Industry veteran Vic Savanello has joined FreshPro Foods as vice president of merchandising, sales and business development.
Savanello was awarded the International Fresh Produce Association’s 2022 Retail Innovation Award and was named one of the 2022 Packer 25 honorees. Throughout his career he has held national produce retail and distribution positions in top leadership at Wakefern Foods, Allegiance Retail Services, The Fresh Market and, most recently, SpartanNash.
Savanello will be working to grow and create retail programs that add additional value to FreshPro’s product and services offerings, according to a news release. The West Caldwell, N.J.-based company says Savanello’s experience with independent supermarkets as well as chain retailers in the Northeast will accelerate its growth and deliver market-leading customer-centric support.
“I’m ecstatic to join the team at FreshPro and return to my New York/New Jersey roots,” Savanello said in the release, which added that FreshPro is in a growth mode and is a distributor to quality retailers, gourmet and specialty shops, convenience stores, foodservice operations and other outlets of fresh foods. “I can’t wait to be able to utilize my experience and vision to help our customers gain a competitive edge in their market areas.”
Since 1985, FreshPro has been a fresh distributor of a wide variety of high-quality conventional and organic produce, fresh cuts, deli items, cheese, chilled foods and other products related to the perishable food arena, the release said.
In 1991, the company’s fresh-cut division, FreshPro, was created to fill an opportunity in the market for fresh-cut value-added product. Since then, the FreshPro division has expanded far beyond fresh-cut product to include private label, repacking and other services, the release said. The company says it offers solutions for every customer, big or small.
