Westmoreland Sales open to having more offshore partner opportunities
Jimmy Coppola, account manager, marketing, for Westmoreland Sales/TopLine, headquartered in Leamington, ON, told The Produce News that the company continues to grow, pack and ship all of its gourmet greenhouse produce.
JemD Farms gearing up for first crop in new Virginia greenhouse
“We seeded our new Dublin, Pulaski County, Virginia, greenhouse facility just today with both organic and conventional tomatoes,” Jim DiMenna, president of JemD Farms, headquartered in Kingsville, ON, told The Produce News June 18. “And we recently held a job fair in that area. We received over 325 applications, which was outstanding. We expect to have over 200 local employees when all phases of the facility are completed in about four years. Our goal was to create local job opportunities for the community, and the job fair indicates that we won’t have a problem doing that.”
Packaging has become core business of Hearty Fresh
BYRON CENTER, MI — Value-added produce packaging is now the leading business segment for Hearty Fresh Inc., located in a temperature-controlled warehouse, here.
“We are a custom repacker and do packaging,” said General Manager Nick Huizinga. “We promote our label ‘Hearty Fresh’.” But any private or customized label is available to customers, thanks to the firm’s three thermal printers.
Heath & Lejeune’s greatest growth has been in Southern California
Heath & Lejeune Inc, a full-service distributor of organic fruits and vegetables, which was founded in 1981, started its 33-year history “as more of a national distributor and service provider,” according to Patrick (Rick) C. Lejeune, chief executive officer, whose father, Patrick, was one of the founders of the company.
D. DeFranco & Sons has been ‘doing it right’ for three generations
In 1952, D. DeFranco & Sons in Los Angeles became the first tomato re-packer on the West Coast to package tomatoes in tube trays, according to the company’s website.
Since then, three generations of DeFrancos have been involved in packing value-added produce.
The venerable third-generation produce company, now run by three brothers — Paul, Richard and Jerry De Franco, was initially founded by Dominic DeFranco in 1916 and has been operating in Los Angeles since the 1940s.
Consolidated West to launch new website in June
Consolidated West Distributing Inc. in Los Angeles has created a new website that was expected to go live about the third week of June, according to Elvia Menendez, president of the company.
“It seems that a lot more business is being conducted online and by email,” Menendez told The Produce News. “So we wanted to modernize a little bit.”
The company started working on the new website several months ago, “and it is finally ready to go live here in a few days,” Menendez added. The website name is consolidatedwest.com.
Pacific Sun continues on course
Pacific Sun Distributing Inc. is primarily a mixed load consolidator that ships products by truck, ocean or air to customers throughout the United States and globally from its refrigerated warehouse in the Los Angeles suburb of Bell, CA.
“Our job is to make their job easier, matching the product that we buy to order for customers” to assure freshness and to assure it meets customer specifications, said President Ray Davis.
The product is cross-docked through the company’s HACCP-certified facility, he said.
Harold Weisfeld, founder of Fruit Distributing, retires after 55 years
Harold Weisfeld, who founded Fruit Distributing Corp. of California in 1958, has retired due to poor health and is now only coming into the office “about once a month,” according to his son Jeff Weisfeld, president of the company.
“We miss his presence and his persona here,” the younger Weisfeld said, but he was hopeful the retirement “will be good for him.”
United Fresh partners with National Association of Convenience Stores
The United Fresh Produce Association and the National Association of Convenience Stores announced a new partnership to significantly increase the sales of fresh produce in convenience stores. A new task force of members of both groups met during the United Fresh 2014 convention in Chicago last week.
Vision Produce Co. continues to expand and add new deals
The economy in southern California is looking better than it has for a few years, but even at its worst, “we never really had a tough time,” said Bill Vogel, president of Vision Produce Co. in Los Angeles in an interview with The Produce News June 10. “We just haven’t had a negative year. Our business has been growing every year.”
He noted that the company has been constantly hiring and expanding, and its sales have grown from year to year. Among other things, the company has also increased its presence in Central and South America on imports, Vogel added.