Wild About Sprouts adds director of operations, more roles

Rä Foods LLC Wild About Sprouts has hired two professionals and promoted another for its new facility in Sacramento, Calif.

 “… We needed to expand our operations and hire experts for key positions to help us meet the increasing demand we are experiencing,” owner Jeff Sholl said in a news release.

Antonio Ortiz will be the director of operations. In a career more than 20 years, Ortiz most recently served as general manager for Superior Farms in Dixon, Calif. There, he presided over a large-scale operation, managed a diverse team and consistently met all performance and productivity expectations. Before, Ortiz was facilities manager at North Shore Greenhouses, director of operations at McKay Transcold, operations manager at Railex LLC and plant manager at Cotterman Co. Throughout his career, Ortiz has developed and refined his skills in all areas of operational and facilities management, spearheading many successful initiatives.

Chelsea Deusenberry will be the continuous improvement and quality manager. She has 11 years’ experience in quality control, including in automation, robotics and GFSI audit experience for both FSIS and FDA production plants. Also, Deusenberry performed continuous gap analyses to determine areas of improvement in operational efficiencies and internal processes as well as tracking and analyzing product specifications, customer quality concerns and vendor complaints. Deusenberry will work on enhancing Wild About Sprouts’ food safety programs and processes. She will also participate in automation and increasing capacity initiatives.

Jacqueline Ponciano, operations and safety coordinator, has been promoted to logistics manager. Ponciano will focus on compliance, training and project management. She has a background in material requirements planning, vendor relationships and inventory management. Ponciano will further develop the transportation and customer service departments, focusing on order fulfillment and timely deliveries.

Wild About Sprouts are grown in individual 3-ounce containers using a patented Cold Grown process for safety.  This process prevents the growth of pathogens and eliminates handling that could introduce contaminants and promote spoilage, according to the release. The seeds are planted directly in retail packages, and from planting to the plate, the sprouts remain alive and completely untouched until harvested by consumers in their homes. As an additional safety step, final product testing occurs on every shipment.

Rä Foods, Southlake, Texas, is the parent company of Wild About Sprouts and Wild About Bread.