colavita USA, cultivating a successful and growing business.

In addition to supermarkets and gourmet shops nationwide, Colavita products are on hand in major restaurants like Bonefish Grill, Outback Steakhouse, and Olive Garden. The man who brought the brand to prominence in the Northeast U.S., John Profaci Sr., is still involved, while his partner in Italy, Enrico Colavita, also remains active. Reporting to them are four Profaci sons and Enrico’s son and nephew, ensuring the firm’s slogan “A trusted family brand” remains as true today as it did back in Italy.

And it all began with a handshake.

John Profaci Sr. is recognized as a pioneer in introducing and popularizing genuine Italian extra virgin olive oil in North America. He had already earned a marketing degree from St. John’s University when he had a chance meeting with Enrico Colavita in 1978 while Colavita was in New York on his honeymoon. Visiting relatives at the time, Enrico asked if they knew anyone knowledgeable about olive oil. The name proffered was John Profaci Sr. of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, who was selling food products to Italian restaurants out of a Newark warehouse. Soon, the two men were shaking hands to start a new business in America selling Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil to retailers and restaurants. Focused on the area’s large Italian-American population with its restaurants and specialty

Extra virgin olive oil has proven effective in reducing cholesterol, preventing breast cancer, reducing Alzheimer’s risk, controlling diabetes, relieving inflammation, and enhancing skin, hair, and nails.

markets, John Sr. initially set up a table in a supermarket on Saturdays offering samples. Fate accelerated his plans with some help from Harvard University, where his son John Jr. graduated.

“When I was a kid, the medical profession discouraged the use of olive oils based on unscientific information and recommended vegetable oil instead,” Profaci said. “As the years went by, the scientific community developed more expertise, and more international studies were done. They found countries that used EVOO had fewer incidence of heart disease and other health issues. By the 1980s, they discovered that such oil was beneficial for good health.” Suddenly, the hand-crafted heritage of Italy became sought after in America. Extra virgin olive oil has since proven effective in reducing cholesterol, lowering the risk of heart disease, preventing breast cancer, reducing Alzheimer’s risk, controlling diabetes, relieving inflammation, and enhancing skin, hair, and nails. Today, Colavita products are in 79 percent of all supermarkets nationwide.

Colavita USA is now in a modern 200,000-square-foot building on ten acres in Edison, after outgrowing its previous location near the New Jersey Turnpike in Linden. Robotic warehouse systems, fully automated filling and packing equipment, and temperature controlled rooms for the firm’s Baci/Perugina candy operations are topped by 3,600 solar panels on the roof, with a warehouse that can accommodate 36,000 gallons of oil. The building was purchased from the Gund plush toy firm, which wanted to maintain a presence for their marketing arm, so 20,000 square feet of the Colavita plant is still used by Gund. Colavita has about 75 employees on site, with a network of regional managers and food brokers throughout the country.

“We are eco-friendly,” Profaci said. “Our solar panels produce all the energy we need, but we are still tied to PSE&G in case of failure. Customers like Walmart, BJ’s, Sam’s—they all wanted to know what we were doing to improve the environment, so we installed the panels to be self-sufficient.” The business is 60 percent retail and 40 percent food service/restaurant industry. In Colavita’s major categories, EVOO is number one, followed by Balsamic vinegar, pasta, the candy products, and tomato/polenta/gnocchi. New products, introduced occasionally, “must make sense,” he said. “We have a buying committee. The decision must be made jointly between Italy and the U.S.”

New lines joined Colavita brands about three years ago, most notably Perugina Baci fine chocolates and candies. Profaci knew and socialized with the heads of the firm, headquartered in Patterson. A move to California, away from Perugina’s core Northeast customer base, caused its expansion efforts to fail. When the owners sought a new distributor back east, they came to Profaci. In the Edison plant, a 50,000-square-foot, temperature-controlled room stores Perugina products.

“We work with it every day,” Profaci said. “It’s much more successful now.”

Also introduced three years ago and climbing the charts is Colavita’s collection of premium, popularly priced wines—Pinot Grigio, Verdicchio, Pinot Noir, and Valpolicella Ripasso (all produced with Italian grapes). Wanting to market Colavita-branded wines in the United States, representatives of Terlato Wines International reached out to Profaci’s cousin, a wine distributor.

“It was love at first sight,” Profaci recalled, adding that he felt wine tied nicely into Colavita’s profile. “They had a great portfolio and a wonderful family like ours. We worked together on the concept and labels.”

New Jersey laws prevent Colavita from selling wine, so Terlato appoints distributors who make it available at Shop Rite, Kings, and other large retailers where wine sales are permitted. In addition to oils, vinegars, pastas, risotto, tomato products, flour, soups (including Rachel Ray stocks), coffee, cookbooks, and specialty items like cheeses and spices, Colavita also makes olive oil soap (an idea of another cousin with a cosmetology business in Florence), body lotion, after-sun cream, and shampoo. Specialty and customized gift baskets are so popular at holiday time that Amazon re-stocks them weekly. Trendy seasonal recipes using Colavita products are also a popular destination on the company’s website.

Among Profaci’s proudest achievements is the 18,000-square-foot Colavita Center for Italian Food & Wine on the campus of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York; with satellite locations at Greystone, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Singapore (where Profaci Sr. and Jr. personally attended the opening). The CIA had long wanted to get involved with Italian food products, but couldn’t find the right partners until they approached Profaci about 15 years ago. He and Enrico Colavita provided financial support for the school, which ran into a roadblock before opening in 2001.

“Some didn’t want it because it doesn’t look like the rest of the campus, which is all brick and stone,” he said. Things changed when he and his friend, Robert Mondavi of Mondavi wines, joined the school’s Board of Trustees.

“This building looks like it came from the hills of Tuscany. About 2,500 chefs per year graduate from that school and go all over the world to work. Hopefully they take our products with them.” (Each student must complete a rotation at the center before earning a culinary arts degree.)

In addition to the education component and a cultural center, The Colavita Center is also home to the CIA’s award-winning Ristorante Caterina de’ Medici. Profaci was inducted into The CIA’s Hall of Fame, and the John J. Profaci Legacy Scholarship was established to provide financial assistance to students with an interest in Mediterranean cuisine.

The Colavita/Fine Cooking Pro Cycling Team closed out the 2014 season with the TD Bank Mayor’s Cup in Boston, Massachusetts. The Team placed first in the Individual National Criterium
Calendar (NCC) Standings and Overall NCC Team Standings. Though based in the U.S., it competes internationally, and while originally all-male, is now all-female. Sponsoring a professional cycling team was the inspiration of John Jr., a “lifestyle proponent” according to his dad, who is also a cyclist and tri-athlete.

Colavita operations remain a family affair. Enrico’s nephew, Giovanni Colavita—three years old when he first met Profaci—moved to America from Italy in 2008 and is company CEO. Andre, Enrico’s son, is CEO of Colavita Italy. Of the Profaci sons, John Jr., an attorney, handles marketing; Joseph is chief counsel; Anthony (also an attorney) is Vice President of Sales; and Robert, COO, handles purchasing and inventory.

“Giovanni still knocks on my door for advice and still answers to his uncle,” Profaci said. “We are like brothers. We all went to Rome recently for Andrea’s wedding.”

It seems, at times, that Profaci simply never stops moving.

“I’ll never retire,” said the 77-year-old. “My hobbies are golf and cooking, but my business is not a hobby. I love coming to the office. My wife Connie [a real estate agent] and I go to our place in Florida and in a few days, I want to come back!”

Colavita USA, LLC
1 Runyons Ln., Edison / 732.404.8300 / colavita.com