Founded: 1942 as Musco Olive Products
NAIC: 311421 Fruit and Vegetable Canning
SIC: 2033 Canned Fruits & Vegetables; 2035 Pickles, Sauces & Salad Dressings
The Musco Family Olive Co. is the largest producer of canned ripe, black olives in the United States. Musco Family Olive markets Black Pearls and Early California brand black olives, the number one and number two brands, respectively; together they comprise 60 percent of the national market for branded olives. The products are available in six sizes: small, medium, large, extra-large, jumbo, and colossal. They are offered whole, pitted, sliced, or chopped, and sliced olives are available stuffed with jalapenos. The olives are canned in a variety of sizes, including institutional size for restaurants and other large-scale food preparation businesses. Also, Musco Family Olive sells ripe, black olives to other companies for their private-label brands, as well. As the largest producer of ripe, black olives in the United States, the company processes approximately 50 percent of the nation's annual olive crop. The company's primary processing facility in Tracy, California, processes more than half of California's 35,000-acre olive crop. Olive receiving centers are located in Orland, for the northern California crop, and in Lindsay, for the state's southern olive growing region. Musco Family Olive distributes it goods through retail warehouses in California, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Illinois, and Georgia.
Musco Family Olive's specialty olives include Green Pearls, Mediterranean Pearls, and Burgundy Pearls brands. The Green Pearls product line is comprised of Whole Queen and Queen Pimento Stuffed, produced with Sevillano olives, and Manzanilla Pimento stuffed and Manzanilla Pimento sliced. Mediterranean Pearls include flavorful Greek Kalamata olives and Spanish green olives stuffed with garlic or jalapenos. Burgundy Pearls are marinated in herbs, seasoning, and Burgundy wine vinegar. The company imports the packaged specialty olives from Europe, and it is the largest importer of consumer packaged olives in the United States. Imported olives account for 20 percent of annual sales. Musco Family Olive is also the largest packer of Sicilian-style olives in the United States.
Importing Italian Food Culture
Before founding the company in 1942, Nicolo Musco had spent many years in the Italian food distribution business. His family's involvement as food peddlers spanned several generations, and Musco spent his childhood learning the trade by working in the family business in Italy. As a young man, Musco traveled to villages throughout Sicily and sold olives, cheese, and other foods from a donkey-driven cart. Then in 1922, at the age of 22, Musco immigrated from Italy to New York, where he started his own business importing Italian cheeses, olives, olive oil, and other Italian food products into the United States. Musco succeeded on three principles. First, he believed in making "a good thing even better." Second, he frequently quoted a famous Italian saying, that "when the sun shines, it shines for everyone." Third, he said only eight out of ten decisions needed to be correct. In other words, product quality, customer service, and risk-taking provided the cornerstones of Musco's business philosophy. Musco operated the food import and distribution business for nearly 20 years before deciding to pursue a bigger dream.
In the early 1940s, Musco relocated to northern California, along with his wife and two children, with the intention of producing olive oil. Likely, the decision was prompted by the shortage of olive oil caused by the cessation of production in Italy in 1939 due to the war. The shortage stimulated olive oil production in California. Musco moved to Orland, California, in the San Joaquin Valley, where the climate and land resembled the Mediterranean environment of his childhood. Actually, with less humidity and cooler winters, the conditions were better for growing olives than in Italy. In 1942, Musco started Musco Olive Products, as the company was then known. He opened a processing facility and began purchasing olives from local growers. Dissatisfied with the olives available in California, which were mostly Spanish, Musco imported olive trees from Italy. Initially, he produced olive oil, under the name Chevre Oil. He also processed Sicilian-style green olives, marinated with herbs and garlic for a tangy flavor. After World War II, when olive production resumed in Italy, many California olive oil companies dissolved, because they could not compete with the low price of imported oil. However, Nicolo Musco continued to produce olive oil until 1967.
Musco Olive expanded its business significantly when it began to package and market ripe, black olives in 1960, when Musco's sons, Nicholas (Nick) and Damian, joined the business. The company succeeded as Americans' interest in Italian food, especially pizza, stimulated a larger market for ripe, black olives. Sales to individuals, restaurants, and foodservice institutions expanded the business significantly. Also, Nick and Damian refined methods of processing and packaging, allowing the company to expand production. In 1967, the company halted production of olive oil. After Nicolo's death in 1968, Nick and Damian focused the business exclusively on olive canning, packaging, and distribution. After Damian died in 1978, Nick took charge of the family business. Nick's son Felix joined the company in 1987. Throughout the growth of Musco Olive Products, Nicolo's philosophy of business continued to inspire company decisions.
Emphasis on the Mass Market
As the company grew, Nick Musco decided to add a new, state-of-the-art processing facility. During the 1970s, the advent of olive pitting technology had accelerated sales of olives, especially in the restaurant and institutional markets. Musco Olive Products built a 350,000-square-foot facility on a 350-acre site in Tracy, California, during the early 1980s. The Orland facility continued to be used as a receiving center and for processing and packaging ripe, black olives in institutional-size cans and Sicilian specialty olives. The company used the new facility to process and package ripe, black olives for the mass market. In 1993 Musco Olive Products introduced a new brand name for its black olives, Black Pearls. As a result of industry consolidation, Black Pearls became the top-selling olive in the United States. In 1998, the company itself expanded through the acquisition of another prominent company, Early California Olives. The popular brand dated back to 1965, when Early California Foods acquired the Pacific Olive Company. Between Black Pearls and Early California Olives, Musco Olive Products carried more than half of the market for branded olives nationwide. The company transferred all operations from the Early California Olives facility in Visalia to the Musco facility in Tracy, though the Visalia facility continued to be used to store ripe olive fruit until 2001.
Marketing Strategy Prompts New Brand Identity and New Products
In 2001, Musco Olive Products took the name The Musco Family Olive Co. as the company updated its brand strategy and polished its corporate identity. Tesser, Inc., a marketing agency managed by a Musco family member, handled the marketing program, which involved new products, enhanced design concepts, brighter packaging graphics, and creative advertising. The new packaging design was intended to strengthen the Black Pearls brand as a premium product. The label comprised a large picture of glossy, ripe, black olives floating on a bright yellow background. Furthermore, the marketing strategy sought to enhance the Black Pearls brand by drawing on nostalgia of childhood memories of playing with food, specifically, of placing pitted black olives on the tips of each finger. Hence, the packaging label included a picture of a hand, spread out, with olives on each fingertip and on the thumb tip. That picture, fitted on a blue background, was centered on a black stripe around the container, with the brand name blazoned in white.
The "Olive Fingers" campaign extended to television commercials, filmed in muted tones to evoke nostalgia. The advertisements followed three storylines, each featuring a character who is rejected for having olive-tipped fingers. In "Worker" a rather clumsy, olive-fingered man frustrates his coworkers, but driving home he finds a friend in a female hitchhiker with olives on her fingers and thumbs. In "Birds" an older gentleman, feeding birds in the park, is rebuffed by a child scared by his strange, olive-tipped fingers. Along comes another child who is not afraid to take bird feed from the man, because his baby sibling, slowly revealed lying in a baby carriage, has olive fingers, too. The most poignant advertisement, "Orphan," involved a lonely orphan watching another boy leave the orphanage with his new family. The head of the orphanage attempts to prepare the boy for the probability that a fitting family would not be found for a boy with olive fingers. While looking out the window, the boy smiles as he watches a couple with olive-tipped fingers approach the orphanage. The advertisements ended with the tagline, "Believe in Olive Fingers." The marketing campaign was notable as the first to promote olives through television advertising in any significant manner. Moreover, the quality of the filming won Bob Kerstetter, then of Black Rocket Euro RSCG creative agency, the best commercial director award from the Directors Guild of America for 2001.
To further promote the nostalgia of putting olives on fingertips, in 2003 Musco Family Olive issued a press release that touted such food play as a "time-honored tradition." The release cited a survey revealing that half of adults age 65 and over had eaten olives off their fingertips and that nearly half of all adults and children have done so. The company promoted olives as a healthy snack alternative for any time, not just as an appetizer or condiment. Other cross promotion involved a new shelf-extension display, so that olives could be sold in sections of the grocery store separate from the condiment aisle. For instance, since sliced black olives are often used to garnish and to add flavor to Mexican dishes, they could be sold with Mexican food by placing the shelf extender near salsa and taco seasoning.
In 2001 Musco Family Olive introduced a line of specialty olives in order to meet the consumer demand for diverse colors and interesting flavors. A team of food research experts designed the Green Pearls and Mediterranean Pearls brands. Green Pearls were made with Spanish strains of olives. Whole Queen or Queen Pimento Stuffed were made from the large Sevillano olives. Manzanilla Pimento stuffed and Manzanilla Pimento Sliced green olives were made with medium-size Manzanilla olives. Mediterranean Pearls included Kalamata olives from Greece as well as garlic or jalapeño stuffed green olives. The company introduced the specialty olives at Chicago's Food Marketing Institute trade show in May. In early 2003, after consumer testing in Cleveland and Milwaukee, Musco Family Olive introduced Burgundy Pearls, ripe olives marinated in herbs, seasonings, and Burgundy wine vinegar, prepared with a patented process. The company offered Burgundy Pearls in Classic Italian, Caesar Parmesan, and Roasted Pepper flavorings.
Principal Competitors
Bell-Carter Foods, Inc.; Goya Foods, Inc.; Pacific Choice Brands, Inc.
Further Reading
Cioletti, Jeff, "Joy from the World," Supermarket Business, October 15, 2001, p. 37.
Goldrich, Robert, "DGA Names Bob Kerstetter Best Spot Director of 2001; Coolidge Elected Guild Prez, Becomes First Woman in That Role," Shoot, March 15, 2002, p. 1.
Hartman, Lauren R., "Canning Olives the Musco Way: Musco Family Olive Ramps Up with Sophisticated Canning Lines That Meet the Growing Demand for Its Pearl Olives. Updated Packaging Sticks More Easily, Provides Optimal Visual Appeal," Packaging Digest, February 2002, p. 38.
Kawar, Mark, "Immigrants Re-Create Tastes, Sell Foods from Home," Omaha World-Herald, June 30, 2003.
Kile, Leonard, "Squeezing Out Costs; How to Reduce Logistics Costs in Your Operations," Frozen Food Age, May 2004, p. 51.
"Musco Family Olive Company Lends a Helping Hand to the Orphan Foundation of America; Top-Selling Domestic Olive Producer Helps Foster Youth Transition to College," Business Wire, November 30, 2001.
Neff, Jack, "FMI Offers Fall Plate; Dog Food to People Food to 'New' Food Marketers Like Ralston and Kraft Ready Product and Ad Launches," Advertising Age, May 14, 2001, p. 12.
"The Olive Company Settles," Modesto Bee, August 23, 2003, p. B2.
Taylor, Judith M., The Olive in California: History of an Immigrant Tree, Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press, 2000.
— Mary Tradii
