Long Island, NY – What began as a two-person retail bakery making Italian breads and pastries in Brooklyn is expanding its rapidly growing wholesale business with the launch of a new commercial bakery in West Babylon.
Sal and Jerry’s Long Island production facility is expected to employ 20-25 people within a year, doubling the company’s staff and bringing its cannolis, sfogliatelle, cookies, breads and specialty cakes to new locations throughout the metropolitan and tri-state area.
“We’re expanding by demand,” said Gianni Cracchiolo, president of Sal and Jerry’s Inc. “We have a few distributors and through the years they have pushed us and pushed us to produce more. They want to come in with trucks and buy by the pallet.”
But Sal and Jerry’s long ago maxed out its production and storage capacity at 6817 20th Ave. in Bensonhurst, where cousins Sabastiano “Sal” Buzzetta and Rosolino “Jerry” Cracchiolo launched the business in 1983.
According to Gianni Cracchiolo, filling distributors’ trucks in Brooklyn around the holidays required a row of staffers stretching from the storage rooms upstairs down the stairs to the street, handing off boxes one-by-one to the next person. The newly built, 10,000-square-foot facility on Long Island has parking and loading docks to accommodate Sal and Jerry’s distributors, as well as new mixers and baking ovens and enough storage to enable its wholesale expansion.
Through one distributor, Joseph Rutigliano & Sons, Sal and Jerry’s expects soon to be entering a group of suburban supermarkets in the tri-state area, Gianni said.
Sal and Jerry’s currently employs about 25 people in its wholesale and retail businesses, which include an Internet operation that ships cookies and other products to customers around the country. Many New Yorkers have eaten Sal and Jerry’s Italian bread, hero rolls, and pastries at restaurants and pizzerias throughout the five boroughs, including many in Manhattan’s Little Italy.
Along with expanding its production capabilities, Sal and Jerry’s is also enhancing its product line thanks to the newest baker in the family, Gianni’s brother Robert, a recent culinary school graduate who is introducing new items such as mousses and sculpted cakes to the menu.
West Babylon “is happy that we’re bringing a new business into the area,” Gianni said. The town helped Sal and Jerry’s with all the paperwork and permits, and referrals to attorneys, architects and contractors, to get the job done efficiently and in time for the 2012 holiday season.
“We constructed an entire facility in eight months,” Gianni said.
Sal and Jerry’s is proud of being a growing employer, he added.
“In an economy where jobs are not being formed, we are able to produce new jobs and bring work to the Island,” Gianni said. “We appreciate everyone’s help and encouragement as we grow Sal and Jerry’s to the next level.”
About Sal and Jerry’s Inc.
The company’s history begins in Carini, a small providence of Palermo, Sicily, where two cousins, Sabastiano “Sal” Buzzetta and Rosolino “Jerry” Cracchiolo, grew up together.
Jerry and his family immigrated to America first, settling in downtown Brooklyn, where he and his father worked in a local bakery named Mazzola. Sal also immigrated to the U.S. and began his career as a carpenter.
Eight years later in January 1983, Jerry decided to put his bakery expertise to the test. He called on Sal to join him and they began their venture. The cousins purchased an existing bakery named Realmuto on 20th Avenue in Brooklyn that offered just a handful of products, renovated the bakery and changed its name to Sal and Jerry’s Bakery.
Throughout the past 29 years, Sal and Jerry’s Bakery has experienced much expansion, growth and change, with a broadened product line that now offers a wide array of Italian cookies, traditional and specialty breads, handmade pastries, beautiful occasion cakes and more. Customers come from around the tri-state area to pick up fresh baked goods from the retail store on 20th Avenue. Sal and Jerry’s also ships many of its products to other states and countries around the globe.
Recently, Sal & Jerry’s Bakery went green, replacing two oil-burning stoves and with one electric oven and cutting the onsite carbon emissions from their baking to zero. Sal & Jerry’s continually upgrades its technology while maintaining its old-world traditions, making its products renowned not only within the Brooklyn community, but all over the world.
Source: Sal and Jerry’s Inc.
