March 5, 2021
West Pak Avocado announced the appointment of Leonard Cueva as the company s senior vice president of finance.
To his new position, Cueva brings expertise in strategic business development, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and financial modeling. He also has turn-around business experience, a track record for improving internal controls, has studied the impact of lean manufacturing on operations, and has created a robotics process automation strategy.
Cueva is the former vice president of finance at C.R. Laurence, a manufacturer and supplier of architectural glazing systems. He holds a bachelor s degree in international business from California State University of Fullerton, a master s in business administration from Pepperdine University, and possesses leadership development alumni status at Harvard Business School.
March 5, 2021
Mann Packing Co., Inc., a subsidiary of Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A., Inc., and one of the largest suppliers of packaged vegetables in North America is excited to announce the addition of a fresh-cut fruit area to its new facility in Gonzales, CA. This new section of the facility will allow Mann Packing to grow its fresh-cut fruit and organic fresh-cut fruit business and provide a new space to help the brand continue to meet consumer needs.
Separate from the Value Added Vegetable part of the Gonzalez Plant, the Fresh-Cut Fruit area will allow for added retail convenience, as fruit will be cut to order. This will allow for the elimination of inventorying and for deliveries to be made directly from the Gonzalez plant. This new area of the plant is especially unique as it uses many vertically integrated products such as pineapples, melons and grapes.
March 5, 2021
Mission Produce Inc., a world leader in sourcing, producing and distributing fresh Hass avocados, announced a year-round mango program. In true Mission form, it will be among the first to incorporate ripening and distribution on a global and national scale through its advanced network.
“We’re entering the mango category today as we did the avocado category almost 40 years ago in a way it never has been done before,” said Steve Barnard, CEO and founder of Mission Produce. “Mangos offer a long runway with a lot of opportunity as the No. 1 consumed fruit in the world, adding mangos to our portfolio is a natural addition as we expand our footprint worldwide, without losing focus on avocados.”
March 3, 2021
Leading produce department brands Fresh Express, NatureSweet and Litehouse are teaming up for the fifth annual “I Heart Salad” retail promotion highlighting easy and affordable ways to create the perfect salad. The exclusive promotion will run at Albertsons Cos. stores from March 3 to March 16 and will include in-store product discounts and promotional pricing.
The “I Heart Salad” retail promotion has consistently increased sales for grocery retailers and the brand partners during the promotion period. Cross promotions tying together salad ingredients can increase grocery retailer sales by at least 30 percent on average.
Through a combination of in-store, online and social media activity, “I Heart Salad” will be supported with initiatives including:
March 2, 2021
Bill Kelley, group vice president of produce commissary at Hy-Vee, is calling it a career after 40 years of service.
Kelley graduated from Wayne Community High School and attended Truman State University as well as Iowa State University. He joined Hy-Vee in 1978, working part-time at the Corydon Hy-Vee. He left Hy-Vee while in college, returning to the company in 1983 at the Ames #1 store as a produce clerk. He then moved to four different stores as produce manager. His first management stint was at the Rochester #2 store in 1989, followed by the Boone store in 1993, the Des Moines #3 store in 1995 and the Urbandale store in 1996.