Some West Lake Fresh customers able to respond quickly to supply opportunities
When strawberries are in abundance, promotions are paramount to keeping volume moving. But when a shipper has sudden surges in volume, not all customers are capable of responding quickly enough to the unexpected increase in supply.
“The problem,” said Louis Ivanovich, vice president of West Lake Fresh, a Watsonville, CA-based brokerage specializing in strawberries year-round, “is that through the process of consolidation, so many buying entities “have gotten so large that even though they would like to, they just can’t respond quickly enough.”
A brief history of Main Street Produce
Main Street Produce, originally known as Sunset Strawberry Growers, was founded in 1976 by Alton Allen and a partner who leased five acres of land in Santa Maria, CA, and grew strawberries with the help of Alton’s sons and five sharecroppers, four of whom eventually became independent strawberry shippers in their own right and are still in business today, according to a written historical timeline of the company exclusive to The Produce News. The following account is extracted from that timeline:
Natividad Medical Foundation presents Hero Award to Driscoll’s CEO Miles Reiter
At its annual meeting in Salinas, CA, March 6, Navidad Medical Foundation honored Watsonville, CA-based Driscoll Strawberry Associates and the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, J. Miles Reiter, with its annual Hero Award in recognition of donations from Driscoll’s totaling $107,700 to support Natividad’s cross-cultural initiatives.
Fourth-generation Kawamura joins sales at Orange County Produce
Paul Kawamura, son of Orange County Produce LLC’s managing partner, Matt Kawamura, is now on the sales desk at Orange County Produce. He is the fourth-generation Kawamura in the family business.
“He has actually been working for the company for three or four years,” said Matt Kawamura in an interview with The Produce News March 5. “He was learning about the accounting side and a bunch of other things initially. Now we brought him over into the strawberry sales.”
Ready Pac's Tristan Simpson takes on executive role
Ready Pac Foods Inc. promoted Tristan Simpson to vice president of corporate communications. In this newly created position, Simpson joins the Ready Pac executive leadership team and will lead the company’s communications efforts.
USApple launching new brand identity
Apple industry leaders from across the country will soon converge in Washington, DC, and when they do they’ll be greeted by materials bearing a whole new look.The U.S. Apple Association will officially launch its new brand identity next week during its bi-annual board meeting in Washington, DC.
Kings Food Markets collects grand prize from PWPM
Paul Kneeland of Kings Food Markets inspected produce with RLB's Joey Granata and Howard Fisher, and Kings' Paul Hamilton, Jonathan Horowitz and John Spellman.The Philadelphia Wholesale Produce M
Unified Grocers hires Art Salazar
Art Salazar recently joined Commerce, CA-based Unified Grocers.
In his new position as manager of the produce department for the Southern California region, Salazar is responsible for managing the purchasing and sales team, as well as overlooking merchandising and store deliveries to maximize quality and reduce the cost of doing business.
Splendid gearing up for increased volume
Splendid Products LLC, headquartered in Burlingame, CA, has had an excellent Peruvian mango deal so far this year and expects Mexico to also yield increased supplies this season.
“Our volume is up significantly this year from Peru and we expect the same from Mexico,” said Larry Nienkerk, owner and manager of the operation, on Feb. 21. “After this week our volume will begin to diminish in Peru and pick up in Mexico.”
Brooks Tropicals says tropical creating ‘sling-shot’ effect in family meals
Mary Ostlund, director of marketing for Brooks Tropicals, headquartered in Homestead, FL, a leading grower, packer and marketer of fresh tropical fruits and vegetables, told The Produce News that tropicals are moving into the mainstream in consumer diets.