“Nickey and Cheryl Gregory have come a long way from a single cooler and truck to two warehouses totaling 150,000 square feet,” said Andrew Scott, vice president of business development and marketing.

In the fall of 2024, Nickey Gregory Co. focused on expanding its retail support division, introducing direct store delivery to independent grocers across the Southeast.

“That’s been going for almost a year now, and it’s helped us diversify away from being so heavily concentrated in the foodservice sector,” Scott said.

The company’s processing division is going strong and Nickey Gregory Co. is looking into adding space to that division as well.

“We have some new machinery ordered to pack more retail packs,” Scott said, “and with retail processing, it’s a different animal where you need nutritional value and more information on the packaging versus foodservice. We are working on that right now.”

Overall, 2025 has been what Scott described as an “up and down” season. Things started off slow at the beginning but picked up a lot in March, April and May going into the summer.

“It slowed a bit in summer because we have a lot of customers who sell to schools, so we do school packs and sell indirectly to schools around the Southeast,” he said. “Schools start again around here in early August, so it picked right back up.”

Georgia enjoyed a good season for peaches, and now the company is turning its attention to the fall crops as the Georgia crops have already started and are looking strong.

“That’s great for us; all the Eastern vegetables are starting to come out of the ground in South Georgia, and we’re already seeing cucumbers, squash, zucchini, eggplant and Bell peppers,” Scott said.

Nickey Gregory Co. is a big supporter of Georgia locally-grown produce and is able to turn inventory quickly on a lot of the veg items in the area.

One challenge to the crops has been weather in August and September.

“We had seen good growing conditions down in South Georgia until the last month, where it got real dry; even here in Atlanta, it’s hardly rained the last month,” Scott said. “We had a decent rain fall until then.”

Elsewhere, Florida citrus has started, which gives customers another option instead of buying out of California, and strawberries will be starting at the end of November, which historically has been a solid seller for the company.

Looking ahead, the rest of 2025 and early next year should be fruitful as the company continues expanding its footprint outside of the Southeast.

“We are excited about closing the year strong, especially at our retail support division,” Scott said. “Next year, we will continue to grow the new segments of our business, Family Fresh Foods, established in 2018 and our retail support division, established in October 2024.”