Colorful Harvest lands exclusive Green Giant Fresh melon deal
Colorful Harvest lands exclusive Green Giant Fresh melon deal
Salinas, CA-based Colorful Harvest is now the exclusive grower-shipper for Green Giant Fresh melons nationwide.
The deal, which had been in the works for about a year, was completed Thursday morning, May 3. Colorful Harvest will begin shipping cantaloupe and honeydew out of Tampa, FL, and Brawley, CA, beginning the week of May 7, according to Doug Ranno, Colorful Harvest's chief operating officer and general manager. Other California shipping points will include Mendota and Firebaugh, and melons also will ship from Yuma and Maricopa in Arizona.
Already there are "pre-commitments of truckload-quantity orders," Mr. Ranno said, adding that Colorful Harvest will "hit the ground running" with its entry into the melon business. Over the past year or more, the company has been trialing Athena melons and proprietary seed variety melons in Florida and Merced, CA, he said.
Further down the road, the deal calls for Colorful Harvest to be the exclusive grower-shipper of Green Giant Fresh specialty melons and watermelons as well, Mr. Ranno said.
"This [deal] has the capacity to be as big as we are now times two," Mr. Ranno said. "We expect it to be a multi-million package deal over one to three years."
Colorful Harvest became a "multi-million package shipper in less than two years" with Green Giant Fresh strawberries, he added.
The deal adds to Colorful Harvest's presence as the exclusive national grower-shipper of Green Giant Fresh strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.
"We intend to keep the food-safety standard program and strong brand integrity in place" in representing the Green Giant Fresh label, Mr. Ranno said.
Colorful Harvest recently hired industry veteran John Chubbuck, who was most recently melon category sales manager for Chiquita Brands International Inc., to oversee its melon program. Mr. Chubbuck will be melon business development sales manager at Colorful Harvest.
"We are excited to have someone with John's professionalism and expertise," Mr. Ranno said.
The deal, which had been in the works for about a year, was completed Thursday morning, May 3. Colorful Harvest will begin shipping cantaloupe and honeydew out of Tampa, FL, and Brawley, CA, beginning the week of May 7, according to Doug Ranno, Colorful Harvest's chief operating officer and general manager. Other California shipping points will include Mendota and Firebaugh, and melons also will ship from Yuma and Maricopa in Arizona.
Already there are "pre-commitments of truckload-quantity orders," Mr. Ranno said, adding that Colorful Harvest will "hit the ground running" with its entry into the melon business. Over the past year or more, the company has been trialing Athena melons and proprietary seed variety melons in Florida and Merced, CA, he said.
Further down the road, the deal calls for Colorful Harvest to be the exclusive grower-shipper of Green Giant Fresh specialty melons and watermelons as well, Mr. Ranno said.
"This [deal] has the capacity to be as big as we are now times two," Mr. Ranno said. "We expect it to be a multi-million package deal over one to three years."
Colorful Harvest became a "multi-million package shipper in less than two years" with Green Giant Fresh strawberries, he added.
The deal adds to Colorful Harvest's presence as the exclusive national grower-shipper of Green Giant Fresh strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.
"We intend to keep the food-safety standard program and strong brand integrity in place" in representing the Green Giant Fresh label, Mr. Ranno said.
Colorful Harvest recently hired industry veteran John Chubbuck, who was most recently melon category sales manager for Chiquita Brands International Inc., to oversee its melon program. Mr. Chubbuck will be melon business development sales manager at Colorful Harvest.
"We are excited to have someone with John's professionalism and expertise," Mr. Ranno said.
