Exp Group relies on strong culture for success

With four decades of experience distributing fresh produce on the East Coast, Exp Group LLC continues to grow its network of production, importation and distribution of tropical fruits and vegetables from both Central and South America.

The company’s 35-acre, 293,000-square-foot facility in North Bergen, NJ, houses Exp Group LLC, Exp Logistics LLC and Exp Banana LLC.

“Business has been looking really good; something we like to stress at the Exp Group is the development of new products,” said Anthony Serafino, executive vice president for the company. “We like to diversify ourselves as much as possible and are delving into items that we’re starting to see some traction on. We’re growing our capability and expanding our facility.”

For instance, the company recently completed five new ripening rooms bringing its total up to 35, which give Exp Group the capacity to ripen 3 million bananas a day, so that allows us the ability to do six more containers of merchandise.

The company is also looking to add 10,000 square feet for cold storage because that’s what its customers are looking for and is looking to add to its 50-truck fleet.

“They really want an expansion of items, and we’re trying to be their one-stop shop,” Serafino said.

Not surprisingly, Exp Group LLC has had trouble importing produce, just as the rest of the industry has, with Serafino saying the supply chain challenges remaining an issue in 2022.

“It’s more expensive, so our products are more expensive than they were last year, and that’s just operating expenses,” he said. “Our cost of running the business is more expensive and the consumer is feeling that.”

Still, the strength of overall business is strong, and Exp Group LLC is doing all it can to keep things that way.

“We’re seeing more struggles now than we did in April of 2020, Serafino said. “We’re dealing with higher inflation, increased costs from shipping providers, and thankfully we have our own trucking division to control that. It’s very expensive to get a truck. At one point, we were seeing trucks from Texas to New York City commanding $10,000 and that’s a price you would usually see from Nogales and California.”

That means some gambling and hedging on the items they feel will be more in demand and that’s often tough to predict.

“We try to control as much as we can control,” Serafino said. “When I’m asked, ‘why should I buy from your company?’ I always tell them, when you buy from the Exp Group, you get the lineage of an entire supply chain — we’re packers, shippers, distributors, importers and wholesalers.”

Exp Group is still waiting on trucks it ordered last year and is looking to move into more space in 2022, and both developments will ensure future growth.

“We’re trying to focus in on new items, new clientele, focus on our retail business; we’re a B-to-B business, but maybe go B-to-C a little bit,” Serafino said. “We’re just trying to reimagine how to do business. We try to be different than the competition and I think that’s what makes us special.”