Anthony Marano Co. extends tomato-packing services
Anthony Marano Co. extends tomato-packing services
CHICAGO — In early August, Anthony Marano Co. applied established apple-grading technology to its tomato business.
In an Aug. 20 warehouse walk, Anton J. Marano, vice president of operations and the son of company owner Anton T. Marano, showed The Produce News two shiny-new tomato-grading lines that had only been in use for two weeks.
The Compac-brand lines provide a number of efficiencies, Marano said.
The electronic color sorters and weight sizers “are much more consistent in grading product size and color than the human eye can do.” Furthermore, “it’s gentler in handling than conventional tomato lines.”
At full capacity, the lines can each pack 1,600 boxes of tomatoes an hour. Marano said they can pack 20- or 25-pound boxes — or bulk packs of any weight.
He added that the machines also provide his firm tomato packing in a timelier and more consistent manner, using less labor.
Marano’s tomatoes — and huge line of other produce items — serve retailers and foodservice operators of the Midwest from the firm’s modern 420,000-square-foot warehouse.
Anton J. Marano’s brother, Damon Marano, vice president of sales, told The Produce News, “We try to be a one-stop shop. We make their life easier. We try to be a good partner with them. Their success is our success. We don’t go somewhere unless they go somewhere.”
To be a “one-stop shop,” Marano offers all kinds of overwrap and flow-wrap packaging and labeling. The firm sells value-added items to save time for foodservice operators or home cooking. Value-added items are not necessarily big volume movers but are an important part of the mix, Damon Marano noted.