West Pak Avocado Inc. in Temecula, CA, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and which is experiencing continued growth, is currently “in the midst of a major investment in personnel and infrastructure within the company,” said Doug Meyer, vice president of sales and marketing, July 31. “[We] are positioning ourselves for the next 30-plus years of growth within the industry.

Doug Meyer of West Pak Avocado Inc., holding the company’s ‘West Pak’ label box.“Real exciting news is just this June we opened our ripening center in Philadelphia,” Mr. Meyer said. The facility, which has full ripening and distribution capability, is a partnership with John Vena Inc., with whom West Pak has had a longstanding relationship. “We are operating our ripening center within their facilities” on the new Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market.

In Chicago, also, “we are in a new ripening center” which is “a very similar program to our other regional ripening centers,” Mr. Meyer said. It is a full ripening and distribution center located on the Chicago International Produce market in partnership with Atom Banana Inc.

“In south Texas, we also have a regional ripening and distribution center in Edinburg” operating within the facilities of Don Hugo Produce Inc.

“Here in Temecula, we are in the midst of moving into an entirely new operation located just a couple of miles away from our current facility,” he said. By the end of the year, “we will be fully operational” there with additional cold storage and ripening capabilities and a new state-of-the-art packingline that “will give us tremendous output and efficiencies for the future growth that we perceive within our company.”

New on sales at West Pak are Jaime Ramirez and Javier Garcia, adding “more depth to our sales staff,” Mr. Meyer said.

Mr. Ramirez, who was formerly with Ready Pac Produce, is “working here at our headquarters in Temecula.”

Mr. Garcia is, according to a July 19 company press release, West Pak’s “newest Midwest sales representative” and will be based in the company’s Midwest sales office within its Chicago ripening and distribution center on the Chicago International Produce Market.

Javier has 10 years of fresh produce sales and operations experience in the Midwest market, assets which “make him a great addition to our team,” Kellen Newhouse, manager of West Pak’s JustRipe! avocado ripening program, said in the release. “Our ripening program is expanding rapidly, and Javier’s expertise is welcomed,” he added.

Mr. Garcia is working to expand West Pak’s reach “across all segments in the Midwest region,” the release stated.

West Pak has “a very strong brand presence here in the Midwest,” said Mr. Garcia in the release. “I am very excited about being a part of this team with all of the growth opportunities that are available here.”

Also new at West Pak is Michael Johansen, recently with Chiquita Fresh Express in Salinas, who “has joined our company to support us in supply chain management,” tying together the company’s complex sourcing and distribution network with avocados from four countries, Mr. Meyer said.

“It is definitely a global marketplace on the supply side, with Peru being the newest entry into the market,” he said. Currently, “we are right in the middle of peak production” with California avocados, which will continue into October, and “here at the end of July we are in the process of transitioning out of the old crop Mexican avocados into the new crop. We foresee another big year for Mexican avocados.”

Chile is “the next big program that we see on the horizon” with arrivals most likely to come beginning late September or early October, he said.

“We are solidly in the deal with solid programs in all four major sourcing regions that are currently available to the United States,” he said.