GLASSBORO, NJ — AMC Direct, located here, is rapidly growing in the international citrus business and expanding in grapes, with other commodities on the horizon. It is part of the AMC Grupo Alimentación, Fresco y Zumos, S.A. The parent company, which is located in Murcia, Spain, is more commonly known as the AMC Group.

Miles Fraser-Jones, senior vice president for AMC Direct, said the company was created a decade ago to become a supplier of U.S. citrus for the Spanish citrus grower-packer-shipper-exporter, which was founded in 1931. Fraser-Jones said the Spanish company is primarily a citrus supplier for European and U.K. retailers.

AMC Direct’s role expanded in 2009 when the parent company felt the need for an import company in the U.S.

To be in the grape business, AMC purchased Fazio Marketing Inc. in Fresno, CA. This year AMC Fazio will ship 1 million boxes of California grapes.

The AMC Group owns Special New Fruit Licensing Ltd., which is a grape breeder, and Citrus Geneses, which is a citrus breeder and genetics company.

“What will make us better is better varieties,” he said. “We have proprietary rights to new varieties, which makes us different. We are invested in the farm. We have control of our products, which hopefully makes the end product better.”

New offerings from AMC are the Magenta red seedless grape and Tango, a 100 percent seedless Mandarin grown in Peru, South Africa and Chile. “These are currently commercially marketed,” he said. “Other varieties are in the early phase” of development.

Fraser-Jones said U.S. offices report to a chief operating officer in the United Kingdom. “I am in charge of the East Coast. We are totally an East Coast import operation and we do 40 percent of the turnover in the U.S. for the company.”

Working with Fraser-Jones in the Glassboro office is Casey Kio, sales and marketing manager; Roberto Crespo, operations manager; and Joe Rosa in sales. There are also two administrators in the office, and two quality control people work at nearby Eastern ProPack, where AMC Direct has its repacking operation.

“We are very lean,” he said. “We’re not a big operation and we’re all very busy. We feel with this size of an operation we can react very quickly. We are a sales company and the customer is king. Customers and suppliers are always very, very important. We are here to provide service. We make decisions very quickly and react very quickly. When we get an order at 3 p.m. we are able to say ‘We can do that.’ Quality is non-negotiable. In a competitive environment we always assure we meet customer specifications.”

This summer, AMC Direct is importing citrus from South Africa, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. “All of South America and South Africa is doing a darned good job” in citrus, he said. “There is room” for the young Uruguay deal in the summer citrus season. With easy-peelers, he predicted, “Peru citrus will grow by leaps and bounds in the future.”

In the winter months the firm handles citrus from Spain, Morocco and Israel. Morocco and Spain come into the North American market in late October. The availability of Israeli citrus in January “complements Spain and Morocco. We grow 20 percent of what we import in the clementine deal.” AMC only grows clementines in Spain but “we are in the process of making partnerships in South Africa and South America and in the U.S. on grapes.”

“We also do a Mexican grape deal,” he said. “Our major commodities are citrus and grapes, which we make available 12 months a year.”

Fraser-Jones was a grower-packer-exporter in his homeland, South Africa, before he started the Swedesboro, NJ, warehouse and became the warehouse and operations manager for Seald-Sweet International, based in Vero Beach, FL. Four years ago he joined AMC Direct as vice president of operations and then became senior vice president after a restructuring.

AMC Direct “mainly has a retail focus” in its sales, with about 70 percent of its volume going to retailers. Wholesale customers absorb the remainder,” he said.

The Fresno office of AMC “is mainly focused on California grapes and is also a retail-focused operation,” he noted. “This office does virtually all the citrus sales in the U.S. When I started we were 80 percent citrus. Now it’s 50-50 since we added grapes. We didn’t reduce the citrus supply” but grape sales escalated. He added that about 10 percent of AMC Direct’s sales are berries and deciduous. “We are looking at other commodities” to serve AMC customers “who are all over the country.”

Beyond its North American offices in Glassboro, Fresno and Toronto, AMC has offices in Spain, South Africa, Chile, Peru and the United Kingdom.