S. Martinelli & Co. President/CFO Gun Ruder (left) and CEO John Martinelli.
The bright flavors of perfectly ripened apples — pressed into cider, distinctive apple-shaped juice bottles or celebration-ready sparkling ciders — are at the core of one of the Monterey Bay region’s most historic businesses. S. Martinelli & Co., a family-owned and -operated company and an MBEP member, is still based in Watsonville, the town in which it was founded more than 150 years ago.
Martinelli’s marked its sesquicentennial last year in a big way, rolling out a commemorative book and restoring a 1932 Ford Model B truck once used for company deliveries, reintroducing it for Watsonville’s Fourth of July parade, the Wharf to Wharf Race in Capitola and other events. And in a nod to its roots, the company debuted a hard cider, which was Martinelli’s original product in a pre-Prohibition era.
S. Martinelli & Company is established in 1868.
Behind all those years is a history of constant reinvention, says company President/CFO Gun Ruder: “We need to continuously improve and advance, but there’s no sense that we can rest on our laurels.”
That’s why working as an active MBEP partner on big regional issues is so important.
Martinelli’s non-alchoholic sparkling apple cider becomes the company’s primary product in the wake of 1920s’ prohibition.
“For us as a manufacturing company, having a workforce that’s educated and has the skillset to work in a more technologically advanced plant than we’ve ever had before is critical, and having those workers sustain a livelihood in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties is tough,” says Ruder. “These are all big issues for us, and we want to make sure we have a voice in the solution and add our perspective to help drive solutions for the region broadly.”
For S. Martinelli & Co., 150 years are just the beginning. “We’re proud of where we’ve been,” says Ruder. “We’re in Watsonville for the long haul.”
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Photos courtesy of S. Martinelli & Co.