“All of us here are very excited about opening the phase two expansion of our Vineland warehouse soon,” said Madden. “It will add another 30,000 square feet to the 20,000 square feet we already have at that location. That will allow us to add a couple more bagging lines and machines and allow us to store and pack more products for our customers.
“Basically, this expansion will help us grow the company simply by having more items that are readily available to our customers,” Madden continued. “The more products we have in the warehouse, the more positive it looks to our customers and the more efficiently we can get those items to them.”
Phase three will make it even better, he added. Madden said the next expansion will add another 30,000 square feet to the warehouse, creating the opportunity for more machinery to keep things running smoothly and more room for storage. “We are just going to keep going and going because it makes complete sense and is a big part of our business plan,” he explained.
With about 25 employees and facilities in New Jersey, Miami, Ecuador and Chile and farms in such places as Argentina, Peru and Spain, Madden said it is all about service. Having its own transportation department to help with on-time deliveries helps a lot too.
“We intend to grow our level of service to our existing customers and to draw new customers on a constant basis,” he said. “We do everything under one roof, including trucking, re-packing and quality control. We can turn on a dime and get product to our customers extremely quickly. Our customers notice that.”
Macadu Fresh is completing its summer program and ready to jump right into the fall harvest.
Madden noted that the domestic blueberry programs will finish up in mid-September and attention will turn to imported berries from Peru after that.
More attention will be given to the citrus program this fall and into the winter, he added. After a tight citrus harvest from Chile, Madden is hopeful that a good citrus harvest will come out of California this fall, especially with navel oranges. “We are ready to get rocking with those programs in upcoming weeks,” he said.
In New Jersey, Madden is focusing on a healthy crop of leafy greens, herbs and lettuce and is hopeful that the season can last into early to mid-November before the first frost. After that, the company will focus on grapes out of Chile and Peru during the late-fall and into the winter season in the U.S.
Macadu Fresh is going to be launching a new brand within the next two months. Madden said the still-unnamed brand, which is going through the trademark process, will be used for all existing categories — including citrus, blueberries and strawberries — and is intended to be Macadu’s staple brand that should play well with retailers.
“We are extremely excited about this,” he noted. “It will be great for our retail partners and great for us. It is just another part of our strategy to show our existing and new customers that Macadu Fresh is grinding along and doing what it can to build our business in the right way. Everyone will win.”
