Malena Produce adds veterans to its sales staff
Malena Produce adds veterans to its sales staff
Malena Produce Inc. in Nogales, AZ, announced changes to the sales staff starting with the fall-winter vegetable season.
Malena sales executive Danny Stoller will take over as sales manager for the company's full product line. Saul Gonzalez joins the Malena sales team as senior sales executive.
Mr. Stoller has been with the company for two years and has 27 years of experience in the produce industry. "His responsibilities include creating marketing plans for retail, wholesale and foodservice customers as well as helping the company continue to build its overall business," Gonzalo Avila, business manager of Malena Produce, said in a statement. "Danny has been a valuable asset to Malena Produce, and we look forward to expanding his role in the company starting this season."
According to Mr. Stoller, the company will build on an already strong seasonal supply of winter vegetables and spring fruits, including eggplant, grape tomatoes, squash, hard squash, cucumbers, bell peppers, melons, greenhouse tomatoes, colored bell peppers and ethnic products, such as Chinese, Indian and Japanese eggplant and Chinese long beans.
New to Malena, Mr. Gonzalez brings 13 years of produce sales and marketing knowledge, along with a leadership role in crop planning and post-harvest issues. He was a sales representative at San Rafael Distributing Inc. for five years. Prior to that, he spent almost eight years at The Produce Exchange, first as a quality assurance inspector and then as a sales representative.
"Malena is fortunate to have Saul Gonzalez joining our company this year," said Mr. Avila. "His experience across the supply chain, from crop planning to quality assurance and sales, will enable him to create marketing plans for new and existing customers and will help Malena's line of produce gain a stronger presence in retail and foodservice."
Malena Produce also continues to add growers to its family of suppliers. "Our customers consistently say they want to source from Malena for more items throughout the year," said Mr. Stoller. "To provide more diversity in our product line while maintaining our high quality standards, we are selectively adding more excellent growers to the Malena family. We intend to keep up an ongoing dialogue with reliable retail and foodservice customers to continue to fulfill a wider range of produce needs."
As part of its expansion, Malena Produce handled cucumbers from Baja California this year, diversifying its growing areas in Mexico. "By selectively choosing our growers, we were able to ensure the quality of the product and the logistical ease of the process of supplying from Baja," said Mr. Avila. "This experience mirrors the success we have been having with our partnerships across mainland Mexico."
Malena's quality assurance personnel inspect each load of produce upon arrival at the distribution center in Nogales, AZ, from the packing plants in Mexico to ensure that each and every fruit and vegetable meets or exceeds quality standards.
This includes strict temperature monitoring of refrigerated trailers and tagged pallets to allow for efficient inventory and traceability of shipments from the point of origin.
Malena sales executive Danny Stoller will take over as sales manager for the company's full product line. Saul Gonzalez joins the Malena sales team as senior sales executive.
Mr. Stoller has been with the company for two years and has 27 years of experience in the produce industry. "His responsibilities include creating marketing plans for retail, wholesale and foodservice customers as well as helping the company continue to build its overall business," Gonzalo Avila, business manager of Malena Produce, said in a statement. "Danny has been a valuable asset to Malena Produce, and we look forward to expanding his role in the company starting this season."
According to Mr. Stoller, the company will build on an already strong seasonal supply of winter vegetables and spring fruits, including eggplant, grape tomatoes, squash, hard squash, cucumbers, bell peppers, melons, greenhouse tomatoes, colored bell peppers and ethnic products, such as Chinese, Indian and Japanese eggplant and Chinese long beans.
New to Malena, Mr. Gonzalez brings 13 years of produce sales and marketing knowledge, along with a leadership role in crop planning and post-harvest issues. He was a sales representative at San Rafael Distributing Inc. for five years. Prior to that, he spent almost eight years at The Produce Exchange, first as a quality assurance inspector and then as a sales representative.
"Malena is fortunate to have Saul Gonzalez joining our company this year," said Mr. Avila. "His experience across the supply chain, from crop planning to quality assurance and sales, will enable him to create marketing plans for new and existing customers and will help Malena's line of produce gain a stronger presence in retail and foodservice."
Malena Produce also continues to add growers to its family of suppliers. "Our customers consistently say they want to source from Malena for more items throughout the year," said Mr. Stoller. "To provide more diversity in our product line while maintaining our high quality standards, we are selectively adding more excellent growers to the Malena family. We intend to keep up an ongoing dialogue with reliable retail and foodservice customers to continue to fulfill a wider range of produce needs."
As part of its expansion, Malena Produce handled cucumbers from Baja California this year, diversifying its growing areas in Mexico. "By selectively choosing our growers, we were able to ensure the quality of the product and the logistical ease of the process of supplying from Baja," said Mr. Avila. "This experience mirrors the success we have been having with our partnerships across mainland Mexico."
Malena's quality assurance personnel inspect each load of produce upon arrival at the distribution center in Nogales, AZ, from the packing plants in Mexico to ensure that each and every fruit and vegetable meets or exceeds quality standards.
This includes strict temperature monitoring of refrigerated trailers and tagged pallets to allow for efficient inventory and traceability of shipments from the point of origin.
