An Italian gnocchi maker will build its first American plant in Union County and employ 74 people, officials announced Thursday.
Il Pastaio will manufacture its popular-in-Europe specialty pasta at the 61,000-square-foot plant in Allenwood and may double the workforce in three or four years, CEO Pierluigi Colombi said during a news conference televised online.
Colombi and local and state officials joined Gov. Josh Shapiro to make the announcement. The plant is expected to open next year.
Colombi said the company leads the world and specializes in gnocchi production under the brand Pataro. He called gnocchi “a niche in the fresh pasta sector.”
“It's made just with potatoes and water. So, it's a very light product. You could be comfortable but be also healthy,” he said. “So, we combine tradition and innovation. This is why we're leader in our sector ... We are after sustainability in every project that we run.”
Colombi said the company began 40 years ago “when two pasta artisans met and decided to open a small pasta shop in the city of Brescia in Italy.”
“They were good. They grew. They took the kids to work with them, and they kept growing,” he said. “So they went for this, for the industrialization, and the right to run two facilities with six production lines.”
Colombi said they decided to grow further and found a financial partner in the Riverside Company, a private equity fund.
“And today we are running four facilities in Italy with 14 production lines. And in two and a half years, we doubled our revenues,” he said. “We already have a business in the U.S., and we want to grow more. And we decided that the strategy is to plant a seed in the U.S. soil. And we are here for this.”
The new plant will eventually host five productions lines, he said.
Shapiro said he’s proud Pennsylvania outcompeted other states to win the plant. He said his wife, the former Lori Ferrara, is Italian and knew of the “terrific” company.
“For four decades, they've been producing some of the freshest, most delicious gnocchi in the world,” he said.
The plant will send a message that “we are open for business in Pennsylvania, we are competing again, and we are winning on these big deals,” the governor said.
County Commissioner Jeff Reber said the project “highlights the importance of welcoming and supporting quality employers as the foundation of a strong and diversified economy for our region.”
Il Pastaio's $12.5 million project includes a $111,000 state grant to train workers and up to $72,200 in state tax credits. The project will sit in the Great Stream Commons business park, part of a Keystone Opportunity Zone. To spur investment in them, the zones allow companies to avoid state and local income and property taxes.
