YAKIMA, WA - As we inch ever closer to the end of winter and the warm weather of spring, AndNowUKnow was more than ready to hear the latest Washington orchard update from the ever-delightful Dave Gleason, Chief Horticulturist for Domex Superfresh Growers®. Mother Nature has brought Eastern Washington a very snowy winter prior to the upcoming apple harvest, prompting Dave to compare his days in the orchards to Groundhog’s Day, coincidentally the favorite movie of Mrs. Gleason.
“We have inputs that we have no control over,” says Gleason, mentioning the vital, but often-repetitive pruning process. “We may do the same thing every year, but the weather is different, the water is different, the timing of the spring, when things are harvested, all of those things are dictated by what nature gives us every year. We really don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring!”
According to a press release, Superfresh Growers® uses this winter downtime as an opportunity to reflect and plan for its future harvests. While predicting what consumers’ favorite apples will be in the coming decade is a challenge, its one the company is confident to take on, especially with the aid of the flavor profile of its Autumn Glory® apple. In addition to increasing Autumn Glory® acreage for the upcoming season, Domex plans to be a key participant in the Cosmic Crisp™ variety, the latest variety from Washington State University’s tree fruit breeding program.
Want to learn more about the day-to-day happenings in Domex’s snowy Washington orchards? Get the scoop straight from the rosy-cheeked treefruit-whisperer himself in Dave’s short video update above.
SANTA PAULA, CA – With February upon us, and Valentine’s Day just on the horizon, Limoneira has a new campaign primed to bring citrus center stage, with Limoneira Spokesperson and Founder of Healthy Grocery Girl Megan Roosevelt sharing easy, DIY ways to zest up your Valentine’s Day and beautify your February.
For the rest of 2017, Megan will be producing weekly videos that demonstrate fun, easy, and healthy tips to make the most of the new year, from beauty tips to recipe ideas and more. Check out Megan's Valentine's Day tips, here, or in the embedded video below. Tips for this Valentine's Day include:
Custom Valentine’s Day Cards
There’s no better way to show your appreciation for someone special than a handmade Valentine’s Day card.
What you’ll need:
- Twine
- Pens
- Tags
- Bags
- Your choice of Limoneira Citrus
Directions: Write a sweet message on the tag. Place your choice of citrus fruit inside a bag and use the twine to tie the tag to it. Then present to your Valentine.
Citrus Sugar Scrub
Sugar scrubs can be a staple of any good skincare routine. Follow these simple steps to keep your skin soft and glowing this month, and year-round.
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- ½ blood orange, juiced
- ¾ cup coarse sugar
Directions: Add ingredients together and stir. Use as an exfoliating scrub and clean skin and rinse well afterwards.
Citrus Salad with Mint and Honey
This beautiful and deliciously-simple fruit salad is perfect for a homemade Valentine’s Day spread, an afternoon snack, or a picnic.
Ingredients:
- Minneola tangelos
- Blood oranges
- Navel oranges
- Fresh mint
- Raw local honey
Directions: Slice the citrus fruit into rounds removing the pith and rind. Wash mint, remove stems, and chop. Lay sliced citrus on a platter, spread mint over citrus rounds, drizzle with honey, and enjoy.
Additionally, each month, Megan will feature new citrus-related lifestyle tips—from natural green cleaning solutions, to recipes, and more.
And Limoneira has linked with global beauty experts to share their knowledge with grocery and foodservice partners around the world.
For more on Limoneira and other outstanding produce providers, check in with us at AndNowUKnow.
ATLANTA, GA - Following the announcement of its 2017 plans to expand its footprint to more than 250 stores in 15 states, Sprouts Farmers Markets will be opening a new temperature-controlled distribution center for its Southeastern operations. The 260,000 square-foot facility, purchased in July of 2016, reflects the expansion of the retailer's partnership with Americold.
“The opening of our East Point site allows us to support Sprouts and other food retailers that are rapidly expanding throughout the Southeast. We’re very happy to bring new jobs and career opportunities to our hometown Atlanta community,” commented Fred Boehler, President and CEO of Americold, according to source American Journal of Transportation. “Americold is thrilled to be able to work with Sprouts as an anchor tenant in this facility and provide the additional, dedicated capacity needed as they continue to expand their healthy grocery operations from coast to coast.”
The East Point, GA site will serve as a temperature-controlled distribution center for Sprouts’ Southeastern operations, which will expand considerably in 2017. The site offers two temperature zones at 34F and 55F—ideal for Sprouts’ fresh produce warehousing needs.
“As Sprouts continues to grow, we’re deeply invested in enhancing our operations and developing our team members so they can deliver the best experience possible for our guests,” said Sprouts Chief Operations Officer Dan Sanders, according to a statement earlier this year. “Sprouts team members are inspired by the company’s growth and our ‘healthy living for less’ approach to grocery shopping, and we offer tremendous opportunities for career progression, especially in the Southeast."
As we’ve previously reported, each of the new 35 stores is garnered to bring over 100 job opportunities to each area.
What moves are next for retailers? Stay tuned with AndNowUKnow for the latest!
LAKE PARK, GA – Chris Hill has been tapped as Generation Farms' new Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Reporting to President Jim Gallagher, Chris will lead efforts to grow and transform the business into a premier grower/shipper of high quality/food safe produce across the East Coast.
“I’m looking forward to supporting the talented team and farming heritage currently in place at Generation Farms to grow the business via a new vision for superior grown conventional and organic produce in the East, specializing in onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, blueberries, watermelons, our local organic program and other various produce items,” Hill said, according to a press release.
With 18 years under his belt, Chris is an industry leader who formerly worked for the Chiquita/Fresh Express company in various leadership roles, including General Manager/VP of the Fresh Express packaged salad division. Chris has demonstrated the ability to form strong trade relationships to build both commodity and value-added produce businesses.
“We are thrilled to have Chris as a part of our leadership team to bring his sales and trade marketing expertise to the Generation Farms family to continue our evolutionary path of what the Stanley and Coggins families started years ago,” Jim Gallagher, President of Generation Farms, said.
As we've previously reported, this past year, Lake Park, GA-based Coggins Produce, Inc. and Vidalia, GA-based Stanley Farms merged, to become Generation Farms.
Congratulations on the new role, Chris!
VANCOUVER, CANADA – As consumers in the U.S. continue to look to grapes to spruce up their winter tables, Oppy has announced new additions to its current program. The company will be importing new varieties from Peru.
Naming these offerings as “a taste of what could be the favorite grapes of the future,” Oppy stated in a press release that at the forefront of its new Peruvian offerings is the red seedless Sweet Celebration.
“Sweet Celebration is about the size of a red globe, without the seeds,” said Bill Poulos, Director of Import Grapes and Stonefruit at Oppy. “They are crisp and sweet, and low in shatter. While they are available early February through mid-to-late March, they may enter the market earlier in the future as the vines mature.”
The Sweet Celebration has just arrived on the East Coast of the U.S., and boasts several appealing qualities. The variety sizes 30-40 percent larger than a typical flame grape, and measures at about 28 millimeters–or over one inch– in circumference. The Sweet Celebration also has an appealing brix of 18-21.
Additionally, Oppy has offered black seeded Sweet Jubilee and green seedless Sweet Globes in recent weeks as part of its lineup. The marketer is also looking to include the following:
- Red seedless Jack’s Salute
- Black seedless Candy Dreams and Sweet Favors
- Green seedless Sugar Crisp
- White seedless Cotton Candy and Arra 15
“We’re eager to play a key role in partnering with our growers gain a foothold for new varieties here,” Poulos said. “Retailers are interested in trying the new types and seeing how they stack up alongside the current variety mix.”
Growers in Peru have made great strides in developing grape varieties in recent years, Poulos added. With Chile’s well-established and new variety programs to add to Peru’s, the programs can elevate the presence of new grape flavors and other preferred eating characteristics during the import season.
Before the end of the first quarter, Oppy plans to bring in additional trial varieties from Chile.
What’s next for the grape category, as the import season continues? AndNowUKnow will keep you updated.
ROSEMONT, IL – Last week, on January 25, US Foods Holding Corp. announced the pricing of a secondary public offering of 36,000,000 shares of common stock at a price of $26.00 per share for a total offering size of $936,000,000.
The selling stockholders—investment funds associated with Clayton, Dubilier, & Rice, LLC and Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P.—have also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 5,400,000 shares of common stock from the selling stockholders, according to a US Foods press release. If exercised, the total offering size could reach $1,076,400,000.
The offering concludes today, January 31, subject to customary closing conditions. US Foods is not selling any stock in this transaction and will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the shares by the selling stockholders.
Goldman, Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering and representatives of the underwriters. BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Wells Fargo Securities, and KKR are also serving as joint book-running managers for the offering and Guggenheim Securities, ING, Rabo Securities, and Natixis are serving as co-managers for the offering.
As we reported, in May of last year, US Foods made its initial public offering, selling 44.4 million shares at $23 and raising $1.02 billion in what was, at the time, the second-largest IPO of 2016.
For more updates on this public offering and its implications, check back in with us at AndNowUKnow.
HATFIELD, UK - Humanoid robots are maybe not what one initially jumps to when they think grocery retail, but that may be changing in the near future.
Looking to streamline operations through automation, U.K.-based supermarket titan Ocado, one of the world’s largest online-only grocery retailers, has been hard at work developing a humanoid robot called SecondHands—a robot capable of understanding human speech, 3D vision, and the ability to employ artificial intelligence and machine learning to help the company efficiently pack and dispatch goods from warehouses to homes.
“Robotic picking for grocery is much more complex than general merchandise because of varying form factors, temperatures, shapes and sizes, or gripping techniques,” explained Ocado Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Paul Clarke, to news source VentureBeat. “Our new warehouses built using the Ocado Smart Platform enable us to have robotic picking, and we’ve also automated other extremely repetitive and physically demanding tasks such as the bagging of our crates. We’re on a journey where some robotic picking can be done now for heavier items; SoMa will make robotic picking available at a large scale and deploying it is all about finding the right time.”
Watch the bot in action with select fruits in the videos below.
Ocado has been working with the SoMa project, a Horizon 2020 program for robotics research funded by the European Union, in order to produce a robotic worker capable of handling delicate, irregularly-shaped cargo like fruits and vegetables. According to the news source the aim is to develop “simple, compliant, yet strong, robust, and easy-to-program manipulation systems” to allow for robot grasping in dynamic environments with Ocado’s roughly 50,000 distinct offerings.
VentureBeat also points to competition from French startup Exotec and Pittsburgh-based Bossa Nova Robotics—each developing robotic assistants with grocery retail applicability. For more on these robotic developments, see the original story in its entirety, here.
With new technologies changing our industry every day, who knows how profoundly these produce-handling robots may affect fruits and veggies at retail? For updates on this and other forward-thinking technologies, stay tuned to AndNowUKnow.
DEERFIELD, IL - The latest in the saga of large mergers and acquisitions comes in the form of a lapsed deal deadline between Walgreens and Rite Aid. With the expiration date passing last week, the companies have tossed out their original acquisition agreement, announced in the fall of 2015, for an amended deal.
In the revised deal, Walgreens will pay a lower price, and Rite Aid will increase the number of stores it is selling up to 1,200 to ease monopoly and competition concerns by the FTC.
According to source Daily Herald, Rite Aid had initially been set to sell a maximum of 500 stores, and Walgreens had originally planned to pay $9 per share in an approximately $9.4 billion deal. Walgreens will now spend between $6.50 to $7 per share of shares of Rite Aid, depending on how many stores they need to divest.
The deadline to complete the deal, which expired last week, was extended to the end of July.
How will this and other mergers in the retail circuit continue to change the buy-side landscape? Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow as we continue to follow these strategies and their influences on the produce industry.
DANA POINT, CA - The fun and flavor of Havana descended on Southern California as produce industry members collected in their feisty best for the annual FPFC Dinner Dance.
This year’s event, themed Escape to Havana Nights, was held at a new location, the Monarch Beach Resort in beautiful Dana Point, California, which helped even more to bring the theme to life as many enjoyed the patios and scenery.
Among the delicious dinner and dancing, and of course a few tasty drinks, was a passing of the torch as the FPFC’s 2016 Chair Marvin Quebec became Immediate Past Chair. 2017's Chairwoman is produce veteran Connie Stukenberg.
Connie took the time to tell me a little bit about stepping into the role as Chairwoman and what she would like to achieve in the coming year.
“I very much look forward to my year as Chair, the FPFC is in a strong position with a highly experienced Board of Directors and FPFC Staff as well. There are a couple of things I would love to affect; one is membership and member involvement so we can continue to shape the future of our industry. The other is connectivity; I want us to continue to build strong relationships that blossom into strong friendships, and help our board members to feel more empowered in making a difference.”
When I congratulated Marvin on not only a successful year in the lead role, but as the FPFC’s first Chair from Northern California, he shared with me some of his goals as Immediate Past Chair.
“When directors first come in, there is always a period where they are quieter as they grow into their role. It's to the FPFC's benefit that we use the talents they bring to the table sooner rather than later,” he shared. “I'm very excited about some of the new faces we have, like Kristin Reid of Mixtec, and Sean McClure of Ready Pac Foods who have a lot to offer to the FPFC."
We also welcomed FPFC's latest apprentice class as we celebrated the graduates of 2016 and leaders-in-the-making for produce.
Once the thanks were given, the band The Groove returned from last year’s event to get all produce members moving to a fun range of live music.
One part of the finale was the selection of the grand $20,000 prize winner; attendees waited with bated breath as one of the final announcements was winner Van Ambatielos, of United Melon.
“The FPFC Dinner dance, AKA the “Produce Prom” is always a fun evening,” Karen Caplan, CEO & President of Frieda’s Specialty Produce, told me. “It was a great venue to catch up with lots of produce friends in a more social, fun environment. And the Monarch Beach Resort was a beautiful place, with lots of smaller areas to network and talk with friends. I’ve been attending the annual Dinner Dance since I was in college–and this year was one of the best!”
Though it was only my second time to have the privilege of going, I have to agree.
Garrett Nishimori of San Miguel Produce added, "The FPFC Dinner Dance is an event I look forward to each year to celebrate the past year and look forward to the upcoming year. A big thanks to the Dinner Dance Committee and Board of Directors, and congrats to the graduating apprentice class."
The music and the opportunities to connect went on throughout the night, and the industry finished off the evening with a bang as we welcome a new year.
PALMETTO, FL – Sunripe™ Certified Brands is making strides to improve children’s nutrition and wellness. This week, the company donated $5,000 to support Whole Foods Market’s Whole Kids Foundation®, presenting the organization with a check at Sunripe Certified Brands’ annual Health Fair.
“For years, Whole Foods has advocated for the same things we care deeply about, including human dignity and fair working conditions,” said Jon Esformes, CEO of Sunripe Certified Brands, in a press release. “Our health fair was a wonderful opportunity to present them with a check, in gratitude, from all of the people personally affected by their commitment to selling Fair Foods Program-labeled product.”
Sunripe Certified Brands’ employees presented the check as a way of thanking Whole Foods, the foundation’s sponsor, for its continuous support of the Fair Food Program—and its belief in care and commitment to people as much as the food it sells.
Lucas Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, along with Esformes and Lyle Bagley of Sunripe Certified Brands, personally thanked Whole Foods Market on behalf of both organizations for the organizations support in ensuring that all workers are provided with a safe environment and fair pay. Benitez told James Bible, RVP of Whole Foods Market, “your belief in what we’re doing is setting the foundation for future generations.”
Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for more on this and other important contributions in the produce industry