Though Bland Farms LLC has become an international giant in the sweet onion industry, the empire was built on Vidalia onions and they remain at the top of the pecking order at the company’s Glennville, GA, headquarters. But the company’s sweet onions from Mexico and Texas are playing an increasingly important role and take top billing this time of year.

Bland is one of the world’s larger grower-shippers of Vidalia onions and has a 12-month sweet onion program with farms around the world. But owner Delbert Bland is planning for even bigger and better things.

“With the new highway and bridge coming into place in Mexico, Texas is just booming and is going to get bigger every day,” said Bland, who also operates a mammoth distribution facility, Bland Distribution Services, in Donna, TX.

Bland Distribution Services’ cross-dock facility in Donna, TX, has been a tremendous success and already expanded since opening five years agoBland’s marketing savvy helped propel Vidalia onions into the national spotlight in the 1980s. In the 1990s, the company grew to control that market. In the 2000s, it expanded operations to become a 12-month supplier of sweet onions with operations in Georgia, Texas, New York, California, Oregon, Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile and Guatemala.

“We know a lot about how to grow onions,” Bland said. “But when you go to the next level and are managing a multimillion-dollar company you have to have people who are expert in their fields to assist you, that’s for sure. I learned a long time ago you best hire people who’re smarter than you are if you want to survive.”

Bland has built a top-notch team of executives to help lead Bland Farms into the future. He is equally excited about the promise sons Troy and Landis, who have been with the company for several years now, are showing in the deal.

“You’ve got to love what you’re doing or you can’t do it or won’t be good at it, you’ll just do it because you have to, you’ve got to love what you do. What’s exciting to me now is watching my sons get involved in the business and they have the same passion I do and that really makes you feel good,” Bland said.

Troy Bland was recently promoted to director of operations after filling that same role on an interim basis for the last year.

Bland also knows his sons will benefit and learn from the executive team he has put together. “There ain’t nobody any better than the people that are around them every day,” Bland said. “People are really, really dedicated to this company. It makes a tremendous amount of difference. At the end of the day that’s what it’s all about. It don’t matter where you’ve been or where you’re going — who you love and who loves you is all that matter when it’s all over with.”