From meatballs to deli dominance: How a former Mondelēz exec is building a $1B food company

When Adam Michaels received an unexpected call in early 2022 that a small prepared food company called Mama Mancini’s was looking for a new CEO, he initially wasn’t interested.

The CPG veteran was nearly a decade into a career at Mondelēz International where he was “living the dream” orchestrating multi-million-dollar deals for the Oreo giant.

But a two-hour meeting with Mama’s nine-member board, and a factory tour with company founder Dan Mancini a few days later, convinced him to jump to a food maker that he observed “had an authentic story in the right growing category” and “had so much opportunity for improvement.”

Mama Mancini’s, which Dan Mancini founded in 2007 with a packaged product replicating his grandmother’s meatballs and sauce, had already carved out a successful niche in Italian foods and was expanding its presence in the fast-growing deli-prepared foods segment. Michaels saw a chance to accelerate its push into deli while overhauling a company dogged by low margins, unnecessary costs and inefficiencies costing it millions of dollars each year.

“I had a vision for what we can be,” Michaels said in an interview. “I’m not looking to be a $100 million company. We’re going to be a $1 billion business.” 

Revenue at Mama’s rose 11% to a record $103 million during its 2024 fiscal year ending January 31, the first time it topped the century mark in its 17-year history. Gross profit soared more than 50% from 2023 to $30 million.

It’s not hard to see Michaels’ impact at Mama’s. 

Since becoming CEO in September 2022, the 48-year-old has more than doubled Mama’s margins, increased its cash stockpile by more than $10 million and cut its debt in half. 

Freight costs have been slashed by 50% — “We used to send two half-empty trucks to the same customer on the same day,” Michaels recalled — and contracts with its customers have been rewritten to make them more favorable to Mama’s.

Michaels hired Lauren Sella, a former Mondelēz executive, to handle marketing, a position Mama’s previously did not have. Sella has reinvigorated the company’s brand positioning and product portfolio. She also built an organization capable of responding faster to Walmart, Kroger, Target and others that inquire about carrying Mama’s products. 

The company’s manufacturing process also was overhauled to increase its reliance on technology. Mama’s used to have employees putting meatballs and sauce in a cup and trimming or cutting its chicken by hand. Now, it has invested millions of dollars in machinery to do these tasks. The change allows Mama’s to increase production while simultaneously saving money.

Few things have been left untouched since Michaels took over, including the company name. He changed it from Mama Mancini’s to Mama’s Creations last August to reflect its position as a major player in fresh deli-prepared foods.

Despite all these changes, Michaels vowed there is more to come. “I haven’t even gotten started,” he declared.

To reach $1 billion in sales, Michaels wants half to come from organic growth, with the rest through acquisitions. 

The biggest driver for Mama’s internally will come by convincing retailers to carry more of its products in the deli. When Michaels started, retailers on average sold fewer than five of his items, now it’s more than seven.

A big part of that comes from bolstering Mama’s portfolio through acquisitions to give retailers more foods to choose from. Before if a store didn’t want its meatballs, Mama’s had little else to offer them. The company’s menu now includes green salads, pasta salads, olives, wraps, panini, sausage, couscous and its Italian fare, among dozens of other beef, chicken and pasta items. 

His decision to double down on the deli is not by accident. 

It’s the best-performing part of the perishable section in a grocery store, according to Michaels, and consumers who buy from the deli typically spend more when they visit. Deli shoppers also make more trips to the store, often to pick up a meal for dinner. It’s a big reason retailers are increasing how much space they devote to the deli. 

“This is where consumers are going,” he said. “We wanted to open up the aperture and become this one-stop-shop deli-solution business.”