When they started selling tomatoes from a horse-drawn cart in Yucaipa, CA, more than two decades ago, Lonny and Caryn Saverino knew they were on to something big. But little did they know they were on to something huge.

This year their company, Green Thumb Produce, celebrates its 20-year anniversary as a family-owned and operated produce distributor, a milestone that Caryn Saverino said was reached by hard work and perseverance. It has not been without difficulty, she said.The late Lonny Saverino and his wife, Caryn. Mr. Saverino passed away six years ago, and Caryn now heads up the company they started more than 20 years ago. (Photo courtesy of Green Thumb Produce Co.)

Lonny died six years ago in a motorcycle accident, and Caryn and her son, Michael Ingalls, along with a dedicated sales and management team, have worked tirelessly to keep his dream of a locally-based California produce company alive and thriving.

“It was in 1991 that Lonny and I started selling beefsteak tomatoes from the horse-drawn wagon,” she said in a recent interview with The Produce News. “We worked with one grower in San Clemente, and he connected us with more growers. Pretty soon we were selling other items such as zucchini, watermelons, pumpkins, apples and peaches — all from the cart. We sold them from street corners, and then we got a contract with 33 mobile home parks in Yucaipa, which is a retirement community, and we delivered to seniors so they didn’t have to go out to the store.”

The couple made their deliveries year-round, selling seasonal fruit and vegetables, and it didn’t take long for them to make a name for themselves.

“People started telling us they’d drive two hours from the city to get our beefsteak tomatoes, and they asked us why we didn’t have them in retail stores. So we started selling to one retailer, and now we’re with multiple retail chains,” she said.

As its retail sales grew, so did Green Thumb’s item list. Caryn and Lonny were soon providing summer squash, asparagus, broccoli, green beans, bell peppers and Brussels sprouts to its customers.

Brent Portell, senior management team member who with buyer Jeff Young and assistant Lisa Davis makes up Green Thumb’s sales and procurement department, said the last six months of the calendar year sees the split of produce 42 percent organic to 58 percent conventional. The first six months, Portell said, is reversed with 58 percent organic and 42 percent conventional, owing to contracts with specific growers.

Portell said 50 percent of the year-round growers are located in California, and 50 percent are in Mexico, and he noted that some asparagus does come in from Peru. Portell said today’s top-selling items are organic and conventional zucchini and grape tomatoes.

“The latter half of the year we move 500,000 pounds of product each week, and the first half we move 800,000 pounds,” he said.

Obviously that quantum leap from beefsteak tomatoes sold off a wagon to 800,000 pounds weekly didn’t come overnight, but it did come, by any industry standards, quickly.

Ingalls said that along the 20-year path the services offered by Green Thumb Produce also expanded, and the growth necessitated several moves into incrementally larger facilities. Today Green Thumb packages and distributes from 78,000 square feet of state-of-the-art buildings in Banning, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles.

“Over time we became experienced in sourcing and then in packing a lot of different items,” he said. “Now we are specialists in packaging, everything from clamshells and overwraps to trays and ready-to-eat,” he said.

“We were actually the first company to offer overwrapped produce in any retail setting in 1995,” Caryn said.  She recounted the original packing facility was a 40x50-foot cooler portion of a local bakery. In 1998 the operation relocated to Banning, where the first of the two buildings was already in existence.

“We modified it and then built the other structure in 2001,” Caryn said.

Distribution has also grown — from 33 trailer parks to an area that encompasses the Rocky Mountains to the east, Texas to the south and the entire West Coast.

“It’s been quite a challenge,” said Caryn Saverino, president and chief executive officer of the company. “But with our fantastic teams and Michael as vice president, we’ve filled Lon’s shoes and made this company the success he wanted it to be.”

She added, “After Lon’s death it was very hard to keep morale up, but Brent has done an excellent job with the sales team.”

What lies ahead for Green Thumb? “We’re focused more than ever on what we do best, which is source and package great quality produce and keep our customers happy,” Ingalls said.

“And we’re always thinking of new and innovative options for our customers,” Caryn added.

“We are very concerned with food safety,” Portell noted, adding that the facility is SCS-audited and BRC-certified.

“More than anything I think its our integrity and honesty that has been the biggest part of our success, and we are still dealing with some of the same customers we had in the very beginning because of that,” Caryn said.