On Jan. 1, 2014, Sanfillipo Produce Co. Inc. took possession of the Columbus Produce Terminal Market. The acquisition included the purchase of Macaluso Fruit, which had been for a long time a friendly competitor on the market. Macaluso Fruit was renamed Macaluso Fruit LLC and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sanfillipo Produce.

Forty-year old James (Jamie) Sanfillipo III, operates the company with his father, Jim Sanfillipo Jr.

In January, Jamie Sanfillipo told The Produce News, “Our goal is to make this market a food destination” for consumers. Toward that end, Robin Sanfillipo, Jim’s sister and Jamie’s aunt, manages the Sanfillipo retail extension — Sanfillipo’s Fresh Fruit & Vegetables — in one of the bays. Snowville Creamery occupies two bays and has been on the market for over a year. More recently, the Columbus Food Hub/Greener Grocer rented two bays. In April Jamie noted that Great River Farms, a local organic farm, had also rented space, thereby filling the market units.

In the traditional produce business, Will W. Fischer & Son Co. continues to occupy three bays.

Jim Macaluso in January noted that the Macaluso “purchase would not have happened if Macaluso was a direct competitor of Sanfillipo Produce. Ninety-five percent of our [Sanfillipo] business is geared toward upscale foodservice. Macaluso was firmly entrenched in the retail side of the business. The acquisition was an opportunity for us to move into the grocery segment, which was a place we really had not been before.”

In recent months the Macaluso facility has been upgraded with new paint, coolers being revitalized, a redesigned office and the installation of computerization. Some of the Macaluso staff was retained and there have been three or four new hires. Since the acquisition, Macaluso retail sales have flourished, Jamie said.

The Sanfillipos have bought three new trucks, using one for Sanfillipo and two for Macaluso’s produce supply business.

Despite a record-breaking bad winter in Columbus, “in sales we were pretty fortunate. It’s snowing today!” Jamie noted in an April 15 interview. But, at Sanfillipo alone, “our sales are up significantly over last year.” He attributes the success to “keeping our nose to the grindstone.” Furthermore, he said the citizens of Columbus were so sick of the bad weather that by January “the people were not going to stay home anymore. They still went to restaurants.” However, Jamie expects that starting in June there may be some fallout from the bad weather because “after bad months, it catches up with restaurants three or four months later.”

“At Sanfillipo we do the white-tablecloth restaurants. The people who had the money still went out to eat,” he added.

Sanfillipo’s secondary foodservice business also involves some mom-and-pop restaurants, was well as country clubs, hospitals and hotels.