LONGUEUIL, Que. – The news from the Prairies last week was not good for Montreal pasta maker Eddy Petaccia.
When Statistics Canada predicted that production of durum wheat will be down 11 percent this year because of poor weather, it could mean only one thing for durum users.
Higher prices.
“We keep an eye on what happens on the Prairies,” says Petaccia, who with his brothers has built Grisspasta Products Ltd. in this Montreal suburb. “Durum prices are very important to us, as much as half the price. Price increases take away our margins.”
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Here, on the pasta floor where semolina ground from prairie durum is mixed with water and forced through presses to produce an array of pasta products, talk of farmer gloom because of low Canadian Wheat Board prices is met with strained smiles.
The plant takes delivery of two 30-tonne loads of semolina every day to service the 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation.
Semolina is the single largest cost for Grisspasta and in a low-margin business, input price fluctuations can mean the difference between profit and loss.
Cause and effect
“Prices are not going down for us but up,” said Petaccia. “We had a break for three or four months awhile back when (durum) prices were lower and we had good results. When prices fall, that’s when we make our money. When durum prices go up, we often have to absorb it for awhile because you can’t just put prices up in the stores. It is a very competitive business.”
But nothing, not even high wheat prices and tight margins, could deter the Petaccia brothers from being in the pasta industry. It is a family tradition.
It is evident as company secretary-treasurer Willy Petaccia, 42, shows a visitor around the plant, describes the machines and explains how an experienced eye can tell as much about the quality of the pasta being produced as all the high-tech, expensive machines.
“The real monitor is in my eyes,” he smiles. “I guess I inherited my grandfather’s pasta blood.”
Great-grandfather Petaccia started a small pasta plant in Italy and generations of the family since have worked in the industry.
More than 20 years ago, the family moved to Canada, settling first in Vancouver and then moving to Montreal in 1978.
Father and brothers Eddy, Willy and Hector worked hard, saved their money and a few years later, started a 2,000 sq. foot pasta plant.
Grisspasta had been born.
It took a few years to grow enough to hire their first employee and a few more years to expand.
Now, although it remains the smallest of Canada’s established pasta operations, the Longueuil plant has grown to 60,000 sq. feet with a workforce of up to 100.
Eddy talks of more expansion plans, although reports of new pasta plants coming into Canada with government assistance touches a raw nerve.
“We worked hard and built this business ourselves without a penny of subsidy from anyone,” he said. “I get more than angry when I hear of things like this. Anyway, this is a good company. We make good pasta.”
