Telesis Onion Co. Inc.. in Five Points, CA, which produces red, yellow and white onions in the Huron and Five Points area, packs its products for both foodservice and retail customers.

“We do all boxes and all consumer bags,” Mike Smythe, a salesman with the company, said in a May 29 interview with The Produce News.

Last year, Telesis purchased a new Volm bagging machine to meet increased demand from retailers for consumer bags and also increased its stickering capacity.

Although retail business has become increasingly important for the company in recent years, Telesis has historically packed onions predominantly for the foodservice sector and continues to be primarily foodservice oriented, according to Smythe.

“We continue developing and expanding our foodservice-type customers,” he said.

Telesis is continuing to build on its relationship with Potandon Produce in Idaho Falls, ID. “We have been working with [Potandon] for the last five to seven years,” Smythe said. That product is packed in the “Green Giant” label. It has been “a wonderful relationship for Telesis Onion. They bring us some chain store business” as well as foodservice accounts.

Also, “we do a lot with Kingston Fresh,” he said. Also located in Idaho Falls, Kingston Fresh “does a lot of the Outback Steakhouse business.”

Telesis has done a lot of things with Kingston Fresh over the years and continues to build on that program as well, Smythe said. “We have always enjoyed a wonderful relationship with Kingston Fresh” and are “just starting the onions with them this year” for Outback.

In addition, “we have been doing a lot of work with Kingston” in their BurgerFi program.

BurgerFi is relatively new burger chain, founded in 2011 and targeted to upscale communities. It now has some 60 locations nationwide, with the heaviest concentration in Florida, and it claims to be the fastest-growing burger chain in the country.

Telesis also packs onions for other operations such as Utah Onions and Hailey, ID-based ProSource Produce, for their foodservice programs, Smythe said.

Telesis onions from Central California fill the gap for these accounts between the spring onions, such as those from the Imperial Valley, and the later-season production out of the Pacific Northwest.

“Telesis fills the gap for three or four months, and it ha been a wonderful relationship as we build into more and more of those year-round foodservice accounts,” said Smythe.

The timing of the Telesis Central California onion deal is “a nice fit for everybody, especially with the quality of onions we ship and the fact that our shed can pack all these packages,” he said.

The onion most preferred by foodservice accounts is a jumbo yellow, but “they take the whole spectrum” from mediums to super colossals, and reds as well as yellows, Smythe said. “We have expanded our red program” to meet the needs of foodservice customers.