When three of the best growers in northwest Mexico joined forces and formed Marengo Foods Co. LLC, the company name they chose had special meaning and gives their business model focus.

The company and brand name — Marengo — was the name of Napoleon’s horse, which was named after the first victory he had as head of France in which he liberated Italy from the Austrians. “More importantly, Marengo was an Arabian horse, which was very different than the usual thoroughbreds that were used in the European battlefield at the time,” said Juan M. Ibarra, chief executive officer of the firm. “This type of horse was sturdier and better suited for the challenges of the long campaigns of the wars in the era, like the changing weather, lack of water, food, and rough terrain that had to be faced, and this made them very successful. In fact, Marengo, the horse, became such a sensation that when the English army defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, the horse was taken for stud to develop similar traits in the horse stock of the English cavalry, and the actual skeleton of Marengo sits at the museum of war in London.”

Ibarra said that while this story has no direct relation to the produce industry, there is a certain analogy to be said about the way the firm started shipping vegetables through the McAllen, TX, route, which was not the traditional shipping lane from Mexico to the United States. “As such we had to overcome some challenges, but in the long run, it will prove to be a very successful way to sell our products,” he said. “Moreover, we wanted to have a story to tell behind the name of our brand, even if it was not related to the business, but something that would catch the attention of our customers.”

Marengo Foods is a partnership of three large growers in the Mexican state of Sinaloa that produce a variety of mainline vegetables anchored by tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers and eggplant. “Our farms were established at the time the Culiacan Valley was being opened in the 1920s, when the first generation in the family proudly participated in plotting and building the first irrigation canals after a series of dams were built in the state,” Ibarra said. “Throughout the years, we have invested in new farming technologies that include the use of the first hybrid seeds, drip irrigation, pole growing, shade houses, greenhouses, grafting, and the like, in order to meet and exceed our customers’ demands, and to continue growing our business.”

Now with the fourth generation in the business, the partnership has established its own distribution firm in the United States, headquartered in Dallas, TX.   The main shipping operations is in McAllen, which offers product on a year-round basis. Most recently, a new state of the art, 52,000-square-foot cold storage facility was opened in nearby San Juan. According to Ibarra it is the most technologically advanced shipping operations in the McAllen produce shipping industry. “On top of all the equipment and infrastructure there is a great deal of credit that needs to go to the team that is running that operation,” he said. “The SOPs (standard operating procedures) that are in place allow for a better-than-anyone-in-the-industry kind of certainty as far as timeliness of unloading/loading, as well as the ability to monitor operations in real time from anywhere in the world, down to the most intricate detail about the orders being shipped out of that facility.”

The company has also recently added a facility in Nogales, AZ, to serve customers in the West especially during the winter shipping season.

“As far as our strategy, we have been preparing logistically as well as in terms of developing a team that is able to successfully place our crop in the marketplace not only through the newer and less traditional route (f.o.b. McAllen), but we have not forgotten the traditional one (f.o.b. Nogales), and we continue to invest in this effort, so that we are eventually able to sell the majority of our crop ourselves,” Ibarra said.

While the company does want to increase its direct sales, the Marengo Foods CEO said it also acknowledges the great value that repackers, wholesalers, and distributors provide the company in selling the tremendous amount of product it produces every year to customers all over the country and Canada. The firm sells to a wide range of customers covering many stops along the supply chain including foodservice. ”Evermore these customers (foodservice) are shifting more and more towards roma tomatoes vs. round tomatoes, and slowly but surely into specialty items like mini sweet peppers, heirloom tomatoes, and the like,” he added.

In its four core items, Marengo Foods produces a wide variety of packaging and size options for its customers. “Our products are grown, packed, and distributed by a single entity, which gives all our customers the highest confidence to work with us each and every day,” he said, adding that the newest wrinkle to those options are the beginnings of an organic program starting with grape and round tomatoes.