An Italian company that designs equipment to cure meats and other delicacies has decided the Lehigh Valley is a cut above the rest. 

In choosing its first U.S. site, Travaglini bought a building at 495 Business Park Lane in Allentown that will serve as the company’s homebase to service its custom-designed machinery that dries, smokes and ferments cured meats, cheese and fish.

The avant-garde equipment is tailored to clients’ specific products, accounting for humidity, temperature and other environmental factors needed to cure food but faster and more homogeneously than other technology. The process is so precise that it can be used on high quality foods such as Prosciutto and Parmesan cheese.

Travaglini, based in Italy, bough an Allentown building that will serve as the company's home base to service its custom-designed equipment. (Photo Courtesy of Travaglini)

“Travaglini is an example of the innovative, internationally owned companies that see the strategic advantage of locating in the Lehigh Valley where businesses enjoy significant access to the U.S. market at a cost that is more affordable than locations closer to New York City,” said Kristin Cahayla-Hoffman, Vice President of Business Development and Attraction at Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC). “We’ve seen a notable uptick in interest from foreign-owned companies in the post-COVID economy.”

The entry point for many internationally owned companies is New York City, where consultants are located, and many are directed to New Jersey where real estate is a bit cheaper, company officials said. Travaglini looked further east into Pennsylvania because it’s within a short distance of three major production plants it services – one in Hazleton, one south of Philadelphia and the other in Mount Olive, New Jersey.  That puts the Lehigh Valley in the middle, providing Travaglini experts quick access to those clients.

Daniele Negri, Travaglini project manager, said that access is key to the company choosing the Lehigh Valley as its first location in the United States.

The Lehigh Valley is connected to major highways, has access to robust cargo transport at Lehigh Valley International Airport and is one hour away from direct flights to its home base in Italy. The cost of doing business was much cheaper than closer to New York City, he said. In addition, the Lehigh Valley is near schools that produce technical talent his business needs and a market that has a critical mass of food production companies. Those companies serve as both a place that draws skilled workers to the area and potential clients.

“It was like an onion. Every time we peeled back a layer, we saw another advantage to choosing the Lehigh Valley,” Negri said.

What sweetened the deal, he said, was the quality of life. He said the Lehigh Valley felt like home, with the landscape and climate nearly identical to Emilia-Romagna, a northern Italian region where Bologna, Modena and Parma are located. The wealthy area is known for its rich gastronomy including Parma ham, Parmesan and Modena balsamic vinegar, Lambrusco and Sangiovese wine and more.

“It’s the same nature -- the same animals, the same trees, the same temperature,” Negri said. “Right now, if I look at the weather report, it would be exactly the same weather here in the Lehigh Valley as it is back home. It's incredible.”

Travaglini traces its roots back to Milan in 1950 with founder Travaglini Arnaldo. The company produced equipment in the planning, production and supervision of air conditioning equipment, first, for sausages and raw hams.

Travaglini, which bought in 2022 an Allentown property, designs, makes and services equipment in the drying, fermenting and curing of food. (Photo Courtesy of Travaglini)

By 1965 when Arnaldo died, the business expanded into France, Switzerland, Austria, Spain and Greece. His wife Lidia and sons Roberto and Paolo organized the company into Travaglini Arnaldo Co. and began expanding into North and South America, Australia, eastern Europe and into the Soviet Union.

Now a third-generation company, Travaglini is a leader in planning and production of smoking, fermenting and drying equipment along with loading/unloading and movement systems for high trolleys which allows space optimization in order to maximize a plant’s production capacity. Recently it has been recognized by major food producers as a qualified supplier of advanced conditioning and air treatment systems and clean rooms for food products slicing. A clean room is a room in which the concentration of airborne particles is controlled. These rooms are built for minimizing the introduction, generation, and retention of pollutant particles within.

Travaglini’s equipment is distributed in over 54 nations, and it employs 135 people worldwide.

Travaglini’s move underscores the attractiveness of the Lehigh Valley to internationally-owned companies in a time when the pandemic forced companies to rethink their global footprint in the wake of supply chain issues. LVEDC has seen an influx of interest from foreign direct investment in recent years. About 40% of the prospects considering the Lehigh Valley for a project are internationally owned. In 2022, about 2 million square feet of projects were announced or completed by internationally owned companies in the Lehigh Valley.

The Lehigh Valley is home to more than 80 internationally owned companies from at least 23 countries. Some of those companies have made significant investments in recent years. Mack Trucks, which is owned by Swedish-based Volvo, is one of the Lehigh Valley’s largest employers and recently completed an $84 million addition to its assembly plant. The German-owned B. Braun Medical last year completed a 310,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Allentown, not far from its U.S. headquarters in Bethlehem. Evonik, a German-based company that acquired Air Products performance materials business, recently expanded in the Lehigh Valley with an Innovation Hub, adding another 50 jobs.

(Photos courtesy of Travaglini)