The following year it purchased Hickman Coward & Wattles, a $70-million-a-year food service division of Peter J. sausage-making plant in Cheektowaga, New York, a Buffalo suburb, in 1988. The company acquired the former Joseph Malecki Corp. This gave Sorrento the backing to pursue other acquisitions. Société des Caves de Roquefort, a subsidiary of the French firm Source Perrier S.A., purchased a majority interest in Sorrento in 1988. consumption of cheese per person rose from 13 to 25.3 pounds between 19 and consumption of Italian varieties increased from 2.3 to 8.1 pounds over the same period.Īcquisitions, Expansion, and Divestitures, 1988-97 The company had benefited from the rise of popularity in such cheeses. Sorrento's facilities were capable at this time of producing 150,000 pounds of cheese per day, most of it mozzarella, ricotta, and provolone. also had another subsidiary, Sorrento Express, Inc., functioning as a common-carrier trucking company. Beres & Son, a milk processor that, in addition, made juices and fruit drinks and produced private-label goods for national companies selling to schools and the government. Sorrento, Inc., the parent firm, was the Buffalo area's fifth largest private company in 1988, having recorded sales volume of $175 million in 1986 and $215.6 million in 1987, when it acquired California Cheese, a San Jose, California, cheesemaker. was founded in 1986 to distribute food products to restaurants, institutions, and other clients. The company had estimated sales of $32 million in 1980. Louis's son Joseph became president and chief executive officer of Sorrento Cheese in 1978. In 1960 Sorrento's 18 employees moved to the location on South Park Avenue in Buffalo that was still the company home in the late 1990s. Afternoons were devoted to traveling throughout western New York, selling the products of the morning's labors. He bought fresh cans of milk every morning and spent the early hours making ricotta and mozzarella. Russo made cheese the old-fashioned way for his Sorrento Cheese Co., established in Blasdell, New York, a suburb of Buffalo. Sorrento was founded in 1947 by Louis Russo, an immigrant from Sorrento, Italy, who brought with him a family tradition of making soft Italian cheese. and in 1992 by another French food firm, Besnier S.A. Sorrento was acquired in 1989 by Source Perrier S.A. markets through a well-developed network distributing the company's Sorrento and Precious brands. This product was available in 75 percent of U.S. On its 50th anniversary, in 1997, Sorrento ranked sixth in cheese production in the United States and was the nation's leader in sales of Italian cheeses.

SICs: 2022 Natural Processed & Imitation Cheeseīased in Buffalo, New York, Sorrento, Inc. Incorporated: 1947 as Sorrento Cheese Co.

Part skim mozzarella cheese