Warmerdam Packing celebrates 40 years in business and looks to the future
Warmerdam Packing celebrates 40 years in business and looks to the future
There's no sitting still for Warmerdam Packing LLC in Hanford, CA. Even as the company marks its 40th anniversary, it is undertaking changes intended to make the fruit growing and packing operation bigger and better.
Warmerdam Packing was founded in 1965 by Bill Warmerdam, who is still the company's president and who is known for his innovative packinghouse design concepts. His son, John Warmerdam, is general manager and oversees field operations.
Earlier this year, the company hired a new chief operating officer, Martin Hovsepian, who has more than 20 years of experience in the business including stints at Ito Packing and Apio as plant manager. Mr. Hovsepian also spent five years in sales with an allied industry selling packing materials to fruit packers. He started with Warmerdam in April, just at the start of the cherry season.
During his first six months, Mr. Hovsepian has made a number of changes in the Warmerdam operation with regard to physical plant, procedures and staff.
There was a "strong base" of good key employees in place, he said. He augmented that strength with the hiring of three other key people.
Ken Alfors, who has over 20 years in the business with Fowler Packing, Valley Sweet and Ito Packing, was hired as production manager. Mike Wolff, who has been a cold storage manager and a packinghouse manager as well as a produce buyer during his 20-plus years in produce, was brought in to oversee the cold storage facility and quality control. Jose Chavez, who has worked with Mr. Hovsepian at other facilities, is now maintenance supervisor.
All the new team members are "relatively young," yet all are "experienced, seasoned, strong and knowledgeable veterans," Mr. Hovsepian said.
"We know what we are doing," he continued. "We have a strong team here. Good fruit goes in the box. Bad fruit goes in the cull line. We want to have confidence that our growers and our buyers are happy with what we are doing here."
A number of changes have been implemented for the purpose of improving the quality of the pack. "We have instituted quality-control programs with a lot of checks and balances in the line," he said. For example, "I pay somebody just to check the tops of every box after it has gone through the grading, sizing and packing" to make sure that it will satisfy the buyers, he said.
For the growers' benefit, there is a final check on the cull line as well. "I also pay somebody to check all the culls so that we know that the grower is satisfied there is not any good fruit getting thrown away," he said.
Numerous small improvements have been made to the packinglines, many of them designed to improve the way the fruit is handled. The objective, according to Mr. Hovsepian, is to "make sure [the handling of the product] is fast, it's gentle and it's accurate."
The company is also instituting worker-safety and food- safety programs "to make sure that we are in compliance with government guidelines" but more importantly to assure that customers and consumers can have confidence in the products, he said.
"Basically, we are fine tuning the way things have been done here as far as practices and procedures" to be sure that "everyone is accountable and responsible for their jobs," he said.
Warmerdam Packing is also intent on growth by building its grower base and its customer base.
Currently, the company packs about 800,000 packages of stone fruit, between 200,000 and 250,000 packages of cherries and 200,000 packages of apples.
Most of that, including all Warmerdam's own fruit and some fruit from outside growers, is marketed by Trinity Fruit Sales Co. in Fresno, CA. But Warmerdam is also a commercial packer for several other marketing companies.
For example, "we just got done packing 200,000 boxes of apples," Mr. Hovsepian said. While most of that was packed for Trinity, some was also packed for Pacific Trellis Fruit LLC in Reedley, CA, and some for Fisher Capespan USA LLC in Gloucester City, NJ.
That requires some versatility, he said. "Trinity said pack this way today. Pacific Trellis said pack this way tomorrow."
He added, "We are a full-service facility capable of packing numerous commodities in all the various pack styles that our buyers require."
The kiwifruit season was in progress when The Produce News visited the facility in early November. Three years ago, the company began doing controlled-atmosphere storage of kiwis, not only for its own packing but for other packers, too. "We spent over a quarter of a million dollars on our CA rooms [for upgrades and expansion] before the start of the season," he said. "We're storing between 10,000 and 12,000 bins of kiwis here."
Warmerdam grows and packs a proprietary cherry variety called Sequoia that Mr. Hovsepian believes has great potential. Large, dark and sweet, it "tastes great and looks great," and it held up in the rains this spring "where other cherries failed," he said.
Warmerdam Packing was founded in 1965 by Bill Warmerdam, who is still the company's president and who is known for his innovative packinghouse design concepts. His son, John Warmerdam, is general manager and oversees field operations.
Earlier this year, the company hired a new chief operating officer, Martin Hovsepian, who has more than 20 years of experience in the business including stints at Ito Packing and Apio as plant manager. Mr. Hovsepian also spent five years in sales with an allied industry selling packing materials to fruit packers. He started with Warmerdam in April, just at the start of the cherry season.
During his first six months, Mr. Hovsepian has made a number of changes in the Warmerdam operation with regard to physical plant, procedures and staff.
There was a "strong base" of good key employees in place, he said. He augmented that strength with the hiring of three other key people.
Ken Alfors, who has over 20 years in the business with Fowler Packing, Valley Sweet and Ito Packing, was hired as production manager. Mike Wolff, who has been a cold storage manager and a packinghouse manager as well as a produce buyer during his 20-plus years in produce, was brought in to oversee the cold storage facility and quality control. Jose Chavez, who has worked with Mr. Hovsepian at other facilities, is now maintenance supervisor.
All the new team members are "relatively young," yet all are "experienced, seasoned, strong and knowledgeable veterans," Mr. Hovsepian said.
"We know what we are doing," he continued. "We have a strong team here. Good fruit goes in the box. Bad fruit goes in the cull line. We want to have confidence that our growers and our buyers are happy with what we are doing here."
A number of changes have been implemented for the purpose of improving the quality of the pack. "We have instituted quality-control programs with a lot of checks and balances in the line," he said. For example, "I pay somebody just to check the tops of every box after it has gone through the grading, sizing and packing" to make sure that it will satisfy the buyers, he said.
For the growers' benefit, there is a final check on the cull line as well. "I also pay somebody to check all the culls so that we know that the grower is satisfied there is not any good fruit getting thrown away," he said.
Numerous small improvements have been made to the packinglines, many of them designed to improve the way the fruit is handled. The objective, according to Mr. Hovsepian, is to "make sure [the handling of the product] is fast, it's gentle and it's accurate."
The company is also instituting worker-safety and food- safety programs "to make sure that we are in compliance with government guidelines" but more importantly to assure that customers and consumers can have confidence in the products, he said.
"Basically, we are fine tuning the way things have been done here as far as practices and procedures" to be sure that "everyone is accountable and responsible for their jobs," he said.
Warmerdam Packing is also intent on growth by building its grower base and its customer base.
Currently, the company packs about 800,000 packages of stone fruit, between 200,000 and 250,000 packages of cherries and 200,000 packages of apples.
Most of that, including all Warmerdam's own fruit and some fruit from outside growers, is marketed by Trinity Fruit Sales Co. in Fresno, CA. But Warmerdam is also a commercial packer for several other marketing companies.
For example, "we just got done packing 200,000 boxes of apples," Mr. Hovsepian said. While most of that was packed for Trinity, some was also packed for Pacific Trellis Fruit LLC in Reedley, CA, and some for Fisher Capespan USA LLC in Gloucester City, NJ.
That requires some versatility, he said. "Trinity said pack this way today. Pacific Trellis said pack this way tomorrow."
He added, "We are a full-service facility capable of packing numerous commodities in all the various pack styles that our buyers require."
The kiwifruit season was in progress when The Produce News visited the facility in early November. Three years ago, the company began doing controlled-atmosphere storage of kiwis, not only for its own packing but for other packers, too. "We spent over a quarter of a million dollars on our CA rooms [for upgrades and expansion] before the start of the season," he said. "We're storing between 10,000 and 12,000 bins of kiwis here."
Warmerdam grows and packs a proprietary cherry variety called Sequoia that Mr. Hovsepian believes has great potential. Large, dark and sweet, it "tastes great and looks great," and it held up in the rains this spring "where other cherries failed," he said.
