Robt. T. Cochran & Co. focus on doing things right

Robt. T. Cochran & Co. has more than 130 years of experience in the produce industry, working with those in the industry to provide the best value around for its customers.

Michael Cochran, vice president of sales for the company, is a fifth-generation family member at the Hunts Point Terminal Market in the Bronx, NY, and knows his family’s legacy in the industry has helped the company remain a success.

The early word on 2024 is pretty much following the pattern of last year, with some challenges impacting how things are going.

“This last year has been interesting with all the different crop failures around the world,” Cochran said. “Last year was a little mediocre, as people are pulling back against the high prices a little bit and penny-pinch a bit more.”

He noted 2022 was really good, but a lot of what’s happening now are things that people haven’t seen before, so the leaders of the company have strategized on how to make things work best for their customers.

“We have been at Hunts Point since it opened, and we know that you’re only as a good as your last sale,” Cochran said. “You just have to keep going, bring in stuff, move the product and move on. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been here if you don’t do things right.”

The company is always on the lookout for what’s trending, looking at what customers are buying and what specialty items are finding their way into recipes. That could lead to changes in product from week to week or month to month.

Being a family-run company is important to those who work there, as they know it has a legacy of being one of the top companies on the market.

“I always worked with my father, who is 90 percent retired now, and the family part has always been good — you teach your offspring what you’ve done and obviously things have to be adapted over time,” Cochran said. “We don’t do things the same way as when I started 20 years ago, and my father didn’t do it the same way as his father.”

Since Cochran has been at the company, he’s helped modernize the computer system, bring in more tech, optimize deliveries and other things that weren’t done years ago.

Robt. T. Cochran & Co., is the longest-owned company at Hunts Point and has kept running smoothly thanks to family and a loyal, hard-working employee base, many of whom have been working for the company a long time.

“Down here, you just have to find some deals and keep selling, and hopefully it works out; there’s no guarantees,” Cochran said. “We do what we can, the best we can. There’s nothing that guarantees your next day here, so you just have to keep working hard.”