125 Years of Legacy

Video Transcript

Narrator: In 1900, Giuseppe Basile crossed the Atlantic with nothing but grit, a few barrels of oil, and a vision.

Joseph Basile: My great-grandfather, who was the first generation, he had that vision and determination to come here to America and start [a] family business.

Anthony Basile: The ship rocked and rolled with a bad, violent storm, all the barrels were destroyed.

Joseph Basile: He really arrived here with nothing

Anthony Basile: But he managed to immigrate to Boston where he started up the business.

Joseph Basile: My grandfather used to go to school with a burlap sack bag that had cans of oil in it. He’d go house to house trying to sell, you know, customer by customer. He would try to save money by even sleeping in his truck. It was a lot of, you know, hard grit, a lot of sweat, a lot of tears

Robert Basile: Back then, they wore many hats. We had trucks that were held together by band-aids and elastic.

Narrator: Through world wars, recessions and reinvention, the Basile family turned a small neighborhood business into a Northeast powerhouse.

Joseph Basile: My grandfather, as the second generation, is really the one that established a solid, you know, foundation that we’ve built upon.

Anthony Basile: I used to come into work with my father and we would get rail cars of tomato products and we’d have to unload them one at a time. Very, very, very difficult work.

Robert Basile: My brother, Tony, me, myself, we all during the summer would help him out and just enjoy it. I always had a love for trucks, mainly because I knew when I was out there it was helping my dad out growing the business.

Anthony Basile: The lessons my father gave me is very simple. Catania can’t see, can’t hear. You have to fight for her. This is my brother Joe. He was the president of the company after my father gifted the business to us. My brother passed away in 1988 due to a long illness, and I became president of the company. That’s my father, in the front of the store.

Joseph Basile: Joseph Basile passed down more than a business. He passed down a work ethic, a love of craft, and the belief that quality always rises.

Robert Basile: This is me, this is my dad. My dad taught us everything. He taught his quality, honesty, loyalty and service. [I] never had any doubt in my mind that I would be a part of the business.

Anthony Basile: When I was very young, we were the largest distributor of imported and domestic tomato products in the New England area. And I realized that 80% of the truck was tomato products and 20% oil. And I kept saying to myself, “We’re in the oil business here. We’re not in the tomato business.”

Narrator: In the eighties, Anthony Basile pushed the legacy forward, streamlining operations, modernizing the plant, and going all in on one thing: oils.

Joseph Basile: And that was really a huge decision. My father’s generation, which is the third generation, really grew the business out into the various channels that we operate in today.

Anthony Basile: When we built the building, it was the biggest expansion we’d ever done. And so at the end of that construction, my father was, uh, fairly aged, at that time. I was looking at him and I say, “Dad, what are you thinking right now?” And he said, “Not my wildest dreams did I ever think I would realize that I would live long enough to see something like this.” And that was my greatest accomplishment, knowing that he lived to see his baby grow up.

Narrator: Catania Oils is a 400,000 square foot operation.

Anthony Basile: The fourth generation wanted their turn at the wheel, and they keep raising the bar every single year.

Narrator: Today, Catania Oils is the northeast’s leading packer of plant-based oils for retail, food service establishments, and food manufacturers.

Robert Basile: I always thought that if we kept going with the determination and the drive that we had, that we’re gonna get there.

Stephen Basile: If you open up your pantry, you would find our oil in breads, Stacey’s pita chips, Gorton’s fish sticks, Utz potato chips, Ken’s salad dressing, frozen foods, cakes, oils from all over the globe.

Narrator: Now in its fourth generation, the company is led by Joseph Basile and eleven hands-on family members. With a proven team of experts, and a $500 million operation, Catania is built to scale and built to last.

Joseph Basile: Over time, what was critical for my generation was recognizing that we just couldn’t do it on our own. Leveraging equipment, automation, automation with new technology like AI. So as you go into our lab, any shipment that comes in is going through a rigorous testing protocol to ensure that the quality is of our specifications and what we’re sending to our customers and is, in fact, what it says it is.

Narrator: Trusted by brands like Gorton’s for over 67 years, Catania delivers more than oil; it delivers consistency, craft, and care.

Lisa Webb: When we look at what suppliers we want to do business with, there has to be trust. Catania has been one of our oldest and dearest suppliers. It truly is a partnership, The key to the success is really just collaboration. They’re just like family.

Stephen Basile: Our family has been doing this for 125 years.

Robert Basile: Today, 125-year-old family-owned businesses - not many family owned businesses go to the fourth generation.

Stephen Basile: “We Are Family” is one of the cornerstones of our culture here. We just come to work every day, roll up our sleeves and do what needs to be done. We love this place just like my grandfather loved it.

Anthony Basile: After my brother passed away, we started a golf tournament to benefit The Jimmy Fund.

Archival footage: Cancer knows no boundaries.

Stephen Basile: When we started the Joseph D. Basile Memorial Golf Tournament 30 years ago, we never really knew what it was gonna be.

Anthony Basile: Today we have donated $1.8 million to the Jimmy Fund.

Stephen Basile: I think that everybody’s super proud as far as what this has become and what it’s meant for us.

Joseph Basile: A piece of advice that actually goes back to my grandfather is a saying that he had, “I don’t like cobwebs.” And what he meant by that is: don’t be complacent. Always be willing to adjust and to change.

Stephen Basile: When I think of the future of Catania oils, it’s bright.

Robert Basile: Growing up with the Basile family, I wanted to make my dad proud of me and we kept that drive going.

Stephen Basile: We have the fifth generation coming in. We have a hunger to continue to grow the business in any area where we can affect change.

Narrator: It began with a burlap sack and a vision. Catania Oils is 125 years strong, and just getting started.