The economy in southern California is looking better than it has for a few years, but even at its worst, “we never really had a tough time,” said Bill Vogel, president of Vision Produce Co. in Los Angeles in an interview with The Produce News June 10. “We just haven’t had a negative year. Our business has been growing every year.”

He noted that the company has been constantly hiring and expanding, and its sales have grown from year to year. Among other things, the company has also increased its presence in Central and South America on imports, Vogel added.

Vision Produce hired Donald Souther last fall, and he has since been promoted to vice president of the sales and marketing department. He was previously with North Shore Greenhouses in Thermal, CA, “and also has experience as a sales manager in the floral industry,” Vogel said.

Souther is “helping all of the departments in Los Angeles” as well as in the company’s Phoenix branch and the Vision Import Group in New Jersey “with customer development and with growth,” he said.

The Phoenix branch has been growing as well, Vogel added. “We hired Allan Acosta, who was procurement manager for Ready Pac. He is working out of our Phoenix branch, but he is helping the company with procurement of products from Mexico, Central America and South America.”

Vision started a trucking operation based in Phoenix called VPC Freight Solutions, which now has “three trucks and a few bobtails.” The company does delivery in the Phoenix area, and the trucks run between Arizona and California. That is managed by David Spellmire, who had previously been with C.H. Robinson and has experience in the trucking business. He is now in his second year with the company.

To compliment the trucking operation, “we have opened just this past month a truck brokerage business,” Vogel said. “We see transportation as being a huge component of delivering the right product on a timely basis.”

Vision is currently in its second season of developing a Honeydew melon program out of northern Mexico, he added. The company had a fall deal last year and is now in the midst of a spring deal. “We partnered with an excellent grower,” Vogel commented.

Vision, which handles a line of tropical fruits including pineapples, is now “marketing the last and only Hawaiian pineapple deal that is left,” Vogel said. That is being marketed and sold by Nancy Betancourt, vice president and department manager. “All the big pineapple people pulled out of Hawaii,” and all that is left of the Hawaiian fresh pineapple industry is “a little deal” from Maui. “They have about 10 loads a week. They are selling more than half of it in Hawaii, and they are sending a few containers to us.”

“We took over this program about the start of the second quarter last year, and we are receiving directly from Maui the ‘Maui Gold’ pineapple,” said Betancourt, who previously worked for Maui Land & Pineapple Co. and prior to that, worked for Del Monte.

Maui Land & Pineapple actually sold off the name and rights to the “Maui Gold” pineapple, and some of the people who were previously with Maui Land & Pineapple, along with some investors, “took over the deal and bought the business,” Betancourt said. “We have been lucky enough to be given that program” for the mainland. “We have been running with it. We have a true following for it. A lot of it goes to foodservice or retail.”

The “Maui Gold” pineapple is a different hybrid variety than the one most commonly found in U.S. supermarkets, with a distinctive taste and appearance.

“It is really good” and has “a true following,” she said. “It comes in all year long. The volumes aren’t very large, and it is mostly smaller sizing, but it is a great pineapple, so we are really pleased to have it.”