Can-do attitude feeds firm’s success

Lisa Marie Mattiello, owner of Pranzi Catering & Events, likes to boast there’s no challenge her company can’t handle. From birthday parties to corporate receptions, they do it all.
“If you come to us with an idea for an event,” she said, “we can help create the menu, the theme, everything. We’re fully licensed to serve alcohol. We can handle the full decor, from tablescapes to up-lighting. We have full-time floral workers on staff. We can provide the valet service. If you’re getting married in a field, we can bring the tent, the generator, the lighting.”
That kind of can-do attitude has made Pranzi Catering one of the fastest-growing companies in Rhode Island. The Providence business has been expanding by 25 percent a year for several years now. They recently moved into renting event equipment, and the need for more space pushed them to relocate a third time.
And Mattiello was honored as the 2014 Rhode Island Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“We do thousands of events a year, including about 140 weddings,” Mattiello said. “We do work for most of the state’s major corporations. … We handle events for Providence College and Brown University and a lot of other schools. … And for Brown we do WaterFire receptions.”
Mattiello launched the company in 1997, after working for a number of years in the food-service industry. “I’ve worked in culinary jobs all my life,” she said. “I started as a dishwasher in an East Side restaurant, and worked my way up to prep cook and line cook and sous chef in a Newport establishment. It just evolved from there. I started this company with three employees; now we have 90, and we just moved into a new state-of-the-art facility with a kitchen and a showroom.”
Through it all, Pranzi Catering has always been very much a family-run operation. “My husband, Nick, is chief finance officer, and I’m not in the kitchen anymore either. I handle main sales and event planning,” Mattiello said. “My daughter Nicole is director of marketing and does sales as well. My son Nicholas is director of operations. My son Michael works in the kitchen as a chef and provides deejay services as well. My mother helps out, too.” In the food-service industry, success is always the result of long hours and hard work. But Mattiello says other factors have boosted the business as well. One of those things is the Rhode Island location.
“Newport is a destination. Bristol is a destination,” the owner said. “We have people coming to us from the Massachusetts and Connecticut markets.”
The state’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage has brought in business, too. Since the change, the company has handled a number of gay and lesbian weddings.
Keeping abreast of changing trends is always a challenge in the catering business, according to Mattiello. She credits the Internet with expanding people’s tastes.
“Clients are better educated and more aware of what they want,” she said. “People are more health conscious, too. We’re getting more and more requests for vegan and vegetarian meals. And they want to know we’re serving sustainable foods. We try to serve as much local farm-fresh food as we can get our hands on.
Staffing is another challenge. While there’s no shortage of Rhode Islanders searching for work, Mattiello says finding people with the right training and skills can be a struggle. One resource is Johnson & Wales University, which offers one of the country’s top culinary-training programs. The company regularly takes on interns from the school.
While Mattiello loves being in Rhode Island, like many businesspeople she’s quick to note expenses are a big issue in the state. “The tax rate is crazy, and Providence has the highest taxes,” she said.
Pranzi Catering now has experience with every sort of event – corporate gatherings, social gatherings, weddings, bereavements, birthday parties. And Mattiello doesn’t expect to stop for a rest anytime soon.
“This business never stops growing,” she said. “It keeps us working 24-7.” •

COMPANY PROFILE
Pranzi Catering & Events
OWNERS: Lisa Marie Mattiello
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Catering and full-service event planning and rentals
LOCATION: 10 Rosario Drive, Providence
EMPLOYEES: 90
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1997
ANNUAL SALES: WND

No posts to display