After more than a half-century, General Produce is still going strong
After more than a half-century, General Produce is still going strong
After more than 50 years as one of the Southeast’s premier providers of produce and logistics, General Produce Inc. is humming right along.
“We’re a well-oiled machine. We just keep doing the same thing over and over again but we do it well,” said General Produce Sales Manager Andrew Scott, who will also take over the reins as president of the Southeast Produce Council at the fall conference in Asheville, NC.
General Produce provides overnight delivery servicing retail, wholesale and food service overnight in 11 states from its Mammoth headquarters on the Atlanta State Farmers Market and its four cross-dock facilities in Maiden, NC, Savannah and Thomasville, GA and Starke, FL, which has recently been refurbished and outfitted with brand new coolers. The 
General Produce Sales Manager and SPC President Andrew Scott (right) with outgoing President John Shuman of Shuman Produce, Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black and wife Lydia at Southern Exposure 2011. (Photo by Chip Carter)company also has a vibrant and growing program partnering with grocers in the Caribbean isles to deliver to exotic locales like St. Kitts and Nevis.
“We have a heck of a long reach,” Mr. Scott said.
“We’ve never been scared to try something, that’s for sure,” said Executive Vice President Randy Lineberger. “We’re fortunate that even though we’re large, we’re still a family company and the Folds family has always supported us and allowed us to be innovative, creative and flexible. We can stop a new program as quick as we started it. Larger corporations, it takes them a year to decide to start something and it might take them a year to stop it and by then they’ve waited too late. We’re big and small at the same time so we can make decisions and implement them quickly.”
The company’s repackaging services have been growing steadily for a year or more and the company continues to increase its presence in the organic market.
“We’re doing more and more repacks and case breaks, we’re getting more into organics and continue to add to that line,” Mr. Scott said. “We’re staying ahead of the curve with food safety, we’re Primus Platinum certified — we’re just doing everything right. We have a good healthy mix of retail business and food service and other wholesale and dock business. We’re pretty well-rounded, not one customer is more than 10 percent of our business so we don’t have all our eggs in one basket. We have a really good customer base.”
An increasing focus on more nutritional meals in schools is also giving General a boost.
“We have seen a spike in business with schools,” Mr. Scott said. “With Michelle Obama putting all this emphasis on nutrition and fresh produce and schools getting money to buy fresh produce it’s really helped. We’ve seen it. That’s been a big deal and that’s been great for food service companies, too. We don’t’ do too much direct school business but we sell to companies that do and that’s going real well. Schools want to try something different every month — whether it’s starfruit or kiwi — to introduce to kids and help them try to eat healthy.”
Mr. Scott wonders how much of that school produce will be left on lunch trays. But Mr. Lineberger points out that, “If it’s not on there and they’re not looking at it they can’t eat it. If it’s sitting there they’re at least going to think twice.”
