Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1518155
wbjournal.com | April 1, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 15 M A N U FA C T U R I N G F O C U S We are large enough to have access to most of the Top Commercial Insurance Companies, yet small enough to provide the personalized service that you deserve! With offices in Whitinsville, Grafton, Shrewsbury and Westboro, look to us for all of your insurance needs. For all of your Commercial Insurance Needs KIMBERLY WALSH Manufacturing Insurance Specialist 508-266-6459 kwalsh@gaudette-insurance.com www.gaudette-insurance.com BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Staff Writer O nce an EMT by trade, Mrs. Moriconi's Ice Cream Founder Julia Moriconi moved to Worcester 10 years ago with her husband, seeking a centralized location so he could pursue his career as a touring musician in the Northeast. Moriconi's move to the area came aer she graduated from the International Culinary Center in New York, where she excelled at coursework related to dairy products and frozen treats. is later inspired her to enroll in food safety and dairy science courses at Pennsylvania State University, a program where the most famous participants were Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, of Ben and Jerry's fame. Aer two years of frequent travel between Worcester and Happy Valley, Pennsylvania, Moriconi graduat- ed from Penn State's program in 2019. By 2020, she was laser-focused on the process of opening her own business. So focused, in fact, she hardly noticed the increasingly alarming news regarding the economic impact of COVID-19. "I was going to start a business, open- ing Memorial Day of 2020. I was doing everything I needed to do, getting ready to pull the trigger on my Small Business Administration loans. I had a [prospec- tive] location but got nothing back from the landlord for two weeks," she said. "I wasn't paying attention to the news and didn't realize we were heading right towards a shutdown." Too invested in the concept to back down, she plowed ahead. An early trial run of vending ice cream at the Shrews- bury Farmers Market resulted in her selling 100 pints in 90 minutes. e success of Mrs. Moriconi's Ice Cream hasn't slowed since, allowing her to open a manufacturing facility in the old Whittall Mills complex in Worcester, a former carpeting manufacturing plant home to a hodgepodge of small business- es and startups, including the Court- house Brew and Acoustic Java Roastery & Tasting Room. Businesses in the complex commu- nicate and cooperate frequently, but Mrs. Moriconi's provides a sweat boost to local dairy industry Moriconi's collaborative spirit extends outside the premises to the dairy farms providing her with raw ingredients. Changing attitudes about dairy consumption, price fluctuations, the rise of mega-dairy farms, and other factors have caused unprecedented hard times for small dairy farmers, Morconi said. To provide a boost for these mom-and-pop operations, Moriconi has collaborated with locals like Goss Farm in Dunstable and Maple Line Farms in Hadley for her raw materials and to launch co-manufac- tured brands, part of a pledge to use as many local products as possible. is pledge has extended outside the world of dairy; Moriconi uses com- postable recyclable packaging made in New Hampshire and locally-grown cran- berries and blueberries to make sorbets. is has attracted attention from the other side of the world. Moriconi is in talks with a company in India to help launch an American line of its products. All of the connections Moriconi has made locally makes her husband and herself glad they chose Worcester as their home. "Ever since we decided to move out here, it's been a wonderful place." she said. BEST COLLABORATION AWARD Mrs. Moriconi's Ice Cream Location: Worcester Industry subsector: Food processing Founded: 2019 Employees: 5 Top executive: Julia Moriconi, pastry chef and owner Primary products: Ice cream and sorbet What makes a manufacturer excellent? Worker safety and product safety create the backbone of manufacturing. Next, the quality of ingredients used in any item, food or not, is paramount to success. Lastly, the how. Will it be craft labor or automated labor? Excellence is defined by the human touch on some level. W PHOTO | COURTESY OF MRS. MORICONI'S ICE CREAM Julia Moriconi (right) packages up ice cream at the company's Whittall Mills facility.