Stuff-New Hampshire

N e w H a m p s h i r e , 2 0 1 8 • S T U F F 19 42.4 Hours worked by the average New Hampshire production worker, the highest of the New England states. many of the options out there. He knew he could do better, and sell his product for less. He started the company with only $30,000. When he tells other business people that, they always want to shake his hand because "you never hear that story." Most of the initial expenses went into the building lease and the glass bottles. The employees used one 80-gallon stainless steel tank and a 200-gallon plastic tank where they did most of the mixing. At first, they were hand-bottling and hand-labeling everything. "It was an incredible amount of work," Mastroianni said. In a short amount of time, they had scaled up and learned everything the hard way. Eventually they got new equipment, such as a gravity filling bottler, a hot water heater and a semi-automatic labeler. Four years ago, Fabrizia got a legitimate assembly line and this year installed an in-line automatic labeling machine. The company has been growing at a rate of about 42 percent a year for the past decade. And the chang- es still haven't caught up to Mastroianni, who up until a few years ago when he got engaged was taking a $40,000 per year salary. "I still feel like the guy who was labeling his bottles in his parents basement," he said. (Above) Phil Mastroianni founded Fabrizia Spirits after his uncle complimented his skills at making Italian liqueur. (Below) Jared Hillerby, production manager at Fabrizia, bottles the signature limoncello. S Phil Mastroianni, 35 Chief lemon peeler & co-owner Fabrizia Spirits, Salem Makes: Limoncello, Italian margaritas Lives: Hopkinton, Mass. Education: Bachelor degree Industry salary for chief executive: $83,920 Source: U.S. BLS

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