Salsina Packing and Canning Company

Summary

Business	Cannery
Main Location	San Jose
Active	1918-1922
Aliases	Salsini Packing, Salsinia Canning and Packing
Successors	Virden Packing

The Salsina Packing and Canning Company was a short-lived tomato canner in San Jose. The company quickly went under after World War I, only to reappear as part of Virden Packing.

Salsini Packing was founded in 1918 by A. Lambroso and Carlo Aiello from Highland, New York. (The name varied; Salsini and Salsinia are some of the ways the name was corrupted.) In the May 11, 1918 California Fruit News:

"The Salsina Canning and Packing Company, which was recently organized with a captal stock of $150,000 by italian interests in Santa Clara Valley, expects to open its new cannery towards the end of August The building is completed and machinery is to be installed shortly. This company is composed of a number of prominent Italians and has the backing of people connected with the Bank of Italy and New York City Italian interests. Salsina is the name of the Italian tomato paste as it is known in Italy and means the condition of the product as it finally reaches the consumer. There seems to be no exact translation, hence the use of the name in the company."

From another source:

"A new cannery to be known as the Salsina Canning Company is planned to be established in Santa Clara County by New York State cannery men. It is to be concerned primarily, it is understood, with the manufacture of Italian tomato paste and sauce, which its promoters have for years been concerned with importing from Italy and will remove their operations from Highland, New York State, to San Jose owing to its better facilities for this kind of work in the Santa Clara Valley. The names mentioned are A. Lambrosa and Carlo Aiello."

The March 1919 Western Canner and Packer reported:

The Salsina Canning Company, situated at the corner of Lincoln and San Salvador Streets, has an investment of about $200,000 at that site. The plant was installed during the past year and handled tomatoes and salsina [tomato paste] exclusively. The company is now considering the advisability of constructing a new unit at a cost of $45,000 in time to handle fruits as well as tomatoes next year."

That work may have been related to a 1919 request for bids for a 60x600 concrete addition to the existing cannery. Similar reports of $100,000 being spent on new electrical systems to expand production capacity appeared in 1919.

Salsina primarily canned tomatoes; their 1919 patent office trademark application listed only tomatoes; a1920 packer's directory shows they canned everything - tomatoes, pears, cherries, etc.

A 1919 city directory shows Lambrusco and Aiello joined by a local businessman, Gus F. Lion: "Salsina Packing: Gus F. Lion, Pres, Alphonso Lambrosa V. Pres, Mgr W. J. Leet treas, Lincoln Cor San Salvador." Lion ran a furniture store in San Jose and owned the San Martin ranch. He sold the ranch in 1921, and sold cannery in 1922 to Virden Packing.

That sale was reported in Western Canner and Packer v13 (1922):

During the last week of February, the Virden Packing Company purchased the Salsini Canning and Packing plant located on the corner of Lincoln avenue and San Salvador street for the sum of $250,000 in San Jose. Chas. E. Virden, president of the company, stated that additions will be made at once to the present Salsini plant to make it one of the largest in Santa Clara county. Work will be started at once for alterations and new buildings. The San Jose plant will have an addition of a cold storage plant to be used in conjunction for the packing of meats. This plant will be used for the packing of all the companies meats drawn from the field south of San Jose.

Salsina Packing's building still exists on Lincoln Avenue - a concrete building with a sawtooth roof, expanded several times during its lifetime. A small house swallowed up by the building still exists on the east side. The 1922 Western Canner and Packer ad for Pacific Manifolding Book Co shows a cannery form for Salsina.

There might be a relation to Aiello Brothers, the founders of the Contadina brand and the eventual Hershel California Fruit Products cannery.)

Locations

Location	Years	Address	Details
San Jose	1916	Lincoln Avenue and Auzerais Street