Pasta company comes to Mon Valley
CHARLEROI – Once again, there is a sparkle at 100 Chamber Plaza.
“We are a producer of macaroni and cheese products, and we want to compete with the best of the best,” said Paul DeStefano, president of Quality Pasta Co., minutes before the ceremonial ribbon-cutting for his startup business Thursday morning in downtown Charleroi.
Quality Pasta, in the plaza between Route 88 and the Monongahela River, actually began operations in late August. The company purchases pasta in small bulk, then packages and delivers them as small-dish items.
This new enterprise by a Southwestern Pennsylvania newbie – DeStefano – is up and going in a former Sparkle grocery, which closed about five years ago. Quality Pasta has 15 full-time workers and several temporary employees.
“It’s been a very long road in building this,” DeStefano said, referring to renovation of the former Sparkle as well as the entire process. “The last two years, we’ve invested several million dollars. It is an exciting opportunity. People will have good jobs with benefits.”
John Mollenauer certainly was excited Thursday. Charleroi’s mayor is buoyed by recent events in his town.
“In recent months, we’ve had three special days in Charleroi,” he said. “We had Camera Day and Charleroi Means Business Day, and I don’t know whether to call this Macaroni Day, Pasta Day or Shell Day.”
Shell Day in Shelleroi?
“Let’s keep selling Charleroi,” the mayor added in closing. “We’re on a roll.”
All rolls, of course, are richly appreciated in the Mon Valley, where labor absorbed a relentless volley of blows over the past 30 years. Rep. Peter Daley, D-California, is pleased by this counterpunch.
“We’ve worked with the Governor’s Action Team,” he said, referring to a cooperative effort on the Quality Pasta project between legislators and a group of economic development professionals from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
“We don’t care whether anyone was Republican or Democrat. All we care about is creating jobs in the Mon Valley,” Daley added.
This is new turf for DeStefano. “I’m from New Jersey … don’t hold that against me,” he said, smiling slightly.
This likewise is a new world for him. DeStefano, with a quarter-century of sales experience, said this is his first business venture anywhere.
“Instead of buying something, we decided to start anew and do things the way we know how. It’s a pure entrepreneurial venture.”
He is working diligently to grow it, saying he has “been to every major Pennsylvania grocer in the past three months” in a search for clients.
Though he isn’t sure of the specific space occupied by Quality Pasta, DeStefano said “it is ample” – as it proved to be during a tour through the upgraded facility.
But why Charleroi? He credited Alex Spagno, longtime Valley resident and the fledgling firm’s vice president of operations. DeStefano said Spagno and other partners identified Chamber Plaza as a possible site.
Now, the plaza is fully occupied.
Although he is still becoming acclimated to the region, Quality Pasta’s president said he is devoted to it. And devoted to prospering there.
“We use as many local vendors as we can,” DeStefano said. “I’d like to be in a position in two or three years to have 30 to 35 workers. Expansion is all we think about.”
That’s using the noodle.