Scattaglia and other industry veterans form new fruit shipping and marketing firm
Scattaglia and other industry veterans form new fruit shipping and marketing firm
TRAVER, CA -- In late 2007, several members of the California stone fruit and grape industries came together to form a new fruit shipping and marketing organization called Scattaglia Growers & Shippers LLC with offices located at the New Leaf packing and cold storage facility here.
The partners and marketing staff of SGS formally announced the company's formation on Tuesday, Jan. 8, although SGS had actually opened for business during December.
According to a fact sheet furnished by the company, "Scattaglia Farms, a million-box shipper of stone fruits, was established 30 years ago in Littlerock, CA. Scattaglia Farms owners Louis Scattaglia, John Blalock, Sam Perricone and Bob Witt began discussions during the year with several other industry veterans. The Scattaglia Farms partners brought in Bryan Large, Anthony Martino, Derald Rager and Craig Calandra as partners to form SGS. Also joining the company at its founding [as employees] were Dave Parker, Steve Rusca and Gary Gerner." Mr. Scattaglia is managing partner of SGS.
Mr. Parker, who had previously been director of marketing for Fruit Patch Sales LLC in Dinuba, CA, and prior to that had been on the staff of the California Tree Fruit Agreement, is heading the marketing department for the new company. He has 35 years of experience in packing, sales and marketing of tree fruits and grapes.
On sales are Mr. Large, who has 18 years of industry sales experience; Mr. Martino, who has 15 years of sales experience; and Mr. Rager, who has 27 years of experience in sales and procurement. All three had previously been with Fruit Patch, which formerly had sold the bulk of the fruit produced by Scattaglia Farms.
Product coordination will be handled by Mr. Rusca, who was also formerly at Fruit Patch and who has also been involved in sales and coordination in the stone fruit and grape industries for 27 years.
Heading quality control and GlobalGAP certification is Mr. Gerner, who has been involved in production, procurement and quality control of tree fruit, grapes and other fresh fruits for 40 years.
"All the founding players on Team SGS came together because they wanted to do a good job delivering good-tasting fruit to the consumer and make sure the grower gets paid well for providing superior product," according to the company fact sheet. "The philosophy of SGS is 'to deliver premium-quality product to the consumer through the best customers possible to enhance the return to the grower.'"
Those founding players "have all noticed a lot of changes that have happened in the industry as a whole over the last few years, and we are all of the same philosophy that we want to do things a little bit differently than they have been done," Mr. Scattaglia told The Produce News. "We want to have a premium, high-quality package of fruit on a year-round basis, and we want to market that fruit to customers that appreciate" that kind of quality and consistency.
SGS seeks to achieve that goal by bringing together a small group of selected growers "who share that philosophy" with the marketing team so that "everybody from the ground up" is "on the same page," he said.
"We are doing that on a year-round basis because customers demand supply on a year-round basis," Mr. Scattaglia said. To that end, "we have done the same thing offshore. We have selected a few growers. We have people that work directly for us, managing quality and food-safety issues wherever we source product from. We feel that is the only way that you can maintain consistent product being delivered to any customers we service.
"We are not all about volume" but rather about delivering "the best possible fruit that is available at any given time and on a consistent basis," he added. "Having said that, we do have volume." The company expects conservatively about 2.5 million 25-pound equivalent boxes of stone fruit and 2.2 million 19-pound equivalent boxes of table grapes just from its California production during 2008, he said.
In addition, "we will be sourcing stone fruit, grapes and other commodities from other growing regions around the world," Mr. Parker noted. "Stone fruits will include cherries and apricots. Also we have relationships with people in the pear industry, so retailers can pick up their Bartletts here while they are buying their stone fruit and grapes."
"We could have been larger than that," Mr. Scattaglia said, but not all available growers shared "the same philosophy that the sales staff has here, and ... we want to be known" for having "a consistent-quality package day in and day out."
Attention to food-safety issues is "one of the foundations of the company," Mr. Scattaglia continued. "All of our growers will be GlobalGAP certified domestically and all around the world. We feel that by doing that, we can give all of our customers the utmost confidence in our product and their customers the confidence to purchase the product. It is not enough anymore just to sell great-tasting fruit ... with great appearance. You have to take it one step further than that and ... have food safety as the backbone of anything that you do."
Packing of stone fruit will be done mainly at the Scattaglia facility in Littlerock and at the New Leaf facility in Traver. "Here at New Leaf, Mike Jost will be packing fruit for the growers that we have here locally," Mr. Scattaglia said. The New Leaf cooling facility will also "be available here locally for the grape growers that we have."
SGS is re-introducing "Sun Disk" as its flagship label, a venerable label "with a very high reputation" that has not been seen on the market since the early 1990s, he said. In designing the label for today's packaging, "we are trying to replicate" the original label as closely as possible, he said. A companion label will be "Sun Joy."
"We will still have the 'Scattaglia Farms' label that has been around for over 40 years now" and which will also be one of SGS's major labels, he said. "We will also be introducing a label called 'Peak Value.'"
The partners and marketing staff of SGS formally announced the company's formation on Tuesday, Jan. 8, although SGS had actually opened for business during December.
According to a fact sheet furnished by the company, "Scattaglia Farms, a million-box shipper of stone fruits, was established 30 years ago in Littlerock, CA. Scattaglia Farms owners Louis Scattaglia, John Blalock, Sam Perricone and Bob Witt began discussions during the year with several other industry veterans. The Scattaglia Farms partners brought in Bryan Large, Anthony Martino, Derald Rager and Craig Calandra as partners to form SGS. Also joining the company at its founding [as employees] were Dave Parker, Steve Rusca and Gary Gerner." Mr. Scattaglia is managing partner of SGS.
Mr. Parker, who had previously been director of marketing for Fruit Patch Sales LLC in Dinuba, CA, and prior to that had been on the staff of the California Tree Fruit Agreement, is heading the marketing department for the new company. He has 35 years of experience in packing, sales and marketing of tree fruits and grapes.
On sales are Mr. Large, who has 18 years of industry sales experience; Mr. Martino, who has 15 years of sales experience; and Mr. Rager, who has 27 years of experience in sales and procurement. All three had previously been with Fruit Patch, which formerly had sold the bulk of the fruit produced by Scattaglia Farms.
Product coordination will be handled by Mr. Rusca, who was also formerly at Fruit Patch and who has also been involved in sales and coordination in the stone fruit and grape industries for 27 years.
Heading quality control and GlobalGAP certification is Mr. Gerner, who has been involved in production, procurement and quality control of tree fruit, grapes and other fresh fruits for 40 years.
"All the founding players on Team SGS came together because they wanted to do a good job delivering good-tasting fruit to the consumer and make sure the grower gets paid well for providing superior product," according to the company fact sheet. "The philosophy of SGS is 'to deliver premium-quality product to the consumer through the best customers possible to enhance the return to the grower.'"
Those founding players "have all noticed a lot of changes that have happened in the industry as a whole over the last few years, and we are all of the same philosophy that we want to do things a little bit differently than they have been done," Mr. Scattaglia told The Produce News. "We want to have a premium, high-quality package of fruit on a year-round basis, and we want to market that fruit to customers that appreciate" that kind of quality and consistency.
SGS seeks to achieve that goal by bringing together a small group of selected growers "who share that philosophy" with the marketing team so that "everybody from the ground up" is "on the same page," he said.
"We are doing that on a year-round basis because customers demand supply on a year-round basis," Mr. Scattaglia said. To that end, "we have done the same thing offshore. We have selected a few growers. We have people that work directly for us, managing quality and food-safety issues wherever we source product from. We feel that is the only way that you can maintain consistent product being delivered to any customers we service.
"We are not all about volume" but rather about delivering "the best possible fruit that is available at any given time and on a consistent basis," he added. "Having said that, we do have volume." The company expects conservatively about 2.5 million 25-pound equivalent boxes of stone fruit and 2.2 million 19-pound equivalent boxes of table grapes just from its California production during 2008, he said.
In addition, "we will be sourcing stone fruit, grapes and other commodities from other growing regions around the world," Mr. Parker noted. "Stone fruits will include cherries and apricots. Also we have relationships with people in the pear industry, so retailers can pick up their Bartletts here while they are buying their stone fruit and grapes."
"We could have been larger than that," Mr. Scattaglia said, but not all available growers shared "the same philosophy that the sales staff has here, and ... we want to be known" for having "a consistent-quality package day in and day out."
Attention to food-safety issues is "one of the foundations of the company," Mr. Scattaglia continued. "All of our growers will be GlobalGAP certified domestically and all around the world. We feel that by doing that, we can give all of our customers the utmost confidence in our product and their customers the confidence to purchase the product. It is not enough anymore just to sell great-tasting fruit ... with great appearance. You have to take it one step further than that and ... have food safety as the backbone of anything that you do."
Packing of stone fruit will be done mainly at the Scattaglia facility in Littlerock and at the New Leaf facility in Traver. "Here at New Leaf, Mike Jost will be packing fruit for the growers that we have here locally," Mr. Scattaglia said. The New Leaf cooling facility will also "be available here locally for the grape growers that we have."
SGS is re-introducing "Sun Disk" as its flagship label, a venerable label "with a very high reputation" that has not been seen on the market since the early 1990s, he said. In designing the label for today's packaging, "we are trying to replicate" the original label as closely as possible, he said. A companion label will be "Sun Joy."
"We will still have the 'Scattaglia Farms' label that has been around for over 40 years now" and which will also be one of SGS's major labels, he said. "We will also be introducing a label called 'Peak Value.'"
