Loop Fresh Produce in McAllen, TX, and the Allen Lund Co., headquartered in La Cañada, CA, are several months into a new alliance to meet the needs of mutual customers shipping product from south Texas, and by all accounts the program has been a rousing success.

“Our focus has been addressing some of the challenges associated with shipping less-than-truckload quantities of fresh produce from the McAllen area,” said John McGuire, Workers load a truck at Loop Fresh Produce in McAllen, TX. The company has formed a powerful new partnership with the Allen Lund Co. to move product out of the Rio Grande Valley. (Photo by Chip Carter)vice president of business development at Loop. “The combination of Loop’s cooler operations and ALC’s transportation expertise allow us to bring new services to the market.”

Said Scott Fletcher, Allen Lund’s Dallas manager, “We have enjoyed developing a working relationship with Loop. Loop has a lot of similarities to the Allen Lund Company in that we both work to operate in our areas of specialty in an open, honest and ethical manner. The Allen Lund Company has long been involved in the transportation of fresh produce and realizes that McAllen and the importation of fresh Mexican produce is a large and growing market.”

The LTL program for shippers currently consists of trailers running either 33 or 48 degrees Fahrenheit. Primary service areas include cities in Texas and surrounding states, as well as the Midwest and the Northeast.

“At Loop we believe that the LTL market is an area that we can assist not only current storage customers, but also other shippers in the area, along with buyers picking up product FOB McAllen,” Mr. McGuire said. “We plan to develop local consolidation services to assist buyers that are picking up product in McAllen, handling those demanding orders that require pickups at multiple coolers in the area.”

In addition to the transportation partnership with Lund, Loop “continues to make further inroads with other value-added services, including repack capabilities and quality-control inspections,” Mr. McGuire said.

Meanwhile, Lund “is taking steps to build its presence in the Rio Grande Valley market and has been very pleased with the partner that we’ve found in Loop,” Mr. Fletcher said. “The Allen Lund Company has also recently opened an office in McAllen with our sights set on being a premier transportation brokerage source for both domestic and international produce shipping out of the RGV market.”

The partnership has worked well for both sides.

“Scott Fletcher and his team at the Allen Lund Company in Dallas have been great to work with,” Mr. McGuire said. “Both companies are excited about the capabilities we both bring to customers and believe the McAllen market will continue to be a growing and dynamic marketplace into the future.”

Both companies will be exhibiting at United Fresh in San Diego, CA. Loop Fresh will be in booth 943 while Allen Lund will have booth 912.