The Griffin Report caught up with Mark Coleman, SVP of global sales for Ayer, Massachusetts-based Catania Oils, following the Private Label Manufacturers Association’s 2024 Private Label Trade Show in Chicago.
A processor and packager of plant-based oils, Catania’s products are used in the bulk ingredient, foodservice, retail and private label markets in New England and nationwide.
What is new with your company?
A few things: Catania Oils is digging deeper into what the term “quality” really means. Quality isn’t just the QC department. It involves all departments within the company.
Do we want to be a company that sells quality products or a quality company that sells products? We choose the latter.
Our new 2025 company theme is “One Quality-One Team.” This will be a fun concept to build out and, in reality, create a much stronger company that is built for future growth.
In order to keep pace with our company growth pattern, we are implementing yet another blow molder for our bottles and another production line. This will ensure customer satisfaction and on-time deliveries going forward.
What are some key takeaways from the PLMA show? What were your colleagues talking about?
The show was very well attended by our current buyers and [represented] new opportunities for Catania Oils.
[RELATED: Catania Oils Works To Meet Demand, Keep Prices Steady]
What were some sessions that you found interesting?
One event that we enjoyed was the Velocity Reception and cocktail time on Monday after the show. This event was very well attended by the buying community and really all of the people that we need to associate with.
What do you think are the biggest challenges we will face in 2025? We talked about inflation and labor shortages, please expand on these and others.
Yes, labor and inflation remain challenges, however the industry is still faced with the need for deeper relationships and partnerships between manufacturer, retailer, wholesaler and broker networks.
Truly understanding forecasts and information flow from the customer is essential to keeping product on the store shelves.
The partnership aspect is what drives brainstorming of new ideas, trust and transparency between the manufacturer and customer, which can lead to deeper investments in the manufacturing process.
What are some of the key opportunities in 2025?
How we as an industry grab hold of artificial intelligence and its possibilities will create more of a seamless communication and collaboration process between manufacturer and customers.
Catania Oils has artificial intelligence as a major initiative for 2025, and we are off to a great start with training sessions for the employee base.
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