Monte Package offers variety of packing options for grower-shippers
Monte Package offers variety of packing options for grower-shippers
RIVERSIDE, MI — Whether produce merchandisers prefer the colorful grab-and-go zipper-closure display bag look or a throwback wooden basket promoting locally grown fruits and vegetables, Monte Package Co. is there to serve either interest — or anything between the extremes.
Sam Monte
“Retailers and grower-shippers shouldn’t have to be produce packaging experts,” said Sam Monte, director of operations for the firm, located here. “We want to make the packaging side easy and efficient for our customers.”
Despite the efficiencies of operating an up-to-date website, Monte Package finds it necessary to continue printing a product catalog. The current catalog is 55 pages long, but it shows “only 30 percent of our inventory,” Monte said.
The firm reprints a new catalog every three or four years. Its new catalog will be introduced at the Produce Marketing Association convention in Atlanta this October.
Monte’s promotional theme emphasizes how packaging options can eloquently represent whatever merchandising approach a firm chooses.
Whatever a specific customer’s interest might be, “we make sure we have the best container with the best quality.” The firm sells to growers, packers, retailers, roadside stands and other niche markets. “We have relationships all along the chain. We work day-in and day-out to assure our customers have a packaging experience like they want it to be.”
Monte Package’s business has long been geared to “very, very efficiently” serve customers located east of the Mississippi River. These customers can receive products from Monte’s Michigan — or two Florida — distribution facilities. But now Monte is looking further toward the west.
Offering same-day shipping on stock items “we can ship five or 500 cases, which is opportune for repackers. The last thing they want is to be held up because they don’t have the right package,” which would otherwise come more slowly from a manufacturer.
This is the 90th anniversary of Monte Package. Sam Monte’s great-grandparents, Anthony and Rose Monte, launched the business in 1925 by selling veneer baskets to southwest Michigan’s countless fruit and vegetable growers.
