George Wooten, president of Wayne E. Bailey Produce Co. in Chadbourn, NC, shared his exhilaration Nov. 23 over the strong Thanksgiving business the company had done. He was looking forward to sitting down at his own family Thanksgiving dinner the following day.

“Our family has a treasure trove of great sweet potato recipes,” he said.

Mr. Wooten said that Thanksgiving for his family always includes extra thanks for the sweet potato harvest.

“We had an outstanding Thanksgiving season,” he said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had as good a year.”

Black Gold Farms expanded its product volume in 2011 with the addition of red potatoes grown in the Red River Valley.

The company’s headquarters are located in Grand Forks, ND, approximately 30 miles south of Forest River, ND. Operations have expanded significantly outside the boundaries of North Dakota and today incorporate Texas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, North Carolina, Maryland, Indiana and Michigan.

For the past three years, the Nogales, AZ, branch office of Monterey, CA-based Sun Crest-Bollinger International Inc., here, was housed in an office with no warehouse facility, according to Vince Silva, who handles sales for the company’s Nogales operation.

That has changed. The company has relocated its Nogales office to a facility in the Rio Rico Industrial Park that consists of warehouse space in addition to office space. “That is going to work for us a whole lot better,” Mr. Silva said Nov. 8 to The Produce News.

NOGALES, AZ — “This is going on my third year in business and things are good. The company is progressing and growing,” said Sergio Chamberlain, president and founder of SSC Fresh LLC, here.

Mr. Chamberlain, who previously was chief executive officer and sales manager of Meyer LLC in Nogales, formed SCC in Nov. 2009, handling an assortment of vegetable items, such as Bell peppers, cucumbers, Italian squash and tomatoes.

Frank Calixtro on the dock with a pallet of produce and a company truck in the background.

NOGALES, AZ — Calixtro Distributing Co.

Malena Produce Inc., which is located in the Rio Rico Industrial Park just north of Nogales, AZ, has added 15,000 square feet of cold-storage space to the company’s warehouse, according to Gonzalo Avila, vice president and general manager. Racking has been installed in 10,000 square feet of the new addition.