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RETAIL VIEW: H.E.B. to launch discount format

On May 5, H.E. Butt Grocery Co., the well-known San Antonio, TX-based regional retailer, is slated to open its first Joe V's Smart Shop, billed as a discount supermarket.

The first store will open in Houston, and press reports indicate that it has a warehouse look. H.E.B. executives did not return phone calls or e-mails from The Produce News by press time, but they have been quoted in the Texas consumer press about the new format.

'Game-changer' new preservative patch to debut

Temkin International and Chrysal USA have teamed up to produce a floral sleeve with a slow-release preservative patch for fresh-cut flowers.

"I think this will be a real game-changer," Noam Temkin, vice president of sales and marketing at Temkin, said in an April 21 phone interview. "It's innovative, and the industry needs something new right now. We're trying it out on a small scale with growers, bouquet-makers and supermarkets, and getting a good response. We want to slowly trickle into selling this product."

Salyer indicted on additional charges as others cooperate

Frederick Scott Salyer, who was the owner and chief executive officer of SK Foods as well as the owner of many related enterprises, including Salinas, CA-based Salyer American Fresh Foods, a grower-shipper of vegetables, was hit with additional criminal charges in late April.

Move over clamshells and bags, Pandol to launch innovative grape packaging

LAS VEGAS, NV -- After nearly a year in development in close consultation with experienced package designers and several key retail customers, and after evaluating dozens of concepts, Pandol. Bros. Inc. in Delano, CA, is close to launching a truly innovative consumer packaging concept for fresh grapes -- a type of packaging that "has never been seen or used before in produce," according to Tristan Kieva, director of business development and marketing.

Diagraph highlights PTI case-labeling installation at Sun Valley Packing

LAS VEGAS, NV -- Diagraph, an ITW-owned company based in St. Charles, MO, has recently installed in-line case-labeling systems on each of the 10 stone fruit packing lanes at Sun Valley Packing Co. in Reedley, CA. The systems print and apply labels with Produce Traceability Initiative-compliant GS1-128 barcodes.

Strong garlic market could last well into summer -- and beyond

With the Argentine garlic harvest completed, and the arrival of the new crops from California and China still a couple of months away, the strong garlic market that currently exists should persist well into summer, according to several U.S. marketers of the product.

"It's a little too soon to tell how the California and China harvests are going to end up," said Louis Hymel, director of purchasing and marketing for Spice World Inc. in Orlando, FL. "But we should have a strong market at least through June."

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