Porino’s has a recipe for success and growth

Michael B. Dressler
Michael B. Dressler


Company: Porino’s Gourmet Foods


Owner: Michael B. Dressler


Location: 300 Rand St., Central Falls


Employees: 17 to 20, depending on season


Year founded: 1985


Type of business: Manufacturer of food products


Annual revenues: $3 million


One of the most important ingredients in the Porino’s recipe for excellence, according to President Michael B. Dressler, is consistency.


And, Dressler said, that means constant monitoring of the company’s products by two full-time chefs.


“We want our sauce to have the same taste every time,” he said. “We do as good a job as we can to make sure it’s consistent . . . When you taste a Hershey bar, it’s always the same. I want Porino’s to be the same way. I try to emulate some of these companies that are known for great quality.”


Porino’s got its start in 1985 as an offshoot of West Warwick’s West Valley Inn. So many customers were eager to take home extra servings of the restaurant’s traditional pasta sauce that owner Richard Rampino quickly expanded the company’s line to include several different varieties.


Dressler, meanwhile, had left his family’s business, the oil and shortening company Colfax, after 25 years, to produce private label salad dressings. One of his customers was Porino’s.


Rampino was killed in an automobile accident in 1997, and Dressler decided to purchase the majority shares of the company in 1999. Since then, he has worked to expand the Porino’s line to include other products, such as hot and sweet stuffed cherry peppers, hot and sweet sliced peppers and antipasto salad.


The transition from Colfax, which, when Dressler left was a $100 million company, to a much smaller operation has been quite a change, he said.


“What I’ve found at a small company is you have to do everything great,” he said. “It puts a stress on building up a company. There’s always some weakness that you have.”


Porino’s has grown steadily under Dressler’s watch, from a $1.7 million company in 1999 to the $3 million the company projects for this year. Porino’s sauces, dressings, pastas and other products can be found in Rhode Island and Massachusetts at Shaw’s, Stop & Shop, BJ’s Wholesale Club and Trader Joe’s, among others.


Dressler said he is constantly trying to expand the company’s territory, and that Porino’s can now be found in Stop & Shop stores in Connecticut. The company also produces Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci’s Mayor’s Own Marinara Sauce, and Dressler said he is also exploring the possibilities of exporting.


“Over the last year we’ve been bringing in products under our label – beans, vinegars . . . and building up more products that people can buy under our name,” said Dressler.


Currently the company is examining different cooking and packaging methods for a line of soups. Instead of cooking the soup in a kettle before packaging, like Porino’s sauces, Dressler said they are testing ways of packing that would actually cook the soup in the jar. Ultimately, though, the method may prove to be too expensive.


“You have to constantly weigh your alternatives on growth,” he said. “What’s the more efficient manner of growth without taxing your resources, especially when you’re small.”


Dressler said striking a balance between quality and profitability is a constant challenge.


“We price ourselves to be right where Five Brothers and Classico are,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how it tastes if it doesn’t price out . . . we can’t make it. Unless it’s in our price margin, we can’t make it.”


And recipes are not the only major consideration when it comes to preparing Porino’s products for market.


“It takes a lot of hard work to get a label right, to the point where you (the customers) want to pull it off the shelf,” said Dressler, who added that he requires Porino’s labels to be readable from six feet away. “If I’m not fussy, you’re going to look at the label and say ‘They could have done a lot better job with this label. The product must not be very good.’”

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