“Giorgio Fresh has been a member of Southeast Produce Council since it was founded,” said Bill Litvin, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Giorgio Fresh headquartered in Temple, PA.

“And we have exhibited at the Southern Exposure Retail & Foodservice Conference & Expo every year that it has been held,” he said.

The company will be there again this year — and with strong team presence — at booth number 622 on Feb. 28-March 2 at the Caribe Royale Resort & Conference Center in Orlando, FL.

In addition to Mr. Litvin, Giorgio Fresh staff members who will be on hand at Southern Exposure include Brian Threlfall, executive vice president of sales and marketing; Greg Sagan, senior vice president of sales and marketing; Doug Stewart, vice president of sales and marketing; Lucretia Parish, vice president of sales, and Carole Opel, sales representative.

“The Southern Exposure expo provides Giorgio a great opportunity to network with produce industry professionals from all over the country,” said Mr. Litvin.

And Giorgio staff members enjoy the social events that the Southeast Produce Council organizes for the event.

“We will be participating in the golf tournament and all the other events that are available to us at Southern Exposure,” Mr. Litvin noted.

“We are also sponsoring the Expo Refreshment Lounge,” he added.

Giorgio Fresh, Mr. Litvin said, has recently increased its staff considerably.

“We have added four new members to our sales team,” he said. “They are Greg Sagan, Lucretia Parish, Jim Cline and Mark Leone.”

Giorgio’s tradition of excellence has continued decade by decade, from the 1920s through the 1950s when it added a cannery to meet the demands of the supermarket industry.

In the 1970s the company opened a modern facility to produce frozen mushrooms. Today, as the company continues to grow, it is investing considerable time and energy into the innovative Japanese management philosophy called Kaizen.

The Kaizen program stresses the value of seeking “continuous improvement” in everything that is undertaken. Giorgio applies the theory from its growing and processing departments to service and delivery. It is the company’s obsession with detail and perfection that has led it to set the industry standard for quality and reliability.

Virtually all of Giorgio’s mushrooms are grown and handpicked every month, 12 months a year. It produces millions of pounds of mushrooms which are matured in growing houses equipped with the latest technology, such as air filtration and humidity control. This ideal controlled environment allows the company to pick every Giorgio mushroom at its optimum point of maturity, and it enables the company to produce five mushroom crops annually — mushrooms that are fresh, plump and tender.

Mr. Litvin said that the company is now packing in two facilities in Pennsylvania.

“Our Blandon facility was expanded in 2010, and our Chester County facility is also shipping to a wide territory,” he said.