Q&A with Mark Coleman from Catania Oils

What encouraged you to join the grocery industry?

My father was in this business—the food brokerage end of it up here in New England. I have worked in a lot of different aspects of the business. I started out bagging groceries at the age of 13 and then worked at Market Basket up here in New England where I was a grocery manager and front-end manager—it was a great experience. Then I went to the retail food brokerage end of the business and spent some time there. About 24 years ago, I found Catania. So, I have worked in all different aspects of the business.

How does the overall grocery industry compare today to when you joined?

Technology has certainly changed not just the food business but every business. The speed of the business has certainly greatly enhanced. Not as much of a people business as it used to be, so we have to be more resourceful these days. The grocery business has consolidated so much over the past 10 to 20 years—it has really shrunk in its size here in this country versus what it used to be.

Which grocery industry trends have caught your attention and how is Catania Oils addressing them?

There are so many different oils in the American grocery stores versus what you would find throughout the rest of the world. There are so many offers from regular vegetable oils to canola oil to peanut oil to sunflower, avocado and olive oils—you name it. The volume is spread out over all of these different oils, so we have made changes here at Catania. We have doubled the size of our processing tank farm to hold more oils in larger volumes. We have seen the organic and non-GMO trend really take off over the past 10 years, and it is showing no signs of slowing down. We have also accommodated more for those types of oils as well. I would say Catania has really set itself up being a fourth generation, still family-owned company to get into that fifth generation and continue to drive the company forward.

How is the company setting itself apart from competitors within the grocery industry?

I would say the same answer, really. Our scope and our post to market is really geared towards volume and says this country has a customer base that has shrunk and consolidated, which means more volume and higher volume for the bigger and better companies out there. We have had to really adapt and make our processes that much better. It’s imperative that we watch our overall cost model—oil to bottle, to processing to delivering—we have really sharpened our skill set in all of those areas.

Who has been your biggest advocate and supporter?

All of the folks over at Market Basket since I spent so much working for them years ago as a younger professional. Interestingly enough, today they are one of our biggest customers.