Industry News Roundup
Check out the latest from Nelson-Jameson, Key Techology, Georgia Pacific and the Center for Produce Safety, Southeastern Packaging Equipment Sales and Triangle Package Machinery Company, the Produce Marketing Association, Ryder, PACA, Bayer CropScience, the Mushroom Council, Ready Pac, Maglio, Yamato and 3M Health Care.
New branch for Nelson-Jameson Inc.
Nelson-Jameson Inc. is opening a branch in Dumas, Texas.
The new location enables South Central food and beverage manufacturers to place a single order and receive plant supplies in a more timely and cost-efficient manner. The new Texas facility includes 8,000 square feet of warehouse and office space.
Visit www.nelsonjameson.com.
Key promotes Pellegrino
Steve Pellegrino has been promoted to vice president of sales at Key Technology. In his new role, Pellegrino will be responsible for managing regional and inside sales activities in North America, South America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Pellegrino has been with Key since 2000, serving most recently as senior director of U.S. and Canada Sales. For more information, visit www.key.net.
Georgia-Pacific supports CPS
Georgia-Pacific has donated $250,000 to the Center for Produce Safety (CPS) at the University of California, Davis.
It’s the largest donation CPS has received from an industry supplier.
The money will support CPS fresh produce food safety research, said Bonnie Fernandez-Fenaroli, the center’s executive director. In three years, CPS has awarded nearly $9 million and is funding 58 one- and two-year research projects at 19 universities and organizations. This year, an additional $3 million will be available for projects that will be evaluated through the organization’s 2012 request for proposals.
Southeastern, Triangle join forces
Southeastern Packaging Equipment Sales LLC (SEPKG) has joined the sales team of Triangle Package Machinery Company. Representing manufacturers in the packaging machinery industry, SEPKG has a staff of six sales professionals who will cover Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. They will be supported directly by Jay Leveroni, Triangle’s southeast regional sales manager.
Based in Chicago, Triangle is a U.S. manufacturer of vertical form fill seal bag machines, combination weighers, horizontal cartoning and bag-in-box systems, as well as a variety of tray loading and depositing systems.
PMA donates salad bar
The Produce Marketing Association (PMA) has donated a salad bar to a school in Newark, Del., where the association is based. PMA is part of the National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, which supports “Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools” and first lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign.
United Fresh announced at its annual trade show in Texas last month that it was donating 100 salad bars to schools in Texas. Also at United Fresh, it was announced that HBO is donating salad bars to multiple schools in the U.S.
PACA launches new website
PACA has launched a new website designed to provide an easy-to-understand description of the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act and how it works. PACA says its Webguide is written in non-legal language, and is searchable to obtain general information about PACA and PACA issues. Topic areas include PACA law and produce industry websites, licensing and fees, prohibited conduct, resolving produce disputes, contract issues and more.
Bayer Netherlands expands
Bayer CropScience has expanded its center for vegetable research and development in Leudal, the Netherlands. With an investment of 12 million EUR, the existing research building has been nearly tripled in size and equipped with state-of-the-art labs for seed technology, cell biology and molecular breeding research, as well as high-throughput biotech services.
Bayer CropScience has a second vegetable research center in Davis, Calif. Both centers work in close alignment with 26 vegetable breeding stations spread across the world, and two additional high-throughput service centers in the US (Brooks, Oregon) and India (Bangalore). The vegetable seed business of Bayer CropScience operates under the brand name of Nunhems. Its portfolio consists of some 2,500 varieties in 28 vegetable crops, including leading varieties of carrot, cucumber, leek, lettuce, melon, onion, pepper, tomato and watermelon.
Yamato announces promotions
Yamato Corporation has promoted Bill Pierce to vide president of Sales, USA & Canada; Mike Taylor to VP of sales, Latin America, and new business development; Bill Devlin to major account project manager; and Scott Kohlmann to service manager at its Dataweigh Division in Mequon, Wis.
Mushroom Council supports ‘swapability’
The Mushroom Council is supporting a “Swapability” campaign that encourages consumers to substitute a portion of meat with mushrooms to allow for a healthy ingredient exchange. The council is suggesting that retailers can maximize sales for both mushrooms and beef by highlighting the nutritional benefits of mushrooms and including a “swapability” recipe, available at www.mushroominfo.com/mushroom-swapability.
Ryder expands facilities
Ryder has made significant enhancements to its 327,000-square-foot food packaging and distribution center in Beaver Dam, Wis. Ryder’s Beaver Dam Logistics Center (BDLC) provides distribution, packaging and production for an array of frozen and refrigerated foods. The facility, which features a low-temperature environment, was recently expanded with a 15,000-square-foot, temperature-controlled addition that has been equipped to package refrigerated and frozen foods, vegetables, fruits, and meats. Ryder also added a packaging line with seven-station blending capability that includes high-speed robotic palletizing and automatic and semi-automatic cartoning.
With a total expanded space of 342,000 square feet and the new technology, the BDLC will be able to add lines quickly and easily to meet increased volume requirements as well as provide packaging for a greater variety of products, packaging sizes and blends.
Brumley joins Ready Pac
Ready Pac Foods, Inc. has announced the hiring of produce veteran Don Brumley as regional sales manager. Most recently with Colorful Harvest, Brumley has more than 25 years of retail sales and management experience. His new Ready Pac responsibilities will include sales territories in Northern California, the Pacific Northwest, and Western Canada, along with some national account and program responsibilities.
Ready Pac also has achieved Safe Quality Food (SQF) Level 3 certification for its Florence, New Jersey facility. The company is pursuing the certification system-wide. SQF is the only food safety program outside of Europe that is recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative.
Maglio expands fleet
Glendale, Wis.-based Maglio & Company is expanding its transportation fleet to include 13 new trucks that will be managed by Blackhawk Transport. Each truck will be equipped with Department of Transportation-approved technology that allows Maglio to obtain route updates and communicate with drivers. Trucks will be hitting the road this month (late June).
Two awards to 3M Health Care
3M Health Care has been honored with a Silver Edison Award for Analytic Systems in the Science/Medical category for its Aerobic Procedure for Lactic Acid Bacteria with 3M™ Petrifilm™ Aerobic Count Plate. Nominees were judged by a panel of more than 3,000 leading business executives including past award winners, members of the Marketing Executives Networking Group, academics and leaders in the fields of product development, design, engineering, science and medicine. The Aerobic Procedure for Lactic Acid Bacteria is a testing method developed by 3M Food Safety in collaboration with its food processing customers. This procedure provides a simpler way of testing food and environmental samples for their concentration of lactic acid bacteria, which can affect the shelf life, as well as the flavor and color of products.
