Baldor Boston in Chelsea, MA, is a sister company to Baldor Specialty Foods, headquartered in the Bronx, NY.

Another sister branch is in Washington DC, and its most recent partnership in Miami provides the company with full eastern distribution abilities.

Glenn Messinger, general manager of Baldor Boston, told The Produce News that the company has grown so strongly that it is now looking at options for a larger facility in the Boston area.

Glenn Messinger, general manager of Baldor Boston.“We need more overall space,” said Messinger. “We’ve enjoyed tremendous and continual growth since we opened here in 2006, and especially in the past couple of years. Our predominant customer category is foodservice operators of all levels, including hotels and restaurants. But a major part of our foodservice business is with the many colleges and universities in our distribution range.”

Baldor Boston, like its sister companies, also services retail business.

Messinger noted that the strongest items for the company are the hardware commodities, such as onions, spring mix and peppers.

As with all Baldor operations, it partners with many local farms which enable it to continually send updated information to its customers about what is available at all times.

“Although the Baldor operations are separate companies, we maintain strong synergies,” he explained. “When one region is heavy into locally grown programs, we all take advantage of the availability.”

Baldor’s sophisticated website ensures that customers are continually apprised of not only what it has available currently, but it also shares information about the farms and farmers that produce the items. Thus, the company practices total transparency, which is in keeping with customers and consumers’ growing demand to know who is growing their food and how.

“This time of year our Boston locally grown items include hard squashes, micro greens, parsnips, potatoes, hothouse tomatoes and more,” said Messinger. “The local movement really takes off in the summer months with big crops of peppers, eggplants, tomatoes and more. And of course, we keep the other Baldor operations informed so they can also take advantage of these items.”

But before the deep New England local program moves into full swing, Baldor is sourcing strongly from New Jersey. And now that it is distributing in Florida, it is backhauling during the off-season further north.

“The only thing that can slow us down is bad weather,” said Messinger. “Last winter was a bear, and many restaurants couldn’t even open. Despite that, true to Baldor’s word, we delivered every day. Mother Nature is sometimes a challenge, but we adjust to it and get through it any way we can.”