WOODRIDGE, IL — As Produce Pro Inc. celebrates its 25th anniversary, Marc Hatfield, the firm’s national sales manager, said, “We are a consulting firm, not just a software company.” The consulting side provides produce industry customers — which include grower-packer-shippers, terminal market operations, retailers and foodservice operations — with “good service and more efficiencies to help the bottom line. We are an ERP (enterprise resource planning with business management software) but people forget we are really consulting with our customers, solving different problems.”

Hatfield continued, “Being in business for 25 years is a big deal. But we couldn’t have done it without our customers, who have been loyal to us. We have customers that have been with us for 25 or 15 or 10 years. We want to thank them for being with us, very loyal, and for being good business partners, as well.”

According to information supplied by Produce Pro, in 1990 the company founders “met with a few produce businesses looking for an all-inclusive software package that could handle the nuances of a produce world. Shortly after, Caruso Inc. in Cincinnati became Produce Pro’s first customer.

“We saw a drive in the Produce Pro employees back then — as we do today — to make our company succeed with the best software solution possible,” said Jim Caruso, chief executive officer of Caruso Inc. “We have significantly grown our operation over the years into different businesses and rest assured that Produce Pro can handle anything we throw their way.”

Dave Donat, Produce Pro president, said his company “built trust and a partnership with our customers over the years and they grew to rely on us for their software needs. Over the years Produce Pro’s software offering expanded to include online ordering, warehouse management, and mobile apps so our customers could concentrate on their business and didn’t need to shop around and integrate a third-party solution for their emerging needs. We strive to be the last software our customers will ever need.

“The functionality that is built into our software from our 25 years of experience can work for many different business models, with very little customization,” Donat added. “We are dedicated to learning and understanding each company’s unique business and then creating the best software solution possible.”

Produce Pro has integrated many software offerings into its main ERP solution over the years. In 2000, it started exchanging data through EDI. Produce Pro built its own e-commerce platform to allow Web ordering in 2001. By 2007, Produce Pro wrote its own warehouse management software for scanning inventory through the warehouse. During the period from 2011 to 2014 Produce Pro released multiple mobile app solutions for customer ordering, delivery optimization with GPS and electronic signature capture, and a food-safety app to replace the binders.

Now Produce Pro has over 160 companies running its software with over 5,000 users. Produce Pro has grown to employ 80 associates in Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, TX, and Philadelphia.