Jersey move for Amoroso's W. Phila. bakery? UPDATE
And move 150 jobs, plus drivers and bosses -- to Jersey?
Jersey move for Amoroso's W. Phila. bakery? UPDATE
Joseph N. DiStefano
UPDATE: A couple of Amoroso's workers tell me the company arranged to open a new bakery in Bellmawr, Camden County, after talks with New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno last year.
"We have heard" there was interest in moving to Bellmawr, but there has been no formal proposal to the borough council, planning or zoning boards, or any other borough office, borough clerk Chuck Sauter told me, after checking with Mayor Frank Filipek. The town is home to an Interstate Bakeries (Wonder Bread) warehouse depot and store, and the Tosti specialty-breads bakery.
"We haven't received any word that Amoroso plans to move to New Jersey," was all Guadagno spokeswoman Ernest Landante Jr. would say.
YESTERDAT: Amoroso's, the century-old, family-owned Philadelphia bread-roll maker that supplies hundreds of hoagie shops and grocers with the region's distinctive soft sandwich rolls, plans to move from its 50-year-old plant at 845 S. 55th Street, according to workers and the bakers' union president.
The company says they are going to move, in a couple of years. According to them, "they don't have a facility yet," Barry Fields, president of bakery workers' union Local 6, told me after I called to confirm reports from employees.
The union is currently in negotiations for contract renewal for 150 workers at the bakery, which is also the hub for dozens of daily-delivery drivers. Fields said the bakers average $15-$16 an hour.
Employment was higher when the Amorosos made rolls for Wawa Inc. stores at the site. But that work moved to the Omni bakery, owned by a partnership between cousins Daniel and Leonard Amoroso and Atlantic City's Mulloy family, in 2008, after New Jersey lured the new bakery, which eventually employed over 350, with tax breaks and $14 million in cut-rate financing.
(Around the same time, Pennsylvania was investing over $30 million in cheap loans for Tastykake's new dessert bakery in South Philadelphia, now owned by Flowers Foods.)
Two Amoroso workers told me they hear Amoroso has a Camden County site in mind and that state officials visited the West Philly site last fall to work out financial incentives. Len Amoroso wasn't immediately available for comment.
It's horrible bread, no great loss.— cognoscenti- I kind of like it. Try being away from Philly for a while and you will appreciate it more. [...]
- Instead of all of these special tax deals that almost always go wrong, how about we review our tax laws and regulations to enable all to compete fairly on our own merits without having to rig special schemes for some that are unfair for others?— tr88
- amen tr88— BarryG
- sarcones— lonniesg
- Terrible rolls, extremely overrated— cmoney
- How about the old Tastykake bakery on Hunting Park? That area needs jobs and it could probably get started up pretty quickly again.— NickFromGermantown
- Once again, a taxpaying firm and its workers plan to decamp. When will we adopt a real tax reform that attracts businesses without huge tax subsidies? A land value tax is needed now. Pretty soon, we only have small businesses and non-profits like Penn and Temple.— Joshua911
- I Called it!!!! About 18 months ago when they turned all the Drivers/Routes into Independent Contractors... ALL THE COMMENTS ARE NAYSAYERS WHO OBVIOUSLY DON'T GIVE NUTTERS NOSE ABOUT PHILLY. STOP COMPLAINING AND FIGHT FOR IT IF YA LOVE IT, OTHERWISE... STAY SILENT AND GET OUT OF THE WAY, LEAVE AND MAKE WAY FOR THOSE WHO WANNA SAVE THIS TOWN.. YA WANNA COMPLAIN... GO TO DETROIT AND VISIT THE GUY FROM AMERICAN PAWN AND SEE HOW FAR YA GET :) AND THE ROLLS AREN'T THAT BAD, TRY TEXIERAS THERE WORSE LIKE RUBBER.— ArseoleChris
- A perfect example of a supremely inferior product living off a name.— CiceroSpuriousDeodatus
- Worst rolls ever. It's like chewing on rubber.— wislad
- Hey Nick from Germantown....have you ever been in Tastykake's old factory. You have to fight the roaches and rats off with a baseball bat. Get serious. Between the crumbling infrastructure and the crime element, any business would be crazy to locate inside the city limits. God bless you Mr. Nutter. You are a good man, but you are fighting a losing battle. Shame on the parents of the hoodlums that roam your streets.— sportsfan29
- There are already plans for the TASTY Baking factory its owned by the Grasso family ie metro development that is doing the shopping center on the other portion of the Tasty Baking property— genius1977
- The bread at Wawa sucks since it has been delivered from Omni bakery. The original Amoroso rolls baked in Philadelphia are still pretty good.
- Sarcones is not much better. Please, that bread is made with inferior wheat and ingredients, too. Go to Italy and see how REAL southern style Italian bread tastes. Another establishment living off a name and patrons who don't know what good southern Italian bread should taste like.— cognoscenti
