Catania gets an oil change
Ayer oil company refuels with new development, dozens of locally-sourced jobs expected
AYER >> With the snip of some very large scissors, Catania Oils unveiled the company’s latest expansion: a 51,000-square-foot development that has promised to increase productivity and bring new jobs to the local community.
With Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito in attendance Tuesday morning, alongside other state, local and business leaders, the edible oils supplier celebrated the completion of a project that broke ground just over a year ago. Catania President Joseph Basile referred to the new building and its future as the latest of many
“exciting milestones” for the company.
“Catania Oils is a fourth-generation business that started over 100 years ago — and throughout those years, each generation has been charged with improving the company for the benefit of our customers, employees and future generations of family,” Basile said. “We’ve expanded, explored new ways to reach our goals and I’m proud to say that, today, we’ve stayed true to that goal once again.”
While, at the moment, the site serves more as a warehouse, Basile said the space, in time, would be “transformed” into more of a “manufacturing space.” That space is set to increase Catania’s own production output while also further expanding the company’s ability to co-pack with manufacturing partners.
Basile said the expansion of operations would create 35 new jobs over the next five years. He said he believed that number to be a “conservative estimate.”
“We might have 35 new jobs over the next 18 months,” Basile said, as he stressed the importance of those jobs on the local economy. He also said the company would prioritize hiring from Ayer and other nearby communities in order to further aid those local economies.
“That local, direct impact on the economic front is important to us,” Basile said. “These communities have been good to us and we want to help support them in turn.”
That dedication to the community has remained true throughout the company’s history, which goes as far back as 1900. Founded by an older Joseph Basile after he emigrated to America from Sicily, Basile said the company’s commitment to “authenticity” as well as
its workers and customers has never wavered.
As she shared some of her own family history — her great grandfather, Francesco, emigrated to the United States and started his own construction business — Polito congratulated the Basile family and said she was “proud” to be there in support of a family that realized the “American Dream.”
“I share the pride that is felt here today,” Polito said. “The work ethic, the pride in your name and what it means, the reputation that you’ve earned, the people who have helped you and hurt with you that you respect and admire and want to keep safe — all of that is wrapped into how (the Basile) family has continued to succeed today.”
“That continued success is a culmination of sacrifices made by their family and everyone that is here today. So, I just want to say thank you for being stewards of tradition, of the notion and reality for many people that come to this country in search of a better life. That the American Dream is still alive and present and available for those that want to position their compass on hard work and accomplishment,” she said.
State Rep. Dan Sena thanked Catania and the Basile family for their continued dedication to the Ayer community and their positive impact on the local economy.
“It’s great to be here celebrating growth, another step forward for (Catania Oils),” Sena said. “And, as your representative, I’m just so grateful to see more jobs created because of that growth.”
Basile and Sena also took a moment to recognize Catania workers and the “tremendous effort” they put in every day. Sena called them the “backbone that has kept the economy moving.”
The expansion was made possible in part by a Tax Incentive Finance agreement passed by Ayer at the April 2021 town meeting. When put to a vote, the TIF received unanimous support — something that Town Manager Robert Pontbriand said “isn’t seen often.”
“There was a standing room of applause after that vote,” he said. “In my 20 years of municipal service, I’ve never seen anything like that — and it was a testament to the partnership between the residents of Ayer, the Basile family and all of the workers involved in this important project.”
Pontbriand went on to emphasize that “partnership” between the community and Catania and said it gave him “great pleasure” to represent Ayer at the celebration.
“The success of any town is largely measured by the success of its businesses and how the town can work with those businesses — and I can’t think of a better example than the partnership between Ayer and Catania Oils,” Pontbriand said.
Going forward, Basile said he hoped to further promote that partnership and said the essence of that partnership has long held true to Catania’s “core values” as a company.
“(Catania Oils) exists to make an everlasting impact on our community, our employees and our customers,” he said. “Being a business, it’s one thing to be for profits and selling product and creating revenue, but we’re a family business — there’s a deeper connection to the community relative to who we are and why we’re here and what we’re all about.”