Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 42
ROTELLA'S ITALIAN BAKERY
Nine members of
the family oversee
day-to-day operations.
From left:
Helena (Jacobsen)
Anderson, Dean
Jacobsen Sr., Lou
Rotella Jr., Jim
Rotella, Gina Rotella,
Rocky Rotella, Dean
Jacobsen Jr., John
Rotella and Lou
Rotella III.
things up, but at the end of the day, he trusted them
more than outside voices.
" Any time I wanted to do something different or make
changes, he was open to it, but I had to monitor and
make sure the results were there, " Jim Rotella explained.
" He would always say that when you make a change, you
have to see how it affects everything around the change,
and he was right about that. "
This attitude of empowering the next generation continues
even to this day as Lou Rotella Jr. has passed on dayto-day
operations to the fourth generation, his sons Lou
Rotella III, chief operating officer; John Rotella, general
manager; and Jim's son, Rocky Rotella, director of sales.
" If I'm doing everything, or if Dean or Jimmy are doing
everything, and we have our thumbs on them, how
are they going to learn? How are they going to make decisions? "
Lou Rotella Jr. explained. " You have to let them do
the job, first with you watching over them and answering
questions, and then you don't need to. They're doing it. "
With expanded distribution in Nebraska and Iowa,
Rotella's made another big leap in its product portfolio: frozen
bread. This would enable the bakery to go beyond its
Midwest region and begin selling to customers nationwide.
" I realized we were a fresh business trying to compete
against frozen, and I just asked, 'Why couldn't we do
that?' " Lou Rotella Jr. said. " In 1983, we started to test it,
and that's what allowed us to go nationwide. "
Over the decades, Rotella's has consistently grown its
business regardless of market forces and found plenty of
demand for its products. Mr. Jacobsen Sr. attributes that
to multiple factors: a high-quality product and the hard
work of the local and national sales staff.
" We were always a regional bakery,
but now we're more national, " he said.
" With that
team out there pushing
those sales, the demand has grown a lot
more than what we had before because
we just have more territory. "
With the explosion in business in the
1980s came the need again for more
space and more investment. In 1989,
Rotella's moved to its current location
in La Vista, Neb. The expansion didn't
stop there. Today the 40-acre campus
includes 500,000 square feet of production
space. The South bakery produces
buns, rolls, hoagies, ciabatta and bread.
The East facility houses a bun and roll
Buns exit the 120-foot tunnel oven and head
back upstairs to the spiral cooler.
42 Baking & Snack February 2023 / www.bakingbusiness.com
http://www.bakingbusiness.com
Baking & Snack - February 2023
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - February 2023
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - Intro
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 1
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - FC1
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - FC2
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 2
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 3
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 4
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 5
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 6
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 7
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 8
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 9
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 10
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 11
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 12
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 13
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 14
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 15
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 16
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 17
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 18
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 19
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 20
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 21
Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 22
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Baking & Snack - February 2023 - 27
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