Regional distributor expands fresh-cut operation

Baldor Specialty Foods, in the Bronx borough of New York City, started up 16 years ago with only a “handful” of employees, said Michael Muzyk, company president. It has now grown to more than 600 employees and will soon be moving into a new, state- of-the-art distributing and processing plant.

Muzyk has been with Baldor for most of that growth period. He started with the company 12 years ago as a produce salesman after moving back to New York to be closer to his family. He was able to use his experience as a chef and training from the Culinary Institute of America to build relationships with other chefs and help them create menu items while selling them fresh produce. He lived that life, he said, as a chef in Europe, South America and in the United States, so he knew what it was like to manage a kitchen it didn’t hurt his feelings if a chef threw him out of the restaurant.

“I understood what that pressure’s like,” Muzyk said.

As a chef, he would develop a relationship with chefs and try to explain why a particular item would be a good fit – which is important when trying to sell a chef a specialty item he or she might not be familiar with.

“I can take all the mystique away and show how to use it,” Muzyk said.

Educating his customers became a part of Muzyk’s sales approach. He wouldn’t just take an order, but he would guide the chef on what was in season. The produce industry seems to defy logic, because when prices are high the produce usually isn’t very good. It’s when prices are low that the product is in season and the taste and quality are best, Muzyk said.

“That information is very vital to impart on the customer,” he said.

Muzyk’s success in sales led to him being named sales manager, then vice president and now president, which he credits working under chief executive officer Kevin Smith, who gave him that initial shot at produce sales.

In his 12 years with Baldor, Muzyk has seen the company grow from an importer of specialty fruits and vegetables for the white tablecloth segment to a regional distributor with sales in excess of $150 million. Baldor still distributes to many high-end restaurants in New York City, but that market isn’t about volume. Contract sales to cafeterias, hotels and catering businesses through Sudexho, Compass Group and others move most of the produce, Muzyk said.

As the company grew, its distribution area expanded. Baldor distributes Hartford, Conn., to eastern Pennsylvania from its New York City facility, and from southern Maine to Hartford from its Boston facility. That plant opened two years ago and now operates 15 of its own trucks, and the New York and Boston facilities use a common carrier to reduce costs when distributing beyond the region.

“As we branched out, one of our customers wanted us to come into Boston,” Muzyk said. “To do that, we had to drive cost out of the equation.”

About 5 percent of Baldor’s business is in retail, Muzyk said, but he wants to grow that to 15 percent. He said the foodservice portion of the business has seen solid growth, but retail shows a lot of promise, especially in processed fruit. Baldor distributes fresh and fresh-cut retail products under the Urban Roots NYC brand, but as the retail portion grows new brands may be developed, including new brand names for organic lines.

Baldor Specialty Foods started processing fresh-cut fruits and vegetables for foodservice customers years ago, and the company has continually improved its food safety and other processes. Two years ago, the plant was HACCP approved and through the work of technicians and now a HACCP manager, the plant would score an 11 on a 10-point scale for food safety, Muzyk said.

“We’ve always looked at ourselves as pioneers,” he said.

The company’s food safety practices and relationship with customers has come into play in recent years. During the 2006 outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in spinach, Baldor stopped shipping spinach and sent letters to customers and vendors explaining what the issue was and what steps were being taken. That was also the case with this summer’s outbreak of Salmonella saintpaul in tomatoes, Muzyk said.

The company’s growth led to the need for a new facility, with an emphasis on more processing space for fresh-cut lines. Phase one of the company’s new plant in Queens is complete, and Phase two is nearing completion. The new plant will offer state-of-the-art food safety and sustainability practices, but it also will give the company the opportunity to give back to the community and employees.

The fresh-cut room was designed so that no foreign objects enter into the clean room, including bulk cases and cardboard boxes. The entire plant is refrigerated to maintain the cold chain from the time produce enters to the time it’s packed and shipped to the customer. The new plant will even have a room used only for cooling cardboard shipping boxes so even small increases in temperature don’t occur.

Sustainability has been built into the new plant, which is the right thing to do these days and it can improve a company’s bottom line, Muzyk said. Solar panels line the roof – the maximum wattage allowed for government subsidies – and a computer-based energy system lowers the peak energy usage and sends energy back to the grid, all done on a computer with no human involvement.

“We have to find a way to get off this dependency on oil,” Muzyk said.
He’s also looking at using biodiesel in the company’s fleet of 150 trucks, and expanding the use of rail for bulky, heavy produce. Last year, Baldor used about 60 rail cars, many of them filled with potatoes from out West.

Building a new facility from the ground up gave Smith and Muzyk the opportunity to build in features that would improve their relationships with customers and employees. There’s a multi-function room that Muzyk envisions suppliers using to show off new products and Baldor sales staff using it to learn about products. He also hopes to open it up to the community one day to teach local kids about cooking and maybe open up opportunities for them.

“We can change people’s lives and give them a career,” he said.

With construction already started – even nearing completion – Smith decided to add another feature that would benefit workers – a cafeteria. That required some redesigning of the plans, but a company cafeteria can improve health and increase food safety, Muzyk said. The cafeteria will offer balanced, healthy meals and will be subsidized by the company, he said. That’s on top of a company gymnasium that’s open to all employees and health care program that covers 100 percent of employees, their spouses and children.

“If I keep my people healthy, it’s a win-win for everyone,” Muzyk said.

“Passion” is a good word to describe how he feels about produce, Muzyk said, and that has launched him to senior management at a successful and growing produce business. But his goal is the same as when he started selling produce, and the same as when he was chef – to provide people with the best produce and a fair price.

“I refuse to put a product on the shelves that I’m not proud of,” he said.



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