MCALLEN, TX - For more than 70 years, GR Fresh has been delivering high-quality products in a region synonymous for produce. As the grower continues to develop this vision, it broke ground on a new, 100,000-square-foot facility in McAllen, Texas. I tapped Tony Incaviglia, Vice President of Sales, to learn about what this new facility means for the company at large.
“The ceremony was a momentous day for us. It was a long time coming. Roughly five years ago, we started to discuss a potential upgrade and expansion of our facility in order to be better able to take care of our customers and make us more operationally efficient. Our repacking capabilities for our value-added line, alongside additional opportunities with retail and foodservice customers, is now even more possible with this new facility. It allows us to take a big step forward,” Tony explained to me.
Speaking at the event was Chief Executive Officer Miguel Gonzales, who discussed how after two decades in McAllen, the company was ready to enter demanding domestic markets to develop new partnerships—and sustain previous ones—that promoted both GR Fresh’s goals and vision and increased options for retail partners.
“We see a great opportunity to be able to unite two important markets worldwide: the American market, to which we can offer high quality agri-food products, and the Mexican market, which receives the benefit of increasing the well-being to the Mexican families, achieving in this way a stronger commercial relationship between both countries,” Gonzales noted.
Nearly three times bigger than the previous facility, this new site will feature 12 cold rooms with a total storage capacity of approximately 6,000 pallets, which will allow GR Fresh to provide loading and unloading service through the 30 doors to receive and ship its fleet of 150 trucks daily.
“We can then affirm that this new project will provide our customers, suppliers, service providers, and consumers, the confidence that we will maintain the quality, efficiencies, and food safety of all our products and services,” Gonzales explained.
Luis Webb, Vice President of Operations, also touted the capabilities of this facility expansion.
“Our goal with our new home is to improve our capacity, efficiency, and contribute to the development of our coworkers and business partners, and to continue our social responsibility commitment with our Agro For People Program, which centers in maintaining sustainable and ethical communities,” he explained.
Mayor Jim Darling was also in attendance, commenting on the facility as a worthy addition to McAllen’s produce industry.
As GR Fresh continues to bolster its operations, AndNowUKnow will continue to keep the industry up to date on the latest.
