In 1949, a provisions truck jobber (Joseph Vallario Sr.) and a small wholesale food distributor (Joseph Mello), established the M & V Provision Company. The new company manufactured and sold only three products: ham capicola, prosciutino and cooked corned beef rounds. Ham capicola was a unique product produced by combining Italian capicola with boiled ham and manufactured only by M & V Provisions. Thus, M & V had the distinction of being, “The Originator’s of the Ham Capicola.
M & V Provision Co. did not employ any sales people, brokers or even order takers. Mello and Vallario were the salesmen and the production managers. Their market was limited to the Italian specialty trade and their channel of distribution was to any customer who would pay their price and pay their bills. After overcoming some startup problems, sales and profits grew constantly and M & V continued to maintain its niche in the Italian specialty market. The company grew and prospered as the new product proved to be very popular.
Eventually other companies learned the process and the realities of competition set in. To meet the challenge, M & V expanded its product line to include boiled ham and roast beef. Things were going along okay until Mello and Vallario developed differences of opinion on the direction of the Company. The strain of the two different viewpoints resulted in a split of the partnership in 1962.
Joe Mello proceeded to go in business with his son and several other former employees. They went into direct competition with M & V for the same customers. In the process they created a very fierce price war.
Joe Vallario found himself betrayed and hard-pressed to run this growing company by himself in the face of this very destructive competition. With things going downhill rapidly for both companies, Joe Vallario invited his son Paul and his nephew Tony Ciuffo to join him. In 1963 both Tony and Paul did join the company full time. Paul assumed responsibility for the manufacturing and Tony took responsibility for sales. They also shared administrative responsibilities within the company.
Eventually, through hard work and sharp marketing and administration the family team of Joe, Paul and Tony succeeded in defeating the renegade company, which went out of business shortly thereafter. M & V continued to grow and prosper. Shortly thereafter, Joe Vallario took Paul and Tony in as partners, giving them shares in the business. The trio continued together for approximately ten years. In that time M & V went through many phases.
Manufacturing was expanded dramatically with the purchase of Bedford Provisions. This brought the manufactured product line up from 5 to 14 items including: ham, bologna, liverwurst, spiced ham, ham bologna, cooked salami etc. In addition a retail outlet store was opened in Long Island, more or less, as a proving ground for M & V’s product line. The wholesale distribution of products manufactured by others was expanding also. With all this happening, M & V’s customer base kept growing and more and more room was needed. M & V bought surrounding properties and expanded into them.
In 1975 Joseph Vallario retired from the day to day operations. The running of the company was turned over to his son Paul and his nephew Tony. Paul and Tony shared control and direction of the company ever since. However, they sought his counsel on many issues and valued his opinion. Joe passed away in 1989. His wife Rose was also active in the business up until 2008 when she retired. Rose passed away in 2011.
A decision was made, for various reasons, to consolidate operations by selling off the manufacturing and the retail operation, while concentrating strictly on buying and selling products. M & V’s primary market would be other wholesalers. This included truck jobbers as well as those with their own warehousing capabilities. M & V would become the Wholesalers Wholesaler. The company has followed this principal for many years and will continue to follow it in the foreseeable future. Tony's son Michael joined the company in 1986.
In the early 1992, Northside Brand was born with just 1 item being produced with this new brand and logo. Today Northside Brand has well over 100 items in it's portfolio and continues to grow and be a force in the Foodservice trade.
In 1994, M & V’s largest competitor, located across the street from them, went out of business. M & V bought the property and moved across the street into larger, more modern facilities. The old buildings were retained for storage and were eventually converted into a modern computerized warehouse. Tony's Son in law, Joseph joined the business in 1996 followed by Paul's Son, Joseph in 1997.
In 2003 M & V moved from it's 17,000 sqft facility in Brooklyn to it's present 40,000 sqft facility in Ridgewood Queens. Managing and maintaining such a large operation requires at least 40 employees and means many hours of hard work and dedication on the part of the entire staff. Marketing, finance, business management and labor relations all come into play and require attention on a daily basis. Sales volume has grown impressively since 1963 and today M & V has become one of the major food distributors in the tri-state area.
Today, we continue to cater to the "jobber" community and are fully dedicated to giving them the absolute best experience in terms of service, quality and depth of products and competitive pricing, continues to keep our promise as the "Wholesalers Wholesaler"
As of April 5th 2019 M & V Provisions reached the 70th Anniversary, a milestone not seen by many Family businesses. Even more impressive is that M & V is still Family owned by the Vallario and Ciuffo Families and is now well into their THIRD generation of ownership, another milestone rarely seen by Family businesses.
As mentioned above, Paul and Tony's sons Joseph and Michael joined the company before the turn of the century and are the primary owners and managers of the business today and have added greatly to it's success. This team is complimented by what are probably the best line managers in the business today. Tony passed away in 2016 and Paul is semi-retired serving in an advisory role and also as a real estate manager.
When all is said and done, M & V attributes it's tremendous success to it's established old fashioned values of honesty and hard work, family participation, dedicated employees, loyal customers and their exceptionally faithful suppliers. In short, our success is a product of our partnership, our constant striving for excellence, a high level of customer satisfaction and our friendship with all of you.