NOGALES, AZ - As your business grows, your priorities change. And, as the market shifts, diverse opportunities reveal themselves. Divine Flavor has hit its stride with an innovative packing strategy, and the success isn’t slowing down anytime soon. The supplier and its parent company, Grupo ALTA, have been converting their operations to centralized packing facilities, allowing them to pack multiple presentations for various clients at the same time.
“At the beginning, one of the biggest advantages of having a centralized packing facility was that we could package any presentation and give our customers a guarantee regarding the specifications and weights,” said Carlos Bon, Vice President of Sales. “After several seasons of using a centralized facility for our grapes, we greatly recognize two very important factors; one being a bit more obvious: when everything is filtered through one central location, this allows our quality control teams to have the eyes and direct supervision of every box being packed. Secondly, we are able to operate faster throughout the entire process, and one of the greatest advantages [is] having a central packing shed gives our operation the ability of removing the grapes from the intense heat and have the fruit go into the pre-cooled rooms immediately.”
During the Sonora, Mexico grape season, temperatures average around 105–110 degrees F once the end of May and first days of June begin, according to a press release.
“When the fruit comes into the packing facility, the pre-cooling process starts right away [in] gradual stages,” said Bon. “By the time the grapes are packed, they’ve already reached a temperature of around 55 degrees, improving the condition of the fruit dramatically.”
Bon also mentioned this year has been challenging for many Mexican grape growers due to labor issues but also due to the popular demand of special packs at the retail level.
“Thankfully we have not had any issues regarding the lack of labor, but we’re seeing our competitors are having a tougher time, and we know this because we are being asked to pack more special or fixed weights packs from customers who don’t usually ask us to pack for them,” Bon said. “These special presentations require more time, and when there’s labor issues or you’re operating at less than full capacity, growers can’t afford to risk time. So for us, this has been an opportunity to take on that challenge, and having a centralized packing facility allows us to do it with ease.”
Each packing line is equipped with large monitors which display all the packing specifications per presentation being packed, helping to achieve better quality and improved conditioning across the board. Another important factor of having a centralized packing facility is how it has improved morale and productivity amongst the workers.
For more information on this advantageous packing strategy, you can view the press release in full here. Stay tuned as ANUK continues to bring you the latest updates.
