Baking & Snack - November 2008 - 24

Forging

Ahead

Pizza entrepreneur Da Vinci Food Products hitches its wagon to a star
in the East, while adding capacity for growth in home markets.
BY LAURIE GORTON
ith loyal customers and popular, awardwinning products, Michael Mazzaferro, the
second-generation president of Da Vinci
Food Products Ltd., Montreal, QC, might
have been content to simply build on his company's position as Canada's biggest private-label pizza producer. But
he has more ambitious objectives in mind and in sight.
His vision is why Da Vinci products were served at the
Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games. These pizzas represented no mere one-time product placement but the
launch of a new venture: Beijing Italo Food Co., Ltd., acquired by Da Vinci within the past year.
What's a Canadian pizza maker doing in China? In a
word: growing.
"The North American pizza market is mature,"
Mr. Mazzaferro said, pegging industry sales at roughly
C$40 billion. "Expansion domestically is challenging, so
a company with growth aspirations needs to look outside its comfort zone, and China is definitely outside the
comfort zone."
Da Vinci managers have been studying the Far East market for the past three years. "We loved what we saw," Mr.
Mazzaferro said. Participation at regional food shows and
a major market study backed up his impression. Although
international markets currently account for about 5% of
Da Vinci's total volume, according to company estimates,
that piece of the pie will increase substantially when the
Beijing plant ramps up production later this year. While
still in start-up, the business has already opened additional
contacts in China and, more recently, Japan and Korea.
"Having Beijing as a platform, we can look at markets
in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore and beyond," said Roger J. McGraw, executive business development, Asia. "The market need for quality products is

BAKING & SNACK / November 2008

already there. The potential is quite dramatic."
India and the Middle East also beckon. "These regions
have carbohydrate-based staples in their diets - naan
in India and pita in the Mideast," noted Franco Cammuso, managing director. "That makes for interesting
markets for us."
"Pizza was born in Italy, but it grew up in North America, and now it's traveling the world," stated family patriarch Frank Mazzaferro.
STAGING GROWTH. Da Vinci Food Products has also
been busy in its home markets, increasing its domestic
business at double-digit rates since 2004, according to
Michael Mazzaferro. The company today is a C$40 million business, producing fresh and frozen topped pizzas,
pizza crusts, calzones, pizza-related products and dough
balls, along with a broad range of toppings including
sauces, pepperoni, Italian sausage, deli meats and freshpacked crushed tomatoes. Besides its international ventures, the Montreal plant supplies three-quarters of its
output to domestic retail markets, 10% to club stores and
10% to food service.
In 2006, Da Vinci invested C$9 million in its future
at home, renovating its 110,000-sq-ft facility to add a
new European processing line, for which it had a 3-year
North American exclusive on the technology. Within a
year of the new line's start-up, its calzones won a major
award. The Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors
recognized Da Vinci with a 2007 Canadian Grand Prix
New Product Award for President's Choice brand StoneBaked Calzones among prepared food and entrees in the
private-label category.
The 2006 plant expansion also tripled on-site freezer
storage capacity to hold 3,500 pallets, primarily for fro-

Baking & Snack - November 2008

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