Company: Newport Upper Crust
Location: Lincoln
Owners: Jeff Jordan, Norman Beretta and JR Beretta
Employees: 10
Type of business: Potpie maker and distributor
Year founded: 1994
Annual revenues: WND
PLEASED PIE BAKERS – potpies that is – are Jeff Jordan and Jay Beretta of Newport Upper Crust.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
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The tantalizing aromas that once filled only the 8 by 12- foot kitchen of the Beretta family are now rising from ovens across the country.
It was Joyce Beretta’s favorite chicken potpie recipe that caught the heart and Jeff Jordan, president of Upper Crust, more than a decade ago. Now, the recipe is the main ingredient for the thriving company based in Lincoln, which also produces and sells a vegetable potpie, and a pork potpie.
”Back in the early 1990s, my wife and I were engaged and I was visiting her parent’s home,” Jordan said. “Her parents were going out to dinner and we decided to heat something up that her mom had made and left in the freezer. I thought it was delicious, and I didn’t even know it was chicken potpie.”
Having a background in consumer sales and marketing with companies such as Slim Fast, Duracell and Johnson & Johnson, Jordan could immediately see the potential for marketing the chicken potpie.
By 1995, he had convinced the Beretta family to share its recipe and together they opened a retail store and production facility in Middletown.
“In the beginning we made a few pies and brought them to different markets and specialty stores,” Jordan said. “We got an incredibly favorable response, and everyone encouraged us to go further.”
Though it was a difficult decision for the family to make, Jordan said, they all felt confident their product could compete against familiar names in the potpie industry, because all of the pies are made with fresh vegetables and meats.
“We really felt as though we had a superior product, and with that superior product we could niche our way into the larger category,” he said.
Jordan said the company was founded with a vision of assisting the busy consumer in feeding themselves and their families with delicious homemade foods. As a result they made sure that all of their products were microwaveable.
”As lifestyles have changed, the need for a dual-ovenable product has increased,” he said. “Many people can’t wait and hour to cook it in the oven. People are looking for good food that is quick and we believe we meet both of those needs.”
Quality, Jordan said, is what has made the company so successful, even earning it the Best In Rhode Island designation by Rhode Island Monthly magazine in the pot pie category since 1996.
In the five years since the its inception, already the product portion of the company has grown out of the Middletown location, and moved to USDA facility in Massachusetts. Still, the company’s headquarters remain in Lincoln.
But, Jordan admits the first few years didn’t come without challenges.
”Initially we had to take the recipe, which was for three to six pies and turn it around to make 40 or 50 pies,” he said. “And at that point we were buying all of our ingredients through the local grocery stores, basically losing money with every pie.”
Now, the company has it products on shelves in a variety of stores, including Stop & Shop, Shaws, Rojacks, Dave’s, McQuades, East Side Marketplace, and other supermarkets, as well as through home delivery services like Munroe Dairy. ”It has taken a lot of patience,” Jordan said. “You have to have marketing, sales and business plans, and be comfortable in selling. Pride can’t get in the way of your growth. If you have to go out on Sundays and try and sell your product – then you do.”
To increase its visibility, the company also unveiled a billboard on Route 95 South right near the famous Blue Bug.
”We are trying to appeal to those consumers who are working in the city and see the billboard on their way home, and think of having it for dinner,” Jordan said. “In the middle of January, with temperatures in the single digits – what’s better than a chicken pot pie?”
The outdoor advertisement is just another step in Jordan’s business plan, with even further reaching advertising expected to come on radio and television. But, he is reluctant for the company to grow too fast.
”We aren’t able to justify this kind of outdoor advertising unless we have secured the distribution of our product in all major Rhode Island supermarkets,” he said. “We still believe the most effective means of advertising is word of mouth, but unfortunately it’s also the slowest.”
Jordan said the company is also exploring other options such as more distribution on the West Coast and the creation of specialty products for chain-restaurants.
And what does Joyce Beretta think of her recipe being on the shelves of supermarkets nation-wide. Jordan laughed. “It thrills her.”
