The founding of Sabre Foods
In the late 1980s after having sold two companies, Sabre Fishing Rods and Wilshire Furniture Manufacturing, I decided to create my own marketing firm that sourced furniture products worldwide for major retailers. In keeping with Sabre, I named Sabre Marketing after my fishing rod company. One day a former executive from the furniture company called me to see if Sabre was interested in consulting for a dessert company assisting them in sales and marketing efforts. Consulting was alluring, so I moved forward with the new business venture in the food industry, alongside the furniture business.
My first call was to a major retailer interested in dessert products. The products sold very well, which led to relationship growth amongst key buyers. While in the pasta aisle during many of my weekly grocery shopping trips I noticed the retailer was consistently out of stock. I then introduced myself to the grocery buyer and found out that they had difficultly finding a reliable Italian supplier that could handle large volumes. Sabre was the solution.
So going back to my Italian roots I contacted an old family friend in New York who owned a large Italian food distribution company. He referred me to a contact in Southern Italy specializing in Italian food products. As a result of the newly-formed relationship, I presented and was awarded a pasta program to a major US retailer.
After seeing the interest and success of the pasta program, I investigated pasta sales in the US, finding pasta was a big-growth category as well as olive oil and other Italian fine foods. This demand for authentic Italian foods in the US was an outgrowth of the many Americans that traveled to Italy in the 1970s and 1980s.
As Sabre Marketing grew to a larger global presence, the company was renamed Sabre Foods International in 2006. Currently, Sabre Foods is owned and operated by my son John Michael Marcone, who continues the commitment to delivering quality products and building lasting relationships.
John A. Marcone, Founder