Capital City adds staff, reconfigures space
Norwalk, Iowa-based distributor Capital City Fruit has made several hires and reconfigured its facility to handle continued growth.
The company's performance thus far this year has been an improvement over last year at the same time, said Brendan Comito, the company's chief operating officer.
"I think it's been a good year. We've had not strong but moderate growth."
The weather's been a big part of the reason, Comito said. The Des Moines area has had a lot of days in the 85-95 degree range this summer - warm enough for people to get together outside and eat, but not too hot.
It's also been a boon for Capital City's local growers, who have enjoyed excellent growing weather this year, Comito said.
The company added two growers to its local program this year, one conventional, one organic, he said. Organics in general have been a big growth item on the local side, as has kale.
Comito predicted double-digit growth in Capital City's locally grown sales in 2016.
To handle that and growth across the board, the company has made several hires in the past 12 months.
New staff
Brent Addison filled a newly created position of director of sales and marketing. Capital City had long had a sales director position, but the company wanted the job to include more strategic duties.
For starters, Addison has focused on leading a company committee tasked with evaluating Capital City's packaging.
That project has already borne fruit, with some packs transitioning to trays, and some trays turning into bags, Comito said.
In addition, some products also have new labels that are more eye-catching and show product better.
Four or five more items will likely undergo packaging changes in the near future, Comito said.
Addison formerly worked in the telecommunications industry and ran his own trucking company.
"He's been a great addition to the team." Also new at Capital City in the past year are Jacob Kingrey in IT, Charles Steingrabe in sales; Josh Henss in sales and purchasing; Ryan Pentico and Joshua Wilson in warehouse supervising; and Aaron Nichols in human resources recruiting.
Also as part of its company growth, Capital City has converted a packaging room into two new cooler rooms and moved one of its sister companies, 4 Seasons Fundraising, offsite.
The 4 Seasons space will now house accounting offices, which will create more room for the sales and purchasing departments in the company's main office.
