# Torani's CEO Has Never Laid Anyone Off in 35 Years, Including Through COVID and the AI Boom > Melanie Dulbecco has grown Torani from nine employees to about 500 and toward 800 million dollars in projected 2026 revenue, all while holding to a no layoff policy through recessions, automation, and the pandemic. - Source: Continental - Canonical URL: https://continental.today/article/melanie-dulbecco-torani-no-layoffs - Author: Continental Newsroom - Section: Business - Published: 2026-09-01T15:10:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-01T15:10:00.000Z - Tags: Torani, Melanie Dulbecco, Workplace Culture --- Melanie Dulbecco has spent 35 years running Torani, joining the syrup maker in 1991 when it was a small operation of nine employees bringing in about 700,000 dollars a year. The company is now 101 years old, employs around 500 people, and is projected to top 800 million dollars in revenue in 2026, growth Dulbecco says has averaged roughly 20 percent a year over her tenure. Through recessions, the rise of automation, and a pandemic, the company has held to one consistent policy: it does not lay people off. That commitment was tested hardest in March 2020, when Torani's cafe customers shut down almost overnight during the first wave of COVID lockdowns. Dulbecco, a Stanford Business School graduate, ran through financial scenarios looking for a way to keep the workforce intact rather than cutting it. The company sped up a planned move to a new facility in San Leandro, California, which let it bring new equipment online faster than expected, and when demand from cafes dropped in April, growth in e-commerce and retail sales helped offset the loss. Dulbecco has carried a similar mindset into how Torani approaches artificial intelligence. Rather than treating AI mainly as a way to cut headcount, she says the more useful question is what value the company's 500 employees can add on top of the technology. Her reasoning is that being upfront with staff about job security builds enough trust that employees become more willing, not less, to adopt new tools once they are not worried the tools are there to replace them. Internally, Dulbecco calls her approach to staff development career mixology, encouraging people to move across departments rather than staying locked into one function. She points to an employee named Carlos, who moved from supply chain work into procurement, as an example of the kind of internal mobility the company tries to build. Torani backs that philosophy with revenue and profit linked bonuses, an employee stock ownership plan that kicks in after a year on the job, 401k matching, and annual share distributions, with the company's valuation shared openly with staff at town hall meetings. --- Originally published by Continental. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://continental.today/article/melanie-dulbecco-torani-no-layoffs.