By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTIn 1947, the United States was celebrating the end of World War II. Some 40 years earlier, Antonino Alessi and his family immigrated from their native Sicily to come to America, the land of opportunity. Tampa, then a sleepy port town known mainly for handmade cigars, was chosen as home. At age 19, Antonino (Tony) landed a job as a salesman for a national company, and quickly became one of their best. Time went on and Tony’s success continued. Always looking to the future however, he realized he would be faced with a dilemma. The company he worked for had a policy that would not allow family members to be hired. Concerned with providing for the welfare of his two sons and desiring to establish an opportunity for his family to work together, Tony left the security of his career position to build Vigo Importing Company. Today, Vigo Importing is well into its third generation and is now a multi-million dollar corporation with national and international sales. “Our location always was, and remains, Tampa, FL,” comments Sam Ciccarello, Vigo general manager in a telephone interview with AJOT. Over the years, Vigo has become more focused, selling—although not exclusively, its own branded products. “We are a manufacturing company. We make dried rice dinners and dried soups. We also sell packed olives, pickled products, peppers, cheese, spices, artichokes and hearts of palm, bread crumbs, pasta, and other products,” Ciccarello says. “Many of the products we buy are imported from Europe, particularly the Mediterranean area, as well as South America, China, India, and Pakistan. Europe is the primary source for most of our products.” Port of Tampa helps develop business Besides being a transportation hub for Vigo, in recent years the Port of Tampa has helped Vigo develop its business. “The Tampa port connection started several years ago when the guys at the port identified, through their records and statistics, that there are a lot of containers coming into the mid-Florida area,” Circcarello says. “They felt they could put something together that would provide them additional business and provide importers like us some possibile savings.” Circcarello points out that Vigo is not an exporter to any large degree. “We do a little exporting to Puerto Rico and some South American countries, but typically those containers are sent from the Ports of Jacksonville or Miami,” he says. “But Tampa’s containerized cargo business did appeal to us because we could save money and load more merchandise, since containers on ships do not go over the road and (do not) require permits.” Consequently, Vigo found it more convenient to utilize containers on vessels. “This offers us the flexibility if we need one or two containers badly,” he says. “We can call the company that drays the merchandise over and select which one we want to use.” The fact that Vigo Importing Co. is located within 10 miles of the seaport makes this even more attractive. “Typically, in the past if we needed an empty container, we called one of the cargo companies who would bring us the container from Jacksonville or Miami,” he says. Tampa, as a port, primarily concentrates on bulk cargo as well as cargoes destined for Mexico. “That is not something that applies to our business since we import a lot of olives, olive oil and pasta from the Mediterranean,” Circcarello says. “Also, because we package these goods, we also import a lot of packing materials and supplies for the business.” Zim’s Jamaica service “key” What has made a difference to Vigo’s business today is the service offered by Zim Container Service between Europe and the Caribbean. “From our standpoint, Tampa became really viable only about two years ago because of Zim’s run between the Mediterranean and Kingston, Jamaica,” Ciccarello says. In offering the trans-Atlantic service, Zim also introduced feeder service from Kingston to Tampa. “What typically happens is these containers are loaded onto a larg