The Reedley, CA, division of Giumarra Bros. Fruit Co. Inc., which is part of Los Angeles-based The Giumarra Cos., specializes in stone fruit, and the company’s go-to-market strategy consists of two things, according to Jeannine Martin, director of sales: “It is freshness and it is flavor.”Jeannine Martin

Freshness, Ms. Martin said, is achieved through a quick turnaround of inventory “with programs that we have built with our retailers.” At Giumarra, “we are very good at doing forecasting and getting pre-commitments so we get that turnaround,” she said.

Flavor is a key component of the go-to-market strategy because “we know that is what the consumer wants. We focus on those two things,” she said. “That experience with the consumer brings them back to buy more.”

An important part of assuring good flavor is Giumarra’s tree ripe program. “We are definitely a tree ripe home,” she said. “Our product is packed completely tree ripe, and that is a differentiation for us.

“In order to provide the consumer with a ripe and juicy piece of fruit, we manage our growing and harvesting operations in a manner that has not changed since we first started doing business,” the company website states. The objective from the inception has been “to replicate as closely as possible the experience of picking a piece of ripe fruit in an orchard in California and eating it out of hand.”

Fruit packed in the company’s “Nature’s Partner LTD” label  “may stay on the tree for as long as three to five days beyond what might be considered the ‘regular’ harvest point. It is during the last few days on the tree that the fruit grows fastest and acquires the most flavor and sweetness,” the website states. “The ‘LTD’ method of harvesting ensures that the fruit is mature and as sweet as possible when it reaches the consumer.”

“Jeannine has her same team together this year, for the second year,” said John Thiesen, operations manager. It is “a wonderful group, an awesome team that she has developed.”

“It is nice” that there has been no change in the team this year, Ms. Martin said. “The sales people that we have in the office, the gentleman who works doing analysis for us and helps with the forecasting, the partnership and the teamwork that we have developed between our sales staff, our shipping department and our packingline — all of those are components that make us do a better job for our customers in giving them service. That is very solid, and we come into the year again with that same combination, which is really very powerful.”

Giumarra expected to start its 2013 California stone fruit program April 29, with apricots, “followed closely by white peaches” later in the week, Mr. Thiesen said.

Probably around May 7, “we will start our Super Rich yellow peach, and around the same time we will have the Polar Light white nectarines,” said Ms. Martin. The company’s Zee Fire yellow nectarines were expected to start around May 12-13. “Once those varieties start, we will have supplies behind that through the season.”

Plums, both black and red varieties, traditionally start for Giumarra around the first of June, although “we may have a few red plums the last week of May,” she said.

“We will have Pluots right around the 20th to 22nd of May.” The first variety will be Flavorosa, and that will be followed later by “some real good eating varieties that come through the season,” Ms. Martin said. The company does not have a continuous supply of Pluots every week throughout the season, “but the varieties that we do have eat very well.”

Giumarra has “a good supply of apricots early in the season” from the Kettleman area. Then production moves up to the central San Joaquin Valley where “we have the Lornas and Sierra Sunrise. Then we will finish the season with Pattersons this year out of this area,” she said. “We’ve got increased supply because we have picked up additional apricots” for the latter part of the season.

In peaches and nectarines, “we have pretty much the same crop as last year,” with “the traditional good-eating varieties that have worked for us and our clients over the past four to five years,” Ms. Martin said.

As new plantings are going in, “we will see some growth” in the program, Mr. Thiesen said.