It was just about four years ago that the partners in Greengate Fresh LLC in Salinas, CA, filed their incorporation papers and began to put their business plan in action. By April of 2010, the firm was selling bags of lettuce and other staple commodities to the foodservice industry.

“From the very beginning we put our focus on the foodservice or hospitality industry and that is still the major portion of our business,” said Jay Iverson, vice president of sales and marketing for the firm. “We do a little bit of club store business, but basically we stick to foodservice customers.”

GreenGate Fresh’s processing facility in Salinas, CA, features stainless steel walls and ceilings. The company has another facility in Yuma, AZ.Greengate specializes in selling multiple-pound bags of shredded lettuce, salad mixes, chopped romaine, spinach and spring mixes to virtually any foodservice operator that uses that product. While the firm does sell to individual restaurants, Iverson said much of their business goes to volume feeders such as schools, hospitals, prisons, commissaries — “anybody that buys bagged lettuce. We sell it in two-, three-, four- and five-pound bags.”

It is a commodity business, so Iverson said the company is not doing anything fancy to woo customers. “We are just trying to do what we do a little better than anybody else — better product, better service, better quality.”

The company has customers in all 50 states as well as Canada and has processing facilities in Salinas and Yuma, AZ. During this conversation in early November, the Salinas Valley deal was on its last legs and Greengate was preparing to transition to Yuma beginning on Nov. 17.

With its foot firmly in the foodservice sector, the company’s start date and how it has fared during the recession was noted by Iverson. “We did get going just about at the bottom of the pendulum swing,” he said. “Our feeling is if we could make it through those times, we can make it through anything.”

Iverson said he can feel the rebound that has occurred in the foodservice industry but he also marvels at the resiliency of the American people. “Mostly it has been about making choices. Maybe a family or a couple used to go out and eat at PF Changs all the time. Now they still go out but maybe they downgrade once in a while. Or somebody that used to go to a sit-down lunch is now eating at Subway.”

He said Americans have proven to be very resourceful, which creates opportunities for companies such as Greengate. There is business to be had, you just have to find it.

The Greengate executive noted the same resiliency during the October government shutdown. “My wife and I went over to Lake Tahoe where just about everything is run by the U.S. Forest Service. Everything was closed but all that meant was that the parking lots were closed and no one was there to sell you anything. People were still parking on the side of the road and hiking in to see the sights they wanted to see. People get by. They manage. That’s just how we are in America.”

It’s obvious that Iverson adopts the same philosophy in the business. The company sells most of its output to volume feeders on a pre-set contract price. In the August to October period when vegetable prices were sky high and supplies were tough to find, Greengate had to go out on the open market to fill its orders. “It was a challenge,” he said. “But everything was OK and we were able to cover our orders. I’d say we covered 98 or 99 percent of them.”

As such the company really wasn’t able to participate in the windfall that other firms received from the very high prices, even with some built in escalator clauses. But Iverson isn’t fretting. “I’m glad we only had the foodservice accounts,” he quipped. “I wouldn’t have wanted to have that decision of either filling the $9 shredded lettuce orders or the $30 carton orders.”