Exp. Group’s 2026 expansion plans focus on service
Exp. Group’s 2026 expansion plans focus on service
Following significant steps to expand its fruit program in 2025, Exp. Group has major plans this year, adding at least one location, doubling space in south Texas and launching a frozen division at its North Bergen, NJ, headquarters.
“We’re hoping to announce our next location very soon,” Anthony Serafino, Exp. Group president said in late March. “We have planned some serious expansion because we feel we can serve different markets in an efficient way.”
The company is moving from its McAllen, TX, facility to a larger one in nearby Pharr in the Rio Grande Valley.
“That will be double the square footage, double the office space, double the doors that we need to serve our logistical capability,” Serafino said.
The company added a location in Bayshore, Long Island last year.
The company is building infrastructure for its frozen division, which will focus on fruit and vegetable products, but could include other items in the future. The move into frozen is driven by younger consumers seeking the convenience and a dearth of end-to-end cold chain infrastructure, Serafino said.
“The younger generation doesn’t want to be sitting there peeling yucca, right? They want to just open the box, dump it the oven, and have yucca fries ready to go,” he said. “We’re seeing that in our foodservice growth because we are serving more foodservice clientele, and this is what clients are asking us, ‘Hey, what do you guys do on frozen?’"
The market is ready for such an investment, he said.
“We also feel that there is a void in the frozen logistics supply chain, with very few people in this area that do end-to-end cold chain logistics,” Serafino said. “So, we feel that there’s a good niche for us as well to grow in this category.”
Guided by longstanding values
Serafino’s father, Emil Serafino, founded the company in 2005, but he opened his first business in the produce industry in 1967 after arriving in the U.S. from Sicily. Serafino said his father, who turned 70 in February, is CEO of the business and is still involved.
Serafino said his father is an important resource when he’s making decisions.
“Whether it’s technology or keeping up with the current trends, we can still have the same values that I was raised on, and our company wants to make that possible,” he said. “The world is changing, right? So, we want to be sure that we can take what we have from the past and bring it to this new world order.”
That new environment, he said, will be shaped by changes in marketing, and its larger role in serving customers and consumers.
“We’re making changes to be the organization of tomorrow, and I think technology and how we market is going to be critical for our organization,” he said. “This will always be at the forefront of what we do because it’s really how people are touching and gathering around brands and merchandise.”
With Exp. Group’s second-generation footprint, when many competitors have a longer history, Serafino said, “we have to run when other people can maybe afford to jog, and that’s OK. We have a good culture here and we’re building on that, adding little pieces each year.”
An over-the-road trucking division, Exp. Freight, will be launched this year. It will complement its current division, Exp. Logistics, which delivers within a 150-mile radius of the New Jersey headquarters.
“Exp. Freight is an over-the-road division that we’re looking to launch because we feel that we can actually service ourselves going from Texas all the way up to the Northeast and vice versa,” he said. “With logistics, there can be a lot of flexing we can do. It allows us to be about service.”
Exp. Group has four pillars of strength: quality, service, brand and culture, Serafino said, striving to “exceed expectations by putting customers first and delivering personalized solutions with integrity and care.”
