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Friday, June 25, 2010

Philadelphia Macaroni noodles around with Campbell Soup

Pasta has been very, very good for the financial health of Philadelphia Macaroni Co.

So good that Campbell Soup Co., a longtime customer, said it agreed to sell an Ohio pasta factory to the family-owned Philadelphia Macaroni.

Terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in mid-July, were not disclosed.

But Philadelphia Macaroni, which has pasta factories in Warminster; Grand Forks, N.D.; and Spokane, Wash., doesn’t intend to operate the German Village Products plant in Wauseon, Ohio. Rather, Campbell Soup will close the 65,000-square-foot factory, which employs about 30 people. The Camden food processor has owned German Village Products since 1979.

Philadelphia Macaroni spokeswoman Linda Schalles said its existing plants would make the products the 45-year-old German Village factory has been making.

In a statement, Campbell Soup said it was talking with the labor union that represents the workers at German Village about “transfer rights and severance packages.” The firm operates a large soup-supply plant in Napoleon, Ohio.

Started by Antonio Marano in 1914, Philadelphia Macaroni has come a long way since Campbell Soup first gave it a contract in the 1920s to make letter-shaped noodles for alphabet soup. But it’s still owned by the Marano family.

In the early 2000s, the Atkins and other low-carb diets slimmed the sales of pasta-makers, including Philadelphia Macaroni, Schalles said.

Declining to disclose the firm’s revenue, Schalles provided one clear sign that business is back: Philadelphia Macaroni greatly expanded the capacity of its Grand Forks and Spokane factories last year.

Quotable, Part 1

Douglas C. Yearley Jr., new chief executive officer of Toll Bros. Inc., was asked at a presentation at the Deutsche Bank Industrials Conference on Thursday how he differs from his predecessor, Robert I. Toll.

“Well, I don’t know as much Yiddish, so the conference calls may not be as entertaining,” he said.

Quotable, Part 2

During an Ernst & Young L.L.P. program on the life-science industry in King of Prussia last week, senior manager Jason R. Frederick discussed his favorite number from the biotechnology industry.

It’s “bio bucks,” the value attached to a strategic alliance between a pharmaceutical company and biotech firm, or between two biotech firms. Often, there’s a small up-front payment followed by milestone and other payments that, if everything went as planned, would add up to a multi-hundred- million-dollar amount.

It’s Frederick’s favorite number (and mine, too) because the chances are slim that any such huge amount will be paid out.

How unlikely? About the same chance, he said, “as the Sixers winning the NBA title in the next five years.”
Posted by Mike Armstrong @ 1:35 PM  Permalink | File Under: Consumer Products | | People | Post a comment
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About Mike Armstrong
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor. Contact Mike via e-mail or at 215-854-2980
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