Salinas, CA-based River Ranch Fresh Foods LLC has hired industry veteran Tim Meissner for the newly created position of director of sales, effective June 27.

Mr. Meissner will be responsible for the Salinas corporate sales office, including retail and foodservice, f.o.b. and contract sales. He also will be involved with several operational initiatives including RFID, electronic trading, warehouse management systems and several customer service initiatives.

Mr. Meissner comes to River Ranch after more than 20 years with Minneapolis-based Supervalu Inc. In his career with Supervalu, Mr. Meissner started as a produce manager, moved to director of perishable merchandising, director of produce for the Southeast region, and most recently served as the corporate produce operations manager. In this role, Mr. Meissner directed the global procurement efforts for Supervalu's produce operations, including produce, transportation and floral.

After having been on the retail and demand side, Mr. Meissner said that he is "looking forward to being on the supply side and part of the River Ranch team."

Jim Lucas, president and chief executive officer of River Ranch, said that Mr. Meissner's "drive and broad knowledge base in the produce sector would help propel the company's efforts to continuously improve the quality and range of products and services it offers its customers.

Mr. Meissner will report to Mike Gillespie, River Ranch's vice president of sales. Mr. Gillespie said that the need to keep up with technological changes helped drive the company's decision to create the position of director of sales.

"It's kind of a hybrid position, Mr. Gillespie said, adding that it grew out of an internal task force initiative the company launched largely within the past year. In addition to Mr. Meissner's "honesty, integrity and work ethic, over the years he has been "a point person on a bunch of initiatives, from wholesale, retail and distribution, Mr. Gillespie said.

Mr. Gillespie had been managing the f.o.b. sales desk, but said that Mr. Meissner's first order of business will be to get hold of the f.o.b. sales group of nine salespeople and three assistants to manage and mentor them.

Mr. Meissner has several industry affiliations, including chairman of the marketing committee of the Produce for Better Health Foundation, board member of the Produce Marketing Association's Produce Electronic Identification Board and consultant for United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association.

River Ranch Fresh Foods is one of the larger fresh produce processors in the United States. The company holds a leading position in private-brand, value-added produce, a fast-growing sub-segment of the industry, currently producing store brand salads for six of the 10 larger private-brand food retailers in the United States.