M. Levin celebrates centennial
M. Levin celebrates centennial
PHILADELPHIA -- "Family lore," as they call it, figuratively piled on the table before them as four members of the Levin family discussed the centennial anniversary of their family's business, M. Levin & Co. Inc., here.
Four cousins patched together a historic story quilt that showed the colorful history of the produce business and a company that was founded in 1906 by Michael Levin, a Lithuanian immigrant.
Participating in the dialogue were the four principal partners of M. Levin & Co., Michael Levin, 64, his brother David Levin, 57, Mark Levin, 52, and Joel Segel, 60, who started working for the company when he was 15. Company founder, the late Michael Levin, was grandfather to all these men. (For the purpose of this story, founder Michael Levin will be referred to as "Michael" to differentiate him from his namesake grandson, here called "Grandson Michael.") Michael died in 1958.
As is always the dilemma for writers, some of their better stories were off the record to avoid offending one industry participant or another. Such caution levels were particularly high when some of the stories are a century old, and passed down the lane many times. They caution that any of their stories might be less than historical fact.
"To tell these stories from the past, they're all second- and third- hand," said Joel. "One thing that is unfortunate is that I never saw my grandfather when he was actually working."
Joel's mother, Florence Segel, is the only surviving child of Michael. She was also the oldest of the six children. She will be 95 years old on July 4, 2006. Albert Levin was the second-oldest of the children. He died in 1983 and, as president of M. Levin, ran the company from 1950 to 1976. Martin Levin was the third child, followed by Leon and Ralph Levin. Leon and Martin Levin bought the company in 1976 when Albert retired. The youngest of the six children was daughter Mitzi.
Grandson Michael eventually started working at the company's Spruce Street location in downtown Philadelphia. He said that at that time the company had two locations -- on Spruce Street and on nearby Dock Street. Dock Street was the center of Philadelphia's wholesale business until the existing Philadelphia Produce Market was built in 1959. M. Levin & Co. was the first firm to sign a contract to make the move to the market. The firm built its own large brick, 200,000-square-foot warehouse across the street from the market. The firm also distributes from units on the market walk.
Mark Levin said that when Michael entered the business in 1906, "bananas at that time were a new product coming into the U.S. on a commercial level."
In 1906, there were two banana importers in Philadelphia: Atlantic Fruit Co. and Standard Fruit & Steamship. Atlantic Fruit later became United Fruit, which became Chiquita. Standard later became Dole. Michael started selling bananas from a pushcart. Joel said that Michael expanded his business by offering job opportunities to others. He would give bananas to those looking for a job. Those people, who had no money, received these directions: "Go sell these bananas. Come back tomorrow, pay me for the fruit, and I'll give you more to sell." Joel added: "He put them in business by giving them immediate credit. Our grandfather trusted people to this extent."
Grandson Michael added, "Would we survive in business today doing that? No."
Michael was so effective in developing a banana distribution business that the banana companies worked with him to expand his business. He brought his brothers and children into the business to help it grow.
Joel indicated that the company had to change its operations during World War II because the banana boats that had served the Dock Street market were commissioned by the U.S. government into the war effort. Therefore, smaller ships were used to deliver bananas from Cuba and Haiti into Miami. Michael Levin then moved to Miami to purchase fruit there and ship it to Philadelphia by rail. Leon and Ralph were serving in the military in Europe during World War II. Leon, Mark's father, joined his parents in Miami after the war.
Martin was the father of David Levin and Michael, who is also an attorney and, among other duties, handles the firm's legal affairs. Joel said that "the key" to his grandfather's success from the very beginning "was his great pride in his line of credit and his name. Most important, he paid promptly. That's why the Atlantic Fruit Co. worked with him to start M. Levin. His credit was good. He made sacrifices to make sure it was good."
Grandson Michael added that his grandfather suffered during the Depression because he had too much trust in the credit and names of his customers, who repeatedly failed to pay their bills. Mark said that when he graduated from college at 2 p.m., he reported for work with the company at 10 p.m. He continued to work the night shift for five or six years. Along the way, Mark worked for a time in New Jersey for Chiquita, and in that time, he heard many stories about his grandfather. "The stories were consistent. When there was a shortage [of bananas] after World War II, he called customers from Baltimore to New York and made sure they got bananas."
Before World War I, Michael Levin moved his family to a 188-acre dairy farm in Montgomeryville, PA. He hoped that employing his brothers on a farm would help them avoid military service. (It happens that part of that farm in the 1980s became a housing subdivision, which is home to this Produce News reporter.) Michael wanted to be a farmer, but he had to sell the farm during the Depression so he could pay his bills. M. Levin had flourished before the Depression, then had to rebuild in the 1940s. Helping the renewed growth was a close connection with the American Stores Co. (Acme of Philadelphia), which was rapidly building stores and relied upon M. Levin for banana supplies.
Another intriguing story involves Michael and his wife, Ida Levin. One day, Ida, who was in her 60s at the time, had been shopping and was holding a heavy load of packages as she awaited a bus to take her to her home at the exclusive Rittenhouse Claridge. In a bold move for the times, a man driving his car pulled to the curb and offered to give Ida a ride home, which she accepted. As the pair talked in the car, they learned a connection: Michael Levin had once given this man a carriage for his baby because the family could not otherwise afford it. The driver was thrilled to have had a chance to return a favor.
On the fourth floor of the M. Levin warehouse on Dock Street, Michael Levin collected old clothes, which he sent to needy Jews settling what was to become Israel. He later headed an organization that built a colony for people who had been displaced and settled in Israel.
Joel said that one version of the family legend is that his grandfather left Lithuania to avoid being conscripted into the Czar's army. The cousins noted that other versions are less glamorous. But, either way, he brought his brothers to the United States as he established his business. It is unclear what Michael Levin's Lithuanian name was, but his nickname was "Max." He was 17 years old when he came to the United States in 1905. He met and married Ida Haimovitz in 1907.
Because he spoke no English upon landing on American soil, being a banana huckster was the easiest way to make a living, Joel said. "He sold for more than he bought," an axiom that carries considerable weight to this day.
His first business location was a one-room cellar at 315 S. 2nd St. in Philadelphia. That cellar served as his ripening room. Obviously, the company upgraded facilities thereafter.
Joel, who buys potatoes, onions, Western citrus, apples and pears, has worked for the company since the 1960s. He has found the banana business to be of particular interest because he has seen the transition from shipping banana bunches, to boxes, then palletized boxes. Banana bunches brought boa constrictors, swarms of ants, scorpions and tarantulas. Michael noted that the largest living object ever transported within boxes on a pallet was a stowaway person, who left evidence of his hiding inside a pallet for days.
"Now [the bananas are] washed before they're put in the box," Joel noted. "Before boxes, we cut and weighed" the fruit. "We packaged the bananas in shredded paper. That was an interesting time." As part of its centennial celebration, M. Levin has posted a large banner on its warehouse and at its location across the street on the Philadelphia market thanking its customers for its 100 years of success. The firm also has its centennial logo on some of its private-label tropical products.
"We take pride in what we do," Mark said. "It gives us all satisfaction and pride to see the banner outside." He said that there are few, if any, other Philadelphia produce companies that are 100 years old. If there is another, it has not been operated by the same family for a century, he said.
Mark Levin said that his firm will be part of the move to the proposed new Philadelphia wholesale produce market. M. Levin's brick warehouse facing the old market will continue to operate, giving the company additional storage and distribution space only a mile-and-a-half from the new site in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. He noted that a fourth generation of the Levin family is already involved in the business, so the company wants to grow beyond current levels. He added that M. Levin will be a larger player in the new market than it is on the existing market.
Among the fourth generation in the business is Margie Levin- Fischman, who is Grandson Michael's daughter. Margie, who is in sales, works with her husband, Marty Fischman, at M. Levin. Joel's daughter, Brenda Segel, is in inventory control for the company.
Mark's daughter Tracie is soon graduating from the University of Delaware and will join the company this spring. Mark observed, "The next generation for a while will be all women."
Mark said that Martin and Leon Levin retired for health reasons in the mid-1990s. Neither lived long thereafter, and the four cousins have run the business since that time.
Michael noted, "We get along better than we used to." David added, "We're smart enough not to kill the goose that laid the golden egg."
The four owners coordinate to ensure that there is top management on the premises six days a week, 24 hours a day, Mark said. "There is someone in our building 365 days a year."
He noted that banana jobbers such as Levin have lost banana volume to retail distribution centers ripening their own bananas. Prior to the trend shift, he said M. Levin was ranked among the country's top-five banana jobbers. He has not seen a ranking since the industry shift, but he believes M. Levin would still be among the five larger banana jobbers in the country.
Bananas remain the largest-volume item for a company that has greatly diversified. Mark said that bananas comprise about 35 percent of the firm's sales.
David Levin, who heads banana buying and ripening as well as the firm's pineapple program, said that this year the banana business has been difficult because of increased demand from Europe and hurricane damage to the crop last fall. "Supplies are very short and there are not enough supplies to go around." He said that the banana companies are offering fewer contracts than in the past.
In early May, banana prices were in the range of $18-$20 per box at the seaport, which "is the highest I've ever seen."
M. Levin picks up bananas in nearby Wilmington, DE, from Dole and Chiquita dockside container operations at that port. The firm also handles fruit from Banacol, Bonita and some from Del Monte. Mark said that banana importers with distribution centers are Levin's biggest competition.
M. Levin has always been a significant player in tropical products, but that business has still grown a great deal in recent years, Mark said. In addition to bananas and plantains, the firm sells large volumes to yucca, Maradol papayas and chayote to ethnic groups ranging from Hispanics to Koreans and Japanese. The firm's tropical products list is hundreds of items long.
Four cousins patched together a historic story quilt that showed the colorful history of the produce business and a company that was founded in 1906 by Michael Levin, a Lithuanian immigrant.
Participating in the dialogue were the four principal partners of M. Levin & Co., Michael Levin, 64, his brother David Levin, 57, Mark Levin, 52, and Joel Segel, 60, who started working for the company when he was 15. Company founder, the late Michael Levin, was grandfather to all these men. (For the purpose of this story, founder Michael Levin will be referred to as "Michael" to differentiate him from his namesake grandson, here called "Grandson Michael.") Michael died in 1958.
As is always the dilemma for writers, some of their better stories were off the record to avoid offending one industry participant or another. Such caution levels were particularly high when some of the stories are a century old, and passed down the lane many times. They caution that any of their stories might be less than historical fact.
"To tell these stories from the past, they're all second- and third- hand," said Joel. "One thing that is unfortunate is that I never saw my grandfather when he was actually working."
Joel's mother, Florence Segel, is the only surviving child of Michael. She was also the oldest of the six children. She will be 95 years old on July 4, 2006. Albert Levin was the second-oldest of the children. He died in 1983 and, as president of M. Levin, ran the company from 1950 to 1976. Martin Levin was the third child, followed by Leon and Ralph Levin. Leon and Martin Levin bought the company in 1976 when Albert retired. The youngest of the six children was daughter Mitzi.
Grandson Michael eventually started working at the company's Spruce Street location in downtown Philadelphia. He said that at that time the company had two locations -- on Spruce Street and on nearby Dock Street. Dock Street was the center of Philadelphia's wholesale business until the existing Philadelphia Produce Market was built in 1959. M. Levin & Co. was the first firm to sign a contract to make the move to the market. The firm built its own large brick, 200,000-square-foot warehouse across the street from the market. The firm also distributes from units on the market walk.
Mark Levin said that when Michael entered the business in 1906, "bananas at that time were a new product coming into the U.S. on a commercial level."
In 1906, there were two banana importers in Philadelphia: Atlantic Fruit Co. and Standard Fruit & Steamship. Atlantic Fruit later became United Fruit, which became Chiquita. Standard later became Dole. Michael started selling bananas from a pushcart. Joel said that Michael expanded his business by offering job opportunities to others. He would give bananas to those looking for a job. Those people, who had no money, received these directions: "Go sell these bananas. Come back tomorrow, pay me for the fruit, and I'll give you more to sell." Joel added: "He put them in business by giving them immediate credit. Our grandfather trusted people to this extent."
Grandson Michael added, "Would we survive in business today doing that? No."
Michael was so effective in developing a banana distribution business that the banana companies worked with him to expand his business. He brought his brothers and children into the business to help it grow.
Joel indicated that the company had to change its operations during World War II because the banana boats that had served the Dock Street market were commissioned by the U.S. government into the war effort. Therefore, smaller ships were used to deliver bananas from Cuba and Haiti into Miami. Michael Levin then moved to Miami to purchase fruit there and ship it to Philadelphia by rail. Leon and Ralph were serving in the military in Europe during World War II. Leon, Mark's father, joined his parents in Miami after the war.
Martin was the father of David Levin and Michael, who is also an attorney and, among other duties, handles the firm's legal affairs. Joel said that "the key" to his grandfather's success from the very beginning "was his great pride in his line of credit and his name. Most important, he paid promptly. That's why the Atlantic Fruit Co. worked with him to start M. Levin. His credit was good. He made sacrifices to make sure it was good."
Grandson Michael added that his grandfather suffered during the Depression because he had too much trust in the credit and names of his customers, who repeatedly failed to pay their bills. Mark said that when he graduated from college at 2 p.m., he reported for work with the company at 10 p.m. He continued to work the night shift for five or six years. Along the way, Mark worked for a time in New Jersey for Chiquita, and in that time, he heard many stories about his grandfather. "The stories were consistent. When there was a shortage [of bananas] after World War II, he called customers from Baltimore to New York and made sure they got bananas."
Before World War I, Michael Levin moved his family to a 188-acre dairy farm in Montgomeryville, PA. He hoped that employing his brothers on a farm would help them avoid military service. (It happens that part of that farm in the 1980s became a housing subdivision, which is home to this Produce News reporter.) Michael wanted to be a farmer, but he had to sell the farm during the Depression so he could pay his bills. M. Levin had flourished before the Depression, then had to rebuild in the 1940s. Helping the renewed growth was a close connection with the American Stores Co. (Acme of Philadelphia), which was rapidly building stores and relied upon M. Levin for banana supplies.
Another intriguing story involves Michael and his wife, Ida Levin. One day, Ida, who was in her 60s at the time, had been shopping and was holding a heavy load of packages as she awaited a bus to take her to her home at the exclusive Rittenhouse Claridge. In a bold move for the times, a man driving his car pulled to the curb and offered to give Ida a ride home, which she accepted. As the pair talked in the car, they learned a connection: Michael Levin had once given this man a carriage for his baby because the family could not otherwise afford it. The driver was thrilled to have had a chance to return a favor.
On the fourth floor of the M. Levin warehouse on Dock Street, Michael Levin collected old clothes, which he sent to needy Jews settling what was to become Israel. He later headed an organization that built a colony for people who had been displaced and settled in Israel.
Joel said that one version of the family legend is that his grandfather left Lithuania to avoid being conscripted into the Czar's army. The cousins noted that other versions are less glamorous. But, either way, he brought his brothers to the United States as he established his business. It is unclear what Michael Levin's Lithuanian name was, but his nickname was "Max." He was 17 years old when he came to the United States in 1905. He met and married Ida Haimovitz in 1907.
Because he spoke no English upon landing on American soil, being a banana huckster was the easiest way to make a living, Joel said. "He sold for more than he bought," an axiom that carries considerable weight to this day.
His first business location was a one-room cellar at 315 S. 2nd St. in Philadelphia. That cellar served as his ripening room. Obviously, the company upgraded facilities thereafter.
Joel, who buys potatoes, onions, Western citrus, apples and pears, has worked for the company since the 1960s. He has found the banana business to be of particular interest because he has seen the transition from shipping banana bunches, to boxes, then palletized boxes. Banana bunches brought boa constrictors, swarms of ants, scorpions and tarantulas. Michael noted that the largest living object ever transported within boxes on a pallet was a stowaway person, who left evidence of his hiding inside a pallet for days.
"Now [the bananas are] washed before they're put in the box," Joel noted. "Before boxes, we cut and weighed" the fruit. "We packaged the bananas in shredded paper. That was an interesting time." As part of its centennial celebration, M. Levin has posted a large banner on its warehouse and at its location across the street on the Philadelphia market thanking its customers for its 100 years of success. The firm also has its centennial logo on some of its private-label tropical products.
"We take pride in what we do," Mark said. "It gives us all satisfaction and pride to see the banner outside." He said that there are few, if any, other Philadelphia produce companies that are 100 years old. If there is another, it has not been operated by the same family for a century, he said.
Mark Levin said that his firm will be part of the move to the proposed new Philadelphia wholesale produce market. M. Levin's brick warehouse facing the old market will continue to operate, giving the company additional storage and distribution space only a mile-and-a-half from the new site in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. He noted that a fourth generation of the Levin family is already involved in the business, so the company wants to grow beyond current levels. He added that M. Levin will be a larger player in the new market than it is on the existing market.
Among the fourth generation in the business is Margie Levin- Fischman, who is Grandson Michael's daughter. Margie, who is in sales, works with her husband, Marty Fischman, at M. Levin. Joel's daughter, Brenda Segel, is in inventory control for the company.
Mark's daughter Tracie is soon graduating from the University of Delaware and will join the company this spring. Mark observed, "The next generation for a while will be all women."
Mark said that Martin and Leon Levin retired for health reasons in the mid-1990s. Neither lived long thereafter, and the four cousins have run the business since that time.
Michael noted, "We get along better than we used to." David added, "We're smart enough not to kill the goose that laid the golden egg."
The four owners coordinate to ensure that there is top management on the premises six days a week, 24 hours a day, Mark said. "There is someone in our building 365 days a year."
He noted that banana jobbers such as Levin have lost banana volume to retail distribution centers ripening their own bananas. Prior to the trend shift, he said M. Levin was ranked among the country's top-five banana jobbers. He has not seen a ranking since the industry shift, but he believes M. Levin would still be among the five larger banana jobbers in the country.
Bananas remain the largest-volume item for a company that has greatly diversified. Mark said that bananas comprise about 35 percent of the firm's sales.
David Levin, who heads banana buying and ripening as well as the firm's pineapple program, said that this year the banana business has been difficult because of increased demand from Europe and hurricane damage to the crop last fall. "Supplies are very short and there are not enough supplies to go around." He said that the banana companies are offering fewer contracts than in the past.
In early May, banana prices were in the range of $18-$20 per box at the seaport, which "is the highest I've ever seen."
M. Levin picks up bananas in nearby Wilmington, DE, from Dole and Chiquita dockside container operations at that port. The firm also handles fruit from Banacol, Bonita and some from Del Monte. Mark said that banana importers with distribution centers are Levin's biggest competition.
M. Levin has always been a significant player in tropical products, but that business has still grown a great deal in recent years, Mark said. In addition to bananas and plantains, the firm sells large volumes to yucca, Maradol papayas and chayote to ethnic groups ranging from Hispanics to Koreans and Japanese. The firm's tropical products list is hundreds of items long.
