Travaglini
An Italian company that designs equipment to cure meats and other delicacies has decided the Lehigh Valley is a cut above the rest.
In choosing its first U.S. site, Travaglini bought a building at 495 Business Park Lane in Allentown that now serves as the company’s homebase to service its custom-designed machinery that dries, smokes and ferments cured meats, cheese and fish.
The avant-garde equipment is tailored to clients’ specific products, accounting for humidity, temperature and other environmental factors needed to cure food but faster and more homogeneously than other technology. The process is so precise that it can be used on high quality foods such as Prosciutto and Parmesan cheese.
Travaglini, based in Italy, bought an Allentown building that will serve as the company's home base to service its custom-designed equipment.
The entry point for many internationally owned companies is New York City, where consultants are located, and many are directed to New Jersey where real estate is a bit cheaper, company officials said. Travaglini looked further east into Pennsylvania because it’s within a short distance of three major production plants it services.
The Lehigh Valley is connected to major highways, has access to robust cargo transport at Lehigh Valley International Airport and is one hour away from direct flights to its home base in Italy. The cost of doing business was much cheaper than closer to New York City, and the Lehigh Valley is near schools that produce technical talent his business needs and a market that has a critical mass of food production companies. Those companies serve as both a place that draws skilled workers to the area and potential clients.
“It was like an onion. Every time we peeled back a layer, we saw another advantage to choosing the Lehigh Valley,” said Daniel Negri, Travaglini branch manager.
Travaglini traces its roots back to Milan in 1950 with founder Travaglini Arnaldo. Now a third-generation company, Travaglini is a leader in planning and production of smoking, fermenting and drying equipment along with loading/unloading and movement systems for high trolleys which allows space optimization in order to maximize a plant’s production capacity. Travaglini’s equipment is distributed in over 54 nations, and it employs 135 people worldwide.
