Effective April 1, The Grape Guys in Visalia, CA, partnered with Eagle Eye Produce Inc. in Idaho Falls, ID, in the formation of a new company called Eagle Eye Grape Guys LLC.

The new company will continue to use the “Grape Guys” name along with “Eagle Eye,” at least for the time being, according to Shaun Ricks, president and a founding partner of the former company, and now vice president of sales and marketing for the new company, which is now listed in the Blue Book as Eagle Eye Grape Guys LLC, a subsidiary of Eagle Eye Produce Inc.

The merger will facilitate development of a larger Mexican grape program for the company than The Grape Guys has had in previous years.

On March 28, just before the new partnership became official, Mr. Ricks told The Produce News, “Up until now, over the years, we have been more involved as distributors, buying and selling at the border in Nogales. We have always had some product, but it has been a smaller amount. What we found is that we needed to have more of our own product if we are going to develop programs with certain retailers that we want to be selling. So we are making more of a concerted effort than ever, this year, to build our program.”

For the Nogales deal, “we will be operating out of the Eagle Eye Nogales facility,” Mr. Ricks said. “It is beautiful. I think it is the nicest facility in Nogales, or one of the nicest.”

Eagle Eye is running its Mexican vegetable program through the facility, “and they have a sizeable watermelon deal coming out of Mexico also,” he said. “All of that runs through their Nogales office. That is where I will be in May and June, and we will run our grapes through that facility.”

Mr. Ricks said he expects the company’s Mexican grape program this year to total around 400,000 boxes. The profile of the variety mix corresponds exactly with “what comes out of Mexico” industry-wide, he said. “It will start with Flames and Perlettes the week of [May] 13. I don’t expect it to be a heavy production in May, but I do expect it to be a full crop in June.”

Based on what he had seen in two separate trips to the growing areas in Mexico — one six weeks prior and one just a week prior — Mr. Ricks said he expected that “from everything I have seen down there, it is going to be a good-quality crop, although you don’t know for sure until you get right into it. But if we have promotable volumes and the quality is good, it will be a great deal for everybody.”

New on sales this year is Eric Beno, who spent 17 years with Anaheim, CA-based Sunrise Growers, largely handling direct chain accounts “which is what we want him to do here,” Mr. Ricks said.