Food for thought

Thomas Lipari’s first innovation at Lipari
Foods Inc. came when he took a summer
job at his father’s company, filling bottles
with barbecue sauce. The first day, he
filled bottles one at a time; by the end of
the week, he discovered that with a few
supplies, he could fill multiple bottles at
once, building inventory and putting himself out of a job.

Today, he’s president and CEO, and his
innovation hasn’t stopped. Through the
1990s, the deli business was booming and the
food distributor supplied delis with hams and
cheeses. But those items were perishable
and there were no refrigerated trucks yet, so
Lipari developed a system of insulated panels
to keep food cold, making it the first
company in the state to deliver frozen
dough.

When the company began expanding its
distribution range, Lipari developed a shuttle trucking system to address the constraint
that drivers could only drive eight hours at a
time. Under his system, a truck left the distribution center loaded with goods and
drove four hours toward its destination;
another truck with an empty trailer drove
from the other direction. When they met,
they switched trailers and turned around,
with the empty truck returning to the distribution center to be loaded again.

Despite all his success, Lipari is always
focused on the next growth opportunity. He
believes that what has been accomplished in
the Midwest can be duplicated in other
regions, and that his family’s small business,
which has grown into a sizable regional distributor, has the potential to develop into a
national distribution network.

HOW TO REACH: Lipari Foods Inc., www.liparifoods.com or
(586) 447-3500