Business
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Catholic
Tastykake official:
For him, success is sweet
By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA — Catholics left the closing Mass for the Bicentennial
of Philadelphia at the Villanova University Pavilion on April 13 in true
Philadelphia fashion — to the sounds of a local string band and
special treats — pretzels and Tastykakes.
“Anything for prayers,” joked Joe Carboy, a Catholic who is
the vice president and general manager of operations for Tasty Baking
Co., 2801 Hunting Park Ave.
Carboy, a member of St. Ann Parish in Phoenixville, had a major role in
donating the goodies, and he said he’s happy any time he can help
to promote the Tastykake brand by giving its products for a good cause.
The company was founded in 1914 in Philadelphia. “We’re proud
to have served the [Philadelphia] diocese for 90-plus years,” Carboy
said.
“Integrity is one of the most important aspects of what I do every
day here at Tasty,” he said. “We produce a quality product
that brings a little bit of sweet indulgence to people’s lives.
It’s a treat.”
Pride in the specialty treats extends throughout the company, he added:
“Everybody here takes pride — when they see a Tastykake out
there, or they see somebody pick a Tastykake up off a shelf — that
they had something to do with getting it there and producing a quality
product. …
“We’re very proud of our name. We take pride in the ‘Tasty
blue,’” he said of the company’s color logo. “We
bleed blue.”
Carboy began working in the company’s mail room nearly a quarter-century
ago, and he thinks of its employees as his “work family,”
he said.
Meanwhile his real-life family includes his wife, Beth, and their four
children: Justin, 12; Jessica, 10; Jared, 8, and Joshua, 6.
Carboy takes it to heart whenever Tastykakes are the treats of choice,
including times when someone brings them for post-game snacks to his children’s
athletic events, or when he sees people buying Tastykake products when
he stops in a convenience store.
A native Philadelphian, Carboy graduated from St. William School in 1980
and from Cardinal Dougherty High School in 1984.
That same year, he started at Tasty as a mailroom clerk, joining a company
that already had many bonds with his family: His paternal grandfather
had driven a delivery truck for the company, an uncle on his mother’s
side of the family was a purchasing manager and a number of other relatives
had also worked for the company.
“Because of having Tasty as a family affair, there was always Tastykake
in the cupboard, growing up,” Carboy said. Butter cream cupcakes
were his favorite treat as a young boy — and they still are, he
said.
After the mail room, Carboy worked in accounting and production, and later
became head of maintenance and engineering. He went on to become director
of operations before being named vice president and general manager last
year.
Having worked in all those capacities, he relates easily to his employees,
he said. “Nobody can fool me or tell me how hard the work is,”
he joked. Then he added more seriously, “The best part is, I understand
what everybody is going through … and I can help them.”
For more information, call Tasty Baking Co. at (215) 221-8500 or visit
the Web site, www.tastykake.com.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at (215)
587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.