Giovanni Food CEO DeMent named NY Small Business Person of the Year

DeWITT — The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) today announced the selection of Louis J. DeMent, CEO of DeWitt–based Giovanni Food Company, Inc., as the New York winner of the 2013 Small Business Person of the Year award.

The SBA chose DeMent for the honor, citing Giovanni Food’s growth in sales and employees, staying power, response to adversity, and charitable contributions. DeMent was nominated by the Greater Syracuse Business Development Corporation (GSBDC).

Founded in 1934, Giovanni Food Company specialized in pasta sauces when the DeMent family opened its Italian-style restaurant in Oswego, according to an account the SBA provided in a news release.

The DeMents started making sauces on a larger scale in the 1950s before eventually expanding into other tomato-based product lines.

Second-generation owner Jack DeMent led the transition to a larger facility in Liverpool in 2006.

Within a year, DeMent died unexpectedly and his 34-year-old son, Louis, became CEO of the family business.

By 2009, Giovanni Food Company began generating some product batches at another Syracuse tomato-product manufacturer.

When that facility was for sale later in the year, Giovanni’s used SBA 504 and 7(a) loans from GSBDC and NBT Bank to purchase the manufacturing plant and its equipment, increasing capacity from one to three modern-production lines.

Nowadays, consumers can find Giovanni products on grocery and specialty-store shelves across the U.S.

The firm also packs pasta sauces, pizza sauces, salsas, and barbeque sauces for many private-label customers who distribute products worldwide.

Under DeMent’s leadership, sales have increased 49 percent over the past three years and its employee count has grown to 68.

DeMent will compete for the national honor at SBA’s National Small Business Week celebration on June 21 at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The state award was part of the recognition at today’s 15th annual Small Business Excellence Awards at the Double Tree Hotel, near Carrier Circle.

Besides the New York honor, the SBA Syracuse office also recognized SonicBrite, Inc., a dental-product distributor in Liverpool, as the district winner of the agency’s Small Business Exporter of the Year honor.

The SBA also honored Matthew Turcotte, founder of North Shore Solutions in Potsdam and Clayton, as the district winner of the SBA’s Young Entrepreneur of Year honor.

The Watertown Small Business Development Center nominated the 21-year-old for increasing sales and profit at his web-development company, according to the SBA.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com