JACKSONVILLE, FL - The Winn-Dixie Company (TWDC) is celebrating its latest national recognitions, earning 46 awards for product quality and innovation, community impact, workplace culture, and sustainability.

The latest accolades span TWDC’s exclusive food and beverage offerings, including recognition from Store Brands Editors’ Picks, World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest and USA Wine, Beer & Spirits Ratings, along with honors from FMI Community Uplift Awards, Newsweek’s America’s Greatest Workplaces by State (Florida) and The Shelby Report’s Sustainability in the Food Industry Awards.

Brooke Rice, Chief Merchandising Officer for The Winn-Dixie Company, said, “We’re incredibly proud to see our products and community efforts recognized among some of the best in the industry. These honors reflect the care our teams put into delivering exceptional quality and meaningful value for our customers, while staying true to our purpose of feeding and enriching the communities we are proud to call home.”

TWDC’s Own Brand products continued to stand out among industry leaders this year. SE Grocers Southern Pecan Coffee Collection and Know & Love 90-Second Rice were named Store Brands Editors’ Picks, while Know & Love General Tso Sauce, Know & Love Antioxidant Fruit Blend, Know & Love Tuna Pouches, Chek Shirley Temple Soda and Know & Love Blood Orange Cranberry Sparkling Water received honorable mentions.

The grocer’s dairy offerings earned recognition from the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest, with Know & Love Goat Cheese Crumbles earning a first-place medal, alongside second-place category honors for Know & Love Plain Cream Cheese, SE Grocers Strawberry Cream Cheese and SE Grocers Salted Butter.

TWDC also raised a glass to an impressive showing at the USA Wine, Beer & Spirits Ratings, earning 37 medals across its private-label and market-exclusive wines and spirits. The awards celebrate standout beverages for their quality and consumer appeal. Among this year’s winners, the following products earned gold medals: 

Axis Point Cabernet Sauvignon, Decoded Napa Chardonnay, Decoded Napa Valley Pinot Noir, Fioroso Prosecco, Fioroso Prosecco Rosé, Fog & Light Reserve Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon, Know & Love Cabernet Sauvignon, Know & Love Pinot Noir, Lion's Ridge Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon, Piedra Azul Reposado Tequila, Poor Johnny’s Almanack Hard Cider, Shady Mile Wheat Whisky, Tenure Vodka, Winn-Dixie Bourbon, Winn-Dixie Gin, Winn-Dixie Scotch Whisky.

Winn-Dixie Gin earned additional distinction as Best Own Label by Quality and Best Spirit by Value. Fioroso Prosecco Rosé was named Best Own Label by Value, Best Own Label Sparkling and Best Own Label of the Year, while Fog & Light Reserve Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon earned Best Own Label by Package, further highlighting the quality and value found across TWDC’s beverage assortment.

Beyond the shelves, TWDC was acknowledged for bringing its purpose to life in the communities it serves. The grocer’s Gratitude Month initiative earned recognition through the FMI Community Uplift Awards for its response during last year’s government shutdown. TWDC and the Winn-Dixie Gives Foundation mobilized the effort with a $100,000 donation to Feeding America® to provide more than 1 million meals to families in need, along with affordable solutions to help customers facing increased food insecurity. The FMI Community Uplift Awards celebrate meaningful efforts that help strengthen communities, address local needs, and create positive impact.

TWDC’s commitment to its associates also earned national recognition this year, with the company named one of Newsweek’s America’s Greatest Workplaces by State in Florida, adding to the grocer’s growing list of workplace honors. The recognition reflects TWDC’s continued focus on creating a workplace where associates can grow, thrive, and build meaningful careers while serving customers as a trusted hometown grocer throughout Florida.

Read more here. 

YAKIMA, WA - H.R. Spinner Corporation, a leading packaging distributor to the fresh fruit and produce industry, announced it has completed its acquisition of Growers Container Co. of Spreckels, California. The acquisition expands H.R. Spinner's reach into one of the nation's most important produce regions. Owners Craig and Shawn Waite will remain with the company to support a smooth transition.

Since 1990, Growers Container has provided and distributed packaging to the produce industry from its facility on the site of the historic Spreckels Sugar Plant in the heart of the Salinas Valley. The company is a full-service packaging supplier focused on product innovation and packaging solutions, and helps customers manage complex packaging programs, including re-order timing, quantities, and finished goods inventory, using their forecast demand and inventory data. Its offerings also include tray forming services and a high-tech and industrial packaging division, SC Packaging.

Headquartered in Yakima, Washington, with four locations across the Pacific Northwest, H.R. Spinner has served the region's tree fruit and produce growers, packers, and shippers since 1916. For 110 years, the company has remained privately held, with its owners still actively involved in the business every day, a hands-on commitment that shapes how it serves customers. H.R. Spinner is the industry leader in machine-made boxes, and its machine department builds and services box-forming equipment on site at customers' facilities, keeping packing lines running smoothly year-round. With roughly 100 employees, the company provides corrugated and specialty packaging, machine-made box programs, inventory management, and dependable local service to many of the region's largest fruit operations.

"Growers Container has built a strong reputation for expertise and service in the Salinas Valley," said Kailan Dunn, President of H.R. Spinner Corporation, in the recent release. "We're excited to bring the same level of service our Northwest customers count on, along with our machine department, to the great packing companies in the Salinas Valley and beyond. Together, we can offer growers and shippers greater supply stability and broader resources."

"H.R. Spinner is a great fit for our customers," said Craig and Shawn Waite. "Their service, resources, and machine capabilities will be a real benefit to the packers we serve."

Growers Container will continue operating from its Spreckels facility, and customers can expect no disruption to service or ordering. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

OXNARD, CA - Westfalia Fruit, a global leader in the avocado industry, now grows and sources avocados from 7 key regions in Colombia. Each region brings its own climate, altitude, and rhythm, and that diversity is what allows Westfalia Fruit to offer consistent, high-quality avocados all year round with promotable volume all season long.

With its own farms covering 700 hectares, alongside a partner grower network of 3,373 hectares, in the diverse growing regions of Antioquia, Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda, Cundinamarca, Valle del Cauca and Huila, and facilitating a reach matched by depth on the ground, packed at the company’s packhouses in Sonsón and Guarne.

Westfalia Fruit works closely with partner growers through technical training, linking the science of the tree to the fruit that reaches the retail shelf. Growers work with balanced nutrition tailored to each orchard, precision irrigation, climate monitoring, and dry matter tracking - held to tighter standards. These controls are backed by the company’s owned nurseries, high-performing rootstocks, and its R&D and disease control lab. Alongside this sit reforestation and pollinator projects, restoring natural ecosystems of the regions where the company grows.

That same care carries through the journey north. Westfalia Fruit holds strict loading temperatures and full cold chain control from packhouse to port, shipping through Santa Marta and Cartagena with traceability at every stage. On reaching the United States, fruit is managed through a dual model: either ripened to specification in three to five days or held in cold storage at 41°F, then delivered to the distribution center at 40 to 42°F, so it arrives exactly as each customer needs it.

Colombia is one of Westfalia Fruit’s key growing regions for the U.S. market, alongside Mexico, Peru, California and Chile. This regional diversification extends seasonality and brings fruit closer to market, keeping the path from rootstock to retail consistent for customers, whichever origin the fruit comes from.

“Colombia plays an important role in keeping our U.S. customers supplied all year round, and its proximity to the United States means fresher fruit and shorter journeys,” says Tommy Padilla, President and CEO of Westfalia Fruit North America, in the recent release. “With our own farms, our packhouses and a strong network of partner growers, we know the fruit, the regions and the people who grow it. That knowledge is what lets us bring real consistency to our customers in the United States, season after season.”

“Beyond the campaign itself, we are deepening our footprint in our U.S.-facing origins, particularly Peru and Colombia, where our partner grower networks are still expanding, and using regional diversification to extend seasonality and bring fruit closer to market,” says Tommy.

For U.S. retailers, foodservice distributors and wholesalers, the result is consistent, high-quality Colombian avocados all year round, delivered with the quality, service and reliability that come from knowing the ground the fruit grows in.