Jimmy Coppola, account manager, marketing, for Westmoreland Sales/TopLine, headquartered in Leamington, ON, told The Produce News that the company continues to grow, pack and ship all of its gourmet greenhouse produce.

“Our line of greenhouse produce is comprised of beefsteak tomatoes, cluster tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, seedless cucumbers, mini seedless cucumbers and bell peppers,” said Coppola. “In addition, we produce a long list of specialty products such as grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cocktail tomatoes, mini Roma tomatoes, mini sweet pepper, hot pepper, baby eggplant and much more.”

Westmoreland Sales’ greenhouses are located in Ontario and it also has investments in greenhouses in Mexico, Central America, the U.S. and in Europe to help support it partner-customers 365 days a year.

“We are always looking for new strategic locations to expand our operations,” said Coppola. “Currently we are looking into more opportunities in Mexico, Central America, the United States and the Dominican Republic.”

Westmoreland Sales’ Canadian production starts in early to mid-February and runs through mid- to late December. Coppola said that for the short period of time that Canada is not producing, the company turns to its investment greenhouse partners in Mexico, who also supplement the company’s production year-round. The company markets its line of high quality greenhouse produce under the “TopLine” brand name.

“We are fortunate to have some of the best partners around,” noted Coppola. “Our customers include retailers of all sizes, wholesalers, foodservice operations and industrial operators. But we are always looking to better those relationships and develop new ones, and we invite anyone to contact us for more information about what we can do to help improve their businesses.”

Westmoreland Sales, Coppola noted, added new LED lighting in its entire warehouse and shipping facilities in the recent past.

“These use fewer resources and reduces our carbon footprint,” he said. “And we are in the process of adding solar panels on our warehouse rooftop to better offset our carbon footprint even more.”

The company is fully up to date with all of its food safety initiatives and is in the process of finalizing its non-GMO status, which Coppola said is expected to be completed in the near future.

Westmoreland Sales is acutely aware of the strong locally grown trend and it is stepping up to base to meet the demand.

“The locally grown movement will always be around and will grow in time,” said Coppola. “Our greenhouse locations are capable of taking advantage of several different locally grown movements, and with our new expansions we hope to take advantage of even more in the near future.”