In 1952, D. DeFranco & Sons in Los Angeles became the first tomato re-packer on the West Coast to package tomatoes in tube trays, according to the company’s website.

Since then, three generations of DeFrancos have been involved in packing value-added produce.

The venerable third-generation produce company, now run by three brothers — Paul, Richard and Jerry De Franco, was initially founded by Dominic DeFranco in 1916 and has been operating in Los Angeles since the 1940s.

The company has handled an assortment of commodities over the years, but has long specialized in packing and marketing husked, washed and trimmed, ready-to-cook sweet corn and washed and trimmed green beans in an assortment of value-added retail consumer packs and club store packs, as well as foodservice packs.

For more than 60 years in the value-added business, “we have watched and learned from people who have done it right, and who have done it with morals and ethics and values, so we want to continue in that manner,” said Jerry DeFranco, an officer and partner in the company, in an interview with The Produce News June 16.

“Being a little bit smaller company, my brothers and I have a hands-on approach to what we do,” he said. “So you can rest assured that it is going to get done properly. We can give you more personal attention.”

For D. DeFranco & Sons, “it comes down to relationships and trust,” DeFranco continued. “I think after spending some time with us,” customers “feel good about doing business with us.” They are confident that “things are going to be done right” and that the products they receive from DeFranco & Sons will be quality products.

“What we do is very specialized,” he said. The company’s line of value-added sweet corn includes fresh corn, trimmed and washed, for foodservice, as well as retail packs for supermarkets and club stores. “We also have our line of fresh washed and trimmed green beans.” The beans are contract grown specifically for DeFranco & Sons and are hand harvested. “There is no machine harvested product that we bring in,” DeFranco said.

“Quality is first and foremost,” he said. “Even if we have to pay a little bit more money, we still would rather have quality. In the long run, it saves us. The best costs less. And we are year-round, 365 days a year.”

The company does do other value-added products as well. “We also process fresh packaged bell peppers and fresh tomatoes,” for example, DeFranco said. Sometimes they may do packaged avocados or asparagus or kiwifruit when customers request.

“We are always looking for new items to pack,” he said.

But corn and green beans “are our every-day, large-volume orders.”

For customers that may be interested “we can always help them with private label packaging,” DeFranco said.

In keeping with the long-time family tradition, the focus always is on “doing it right,” he emphasized. “In this day and age” when food safety is such a widespread concern, “I know we are doing it right with our HACCP programs in place, with our third-party audits we go through” with Primus Labs.

“When you go through all that and you put it to work, it certainly is thrilling to know that you are doing everything you possibly can” to assure a safe product as well as a quality product.

“The standards are set, the bar is set high, and we feel very good at the end of the day that we are meeting those standards and we are surpassing them,” DeFranco said. “We are doing things that insure that we have quality product and it is safe for people.”

In addition to value-added fresh produce, DeFranco & Sons also offers in-shell nuts from September through December “for the holiday season,” DeFranco added. Those consist of California walnuts and almonds, Brazil nuts from the Amazon Jungle, Hazelnuts from Oregon and pecans from Georgia and California.

“My brothers and I feel really good about the future,” DeFranco said. “We feel that the is a purpose for our company” and plan to continue doing things right for years to come.