Illinois

Frey Farms rebrands as Sarah’s Homegrown

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:36:26 GMT

Keenes, Il-based Frey Farms is rebranding its entire line from Frey Farms to Sarah’s Homegrown by Frey Farms.

The new brand will appear on everything from bins of jack o’lanterns to mesh bags of striped mini pumpkins and PLU stickers on individual pumpkins and gourds, said Hilary Long, vice president of sales and marketing.

“The new look speaks to a woman-owned business,” said Long.

The accompanying QR code tells the story of her aunt Sarah Frey, who starting her business at the age of 16 and now grows fruit and vegetables in seven states and distributes fresh beverages nationally.

Long said Frey did a small test of the Homegrown brand last year at Walmart. The move paves the way for new digital marketing campaigns and work with influencers.

“For the first time we’ll spend more on marketing online this fall,” said Long. “Not just because of COVID; it’s something we’ve wanted to do once we got the branding right and consistent across our portfolio, including our beverages.”

Frey Farms will also be promoting Sarah Frey’s new book, “The Growing Season: How I built a New Life and Saved and American Farm,” to be published Aug. 25 by Ballantine.

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BrightFarms expands in Chicago retail market

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:36:00 GMT

BrightFarms has opened an expansion to its Chicago-area facility, allowing continued growth in the market, including a 34% jump in year-over-year sales at Mariano’s.

The 160,000-square-foot greenhouse facility opened in 2016 to supply Chicago-area with leafy greens , and the company now serves more than 150 Roundy’s Supermarkets (through the Mariano’s, Pick ‘n Save and Metro Market banners) with packaged salads that are on shelves in as few as 24 hours after harvest, according to a news release.

“For over four years now, BrightFarms has provided consumers in Illinois and Wisconsin with delicious local produce that was grown within a short drive of their local Mariano’s and Pick ‘n Save,” Abby Prior, senior vice president of sales and marketing at BrightFarms, said in the release.

Retail displays features references to the Rochelle greenhouse, according to the release, and the brand has loyal customers that gravitate to freshness and sustainability attributes, according to the release.

BrightFarms recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of Mariano’s supermarkets with in-store activations in the Chicago market.

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BrightFarms expands sales staff, prepares for NE expansion

Illinois Microbreweries Giving Grains to Farmers

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:01:01 GMT

Several microbreweries in suburban Chicago share grain left over from the brewing process with local farmers, who can use it to feed their animals, instead of throwing it away.

Sandy Robertson, a farmer who lives near Sycamore, Ill., receives spent grains from five microbreweries around the Chicago area, including Scorched Earth Brewing in Algonquin. When brewing is complete, workers take the grains out of a kettle and put them into another container for Robertson to pick up for free.

“We’ve learned a lot about sustainability and conservation. You have to do as much as you can with what you have and be resourceful,” said Mike Dallas, owner of Scorched Earth. “Why dump it out when it can be used for something?”

About 1,000 pounds of grain is used per batch, but the amount varies depending on the style of beer, the Northwest Herald reported.

Robertson said she started using spent grains to feed her cattle about two years ago, after corn prices got too high. Now she can easily use 3,000 pounds of spent grains per day, she said.

Crystal Lake Brewing puts its leftover wet grains into a 44-gallon garbage can to await pickup not from garbage collectors, but from interested farmers.

“We assume to not throw that away,” co-owner John O’Fallon added. “It has a lot of value for farmers.”

Shannon DeVaul, who operates a farm near Woodstock, calls the brewery each week to see when the spent grains will be available. She usually picks up 10 to 12 garbage bins, weighing about 80 pounds apiece, to feed chickens and ducks.

DeVaul also uses the spent grains as compost material and mulch.

“I’ve been green and growing organic since way before it was cool,” she said.

Top Chicago retail rankings hold steady

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:39:57 GMT

Ranking of the top retail chains in the Chicago market remains virtually unchanged from a year ago, said Bill Bishop, chief architect at Brick Meets Click, a Barrington, Ill.-based consulting firm.

There have been no major new entrants, but the retail industry continues to evolve with online sales inching upward, independent stores struggling to compete and consumers on the lookout for greater discounts in their grocery purchases.

Itasca, Ill.-based Jewel Food Stores Inc. continues to be the market leader in the Chicago area, Bishop said.

“They have been very aggressive on their prices,” he said, “and they have done a very nice job of upgrading the shopping experience in their stores.”

Produce displays that traditionally have been confined to fixtures in certain sections of the store have become more prominent, Bishop said.

“They do a lot of off-shelf displays that give a more massive impression to the shopper and trigger spontaneous purchases,” he said.

Meanwhile, the consensus is that Mariano’s stores, part of the Roundy’s subsidiary of Cincinnati-based The Kroger Co., are run more

efficiently than when they were operated by Roundy’s on an independent basis, but that they “have lost some of their competitive edge in terms of service and excitement,” Bishop said.

“The old regime at Mariano’s kind of lavished service on customers,” he said. “That’s not something that Kroger typically does.”

Mariano’s has tried to stay price competitive, but they also “do a great job with their loyalty program and targeted marketing,” Bishop said.

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Meijer Inc., another traditional chain, has a strong base, mainly in suburban Chicago and the outer reaches of the Chicago market, he said.

“They run a really nice stores with aggressive prices,” he said, and do a good job with perishables.

“They may be comfortably holding their (market) share,” Bishop said, and may be gaining share if they are still building stores.

In general, however, traditional stores are barely maintaining market share, if they are maintaining market share at all, he said.

On the other hand, discounters, like Batavia, Ill.-based Aldi Inc. and Bentonville, Ark,-based Walmart Stores Inc. are gaining market share.

Walmart has opened at least one “dark store,” where consumers can buy groceries from Walmart online even if there is no conventional Walmart store nearby.

Jewell, Kroger and Meijer offer online shopping services as well.

The Chicago area is a bit ahead of the national average when it comes to purchasing groceries online, said David Bishop, partner in Brick Meets Click.

Nationally, 6.3% of grocery spending is online, he said.

In Chicago, which is one of the top 10 markets, online grocery spending is 7.8%.

Produce accounts for about 12% of in-store sales in traditional stores, he said, but that figure jumps to 14% for online produce purchases.

Despite the common perception that consumers do not buy produce online, David Bishop said, “Produce represents a larger portion of the grocery spend online as opposed to instore.”

Meanwhile, Aldi’s move to Instacart for delivery of groceries and the recent announcement that the company would deliver beer and wine should help add share, Bill Bishop said.

But the situation is not as positive for independent markets.

“The intensification of price competition has made it harder for independents to operate viably in the market,” Bishop said.

Railroads Warn of Potential Chicago Gridlock

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 20:01:08 GMT

With last week’s 7 feet of snow in upstate New York heralding an early winter, railroads crisscrossing Chicago are rushing to open 24-hour command centers, install heaters to keep switches from freezing, and plotting ways to reroute traffic.

The aim is to avoid the gridlock that started with storms last winter in Chicago, the biggest Midwest city and the epicenter of a rail system where the six largest U.S. and Canadian lines intersect. Even after adding engines, crews and capacity carriers from Warren Buffett’s BNSF Railway Co. to Norfolk Southern Corp. are still recovering from last winter’s delays as this one roars in.

There’s little room to make up for any new weather disruptions, with U.S. economic growth keeping tracks packed with consumer goods, autos, lumber, cement and steel. That’s in addition to a record grain harvest and petroleum product shipments that have surged 13 percent so far this year, spurred by oil production in northern shale formations.

“Everybody has some apprehension,” said Shelley Sahling- Zart, vice president and general counsel for Lincoln Electric System, a Lincoln, Nebraska-based power company that ships coal by railroad, in a phone interview Nov. 19. “We’ve seen some improvements, but it’s a little scary when we know there’s still service issues out there.”

Snowy Chicago

Chicago, through which a quarter of all U.S. freight passes and where the six largest U.S. and Canadian railroads interconnect, remains the weak link in the rail system. Successive snowstorms and subzero temperatures last year slowed freight movement through the city, causing delays that rippled through the network.

Chicago had seven days of sub-freezing temperatures this month, tying a mark set in 1903, according to the National Weather Service office in Romeoville, Illinois. The city also posted eight days with at least a trace of snow since Nov. 12, matching similar stretches in 1937 and 1954. It’s also the earliest 8-day snow stretch ever recorded.

“If we have another harsh winter, it could still be a very challenging environment,” Justin Long, an analyst with Stephens Inc., said in a Nov. 18 telephone interview. “To some degree, you’re always at the mercy of Mother Nature.”

CSX Corp., the largest railroad in the eastern U.S., is hoping last week’s storm, which dumped as much as seven feet of snow near Buffalo, New York, isn’t a harbinger of the winter to come. About 100 CSX employees were trapped at home and those who did make it to work were busy digging out trains, Cindy Sanborn, CSX chief transportation officer, said in a Nov. 19 telephone interview.

Lessons Learned

CSX and other railroads say they’re applying lessons learned from last season when Chicago suffered 26 days at zero degrees or less and logged 82 inches of snow, more than double the 20-year average, Sanborn said. The snowstorms came one after the other, never allowing rail crews to fully clean up tracks and trains, she said

This year, the carriers have made contingency plans to route traffic around Chicago and to cooperate on sharing tracks when snags arise. They’ve agreed on a set of metrics that automatically trigger those actions instead of having to reach consensus on the fly as they did last year.

Chicago is no easy fix. Projects, such as an overpass opened last month in the Englewood neighborhood that separates Norfolk Southern freight trains from local trains, are expensive and complicated. The Englewood project sparked political infighting over the construction contract award, leading to delays and the resignation of the commuter rail agency’s chief.

Snow Blowers

Railroads are taking their own steps. BNSF is adding 800 trailer and container parking spaces at three Chicago hub terminals, installing 150 more heaters to keep switches from freezing and acquiring two industrial-size snow blowers. BNSF, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., raised its capital spending plan to $5.5 billion from about $3.9 billion in 2013 to alleviate congestion, and will top that with investment of $6 billion next year.

CSX invested to speed locomotive fueling in Cleveland and laid new double tracking -- a second set of tracks laid alongside the first to add capacity and keep slow trains from impeding faster ones. Union Pacific will have 24-hour command centers for service units in its northern region and is doing monthly moisture inspections of brake lines that froze up last winter.

Chicago Jams

The steps aren’t enough to make Chicago operate smoothly, said Matt Rose, executive chairman of BNSF. The railroads should take as much as 15 percent of cargo out of the city to avoid “disruption that the industry can’t afford to go through again and the weather, of course, just exacerbates that,” he told a RailTrends conference last week in New York.

“When I think about one such issue that concerns me over the long term, it’s the Chicago complex,” Rose said. “As our shippers found out last year, with the combination of weather and volume, the network didn’t work well at all.”

Shippers’ concern is heightened because railroad delays are worse now than when winter started last year, said Wayne Hurst, who grows wheat and sugar beets in Burley, North Dakota. Farmers in the state waited on more than 4,900 BNSF railcars that were delayed an average of about 29 days.

Wait, Wai

Train speeds have fallen to about 22 miles per hour in November, slower by 2 mph from a year earlier and 4 mph from 2012. The time that railcars sit in terminals waiting to be switched rose to 23 hours in mid-November from 20 hours a year earlier, according to statistics from the Association of American Railroads compiled by Bloomberg.

Railroads provide the only viable transportation for coal shippers and grain producers. That put farmers in a bind when carriers fell behind on moving this year’s crop and struggled to ship them fertilizer, said Hurst, a past president of the National Association of Wheat Growers. Some farmers are stocking up early on fertilizer they will use in the spring to avoid last year’s delays.

“We all hope that what the railroads have done is going to help us get through this coming winter, but there’s still a lot of nervousness,” Hurst said.

Poor service attracted the attention of the Surface Transportation Board, which held hearings in Fargo, North Dakota, in September and ordered all the major railroads to provide weekly status reports.

Rail lines may return to normal by the end of next year and perhaps sooner if there are few weather disruptions, said Long, the Stephens analyst based in Little Rock, Arkansas. Then again, if last week’s record snowstorm is an indication of the winter to come, trains could slow even more, he said.

Long’s advice to shippers: “Watch the Weather Channel a lot. That’s what I’m going to do.

FDA finds no “potential point of contamination” in outbreak

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:41:45 GMT

The Food and Drug Administration, which inspected a Del Monte Fresh Produce processing facility in the wake of salmonella cases linked to vegetable trays, has found no trace of salmonella.

The FDA on May 21 warned consumers against eating certain vegetable trays from the Kankakee, Ill., facility in relation to five illnesses in Wisconsin and Illinois.

“The FDA also investigated distribution and supplier information for produce used in the vegetable trays,” according to a July 21 update from the FDA. “These investigation activities did not identify a single source or potential point of contamination for this outbreak.”

It is unlikely any of the vegetable trays from the time of the original consumer alert, May 21, are still on the market or in people’s homes, according to the FDA.

“This is likely our final update since there haven’t been newly reported illnesses and the product is likely no longer still in commerce,” Peter Cassel, FDA press officer, said in an e-mail. “If we learn any new information for consumers, we will update our posting.”

The last illness in the reported in connection with this alert was reported April 27, according to the FDA.

Growing America’s Farmers partners with Jewel-Osco

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:41:51 GMT

Vidalia onion grower-shipper G&R Farms , through its Growing America’s Farmers program, is supporting agriculture education with a promotion at Chicago Jewel-Osco stores.

The summer-fall campaign for Growing America’s Farmers, a non-profit foundation that provides college scholarships through Future Farmers of America, will donate a portion of sales of G&R Vidalias at Jewel-Oscos. The proceeds will go to scholarships in Illinois, according to a news release.

Walt Dasher, third-generation farmer and partner in G&R Farms, founded the scholarship program.

“I have been so humbled and blown away by the support we have received, and I am really excited about what we will be doing together for the future of the American farmer,” Dasher said in the release. “My long-term goal is to support the FFA organization and the individuals who upon graduation become America’s leaders and farmers of America.”

“This collaboration is a great opportunity to showcase Vidalia onions and at the same time give a young person the chance to fulfill their dreams of becoming a farmer,” Scott Bennett, Jewel-Osco sales manager, said in the release.

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For Chicago wholesalers, business is booming

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:37:24 GMT

With the arrival of the holiday season coupled with the general trend toward more healthful eating, business among Chicago-area produce distributors seems to be thriving.

The Chicago International Produce Market itself is doing solid business, said Steve Serck, owner of JAB Produce Inc ., which is based on the market.

“The Chicago International Produce Market is a very strong, viable place for people to get produce,” he said.

The market is supported largely by independent grocers throughout the Chicago metropolitan area — and beyond.

Buyers visit the facility from as far away as Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, Serck said.

“We’re the biggest market in the Midwest,” he added.

He noted that quite a bit of consolidation has been taking place on the market.

“Some of the smaller houses have closed up and been bought out by other vendors that needed more space,” Serck said.

JAB Produce offers a wide range of produce, including berries, vegetables and “super vegetables” like watercress, arugula and brussels sprouts, he said.

Agrow Fresh Produce Co. in Chicago also has been doing well, said Ed Romanelli, vice president of sales and marketing.

“Business is pretty good for us,” he said.

The company offers several pack sizes of red, Yukon gold and russet potatoes.

But he said problems in some growing areas could present a challenge this season.

“It’s going to be tough going forward,” he said, because of prolonged wet conditions in late September and early October in North Dakota, where some growers lost 45% to 60% of their potatoes.

“They never got them out of the ground,” he said.

Tight supplies already were affecting prices, he said in late November, but still, he expected supplies to be adequate to fill orders for the company’s regular customers.

The Agrow Fresh product line includes 5-pound bags of yukon gold, red and russet potatoes and 24-ounce bags of petite-size red and Yukon gold potatoes.

Business has been “steady” for Strube Celery and Vegetable Co. in Chicago as retail customers grow and expand their stores, said TJ Fleming, vice president.

The company has been doing more repacking and breakdowns, he added, since many stores don’t need a 40-pound box of jalapeno peppers or cilantro.

“We’re breaking those down to 5 or 10 pounds or customized counts for customers,” Fleming said.

Strube has just launched its own organic department.

Many customers place their conventional orders and then go to the organic desk and buy organic versions of the same items, he said.

Fleming said the company is preparing for a “surge around the holidays.”

The holiday period also is a very busy time for Sun Belle Inc ., Schiller Park, Ill., said Janice Honigberg, president and founder.

“Chicago is a very competitive market,” she said, “with a variety of fine retailers.”

The company specializes in the berry category and provides blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries year-round.

Sun Belle also offers a variety of specialty items, including hothouse vegetables, papayas, Belgian endive, French beans, sugar snap peas, snow peas, ginger, shallots, cucumbers, eggplant and tomatoes.

Sources of produce for Chicago-area buyers vary by season, said Roger Riehm, owner of Blue Creek Produce Co . Inc., St. Charles, Ill.

During the winter, the company pulls largely from Florida and Mexico. But in summer, “local” produce, including product from Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, make up most of its product line.

Canada has a full greenhouse program in summer that can offer next day delivery in the Chicago market, he said.

Foodservice accounts for a large part of the business at a number of Chicago distributors, including Blue Creek Produce.

Tomatoes and peppers are popular foodservice items, with some operators requesting specific types of tomatoes, Riehm said.

For example, white-table cloth establishments may order large-size tomatoes, a selection of colored fruit or even yellow pear tomatoes.

Fast-food restaurants often request grape tomatoes for salad bars.

Strube Celery and Vegetable Co. also does a healthy foodservice business.

Fleming said nearly 50% of the company’s sales are to major foodservice suppliers as well as independent suppliers with one or two trucks.

Speaking of trucks and transportation, Fleming said trucks were running steady as of late November, but he added that new regulations require more advance planning than a year or so ago.

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Sunflowers Prepare Farm for Organic Future

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 20:58:06 GMT

Fifty acres of sunflowers bloomed in northwest Barrington Hills, Ill. in one August week to create a unique carpet of bright yellow.

But in addition to providing a vibrant visual along the village’s country lanes, these sun-worshipping plants play a practical role in the conversion of the nearly 700-acre Barrington Hills Farm to purely organic.

Among the criteria for such certification is the soil must be found to be chemical-free -- and sunflowers are among the species that can help expedite that process, experts say.

J.R. Davis and his wife, Dawn, took control of the farm four years ago and have spent the last three working to purify the soil.

They see themselves carrying on the vision of the late Barbara MacArthur, who with her late husband, Alex, ran the Strathmore Organic Farm at the same location on Spring Creek Road in McHenry County. Barbara MacArthur, who died last year, was a passionate pioneer of organic farming, decades ahead of its rising popularity today.

But the land passed into other hands between the MacArthurs and the Davises, requiring work to restore its organic status.

Farm manager Russ Grollemond began working for Barbara MacArthur in the mid-'90s and now does the same job for the Davises.

He said he was trained in conventional farming techniques that use chemicals and are far less labor-intensive, but he learned everything he now practices in organic farming from Barbara MacArthur.

Grollemond was a quick convert to recognizing it as a healthier way of farming.

“It’s more complicated than most people realize,” he said. “You don’t get a big yield and you’re always fighting weeds.”

And organic farms don’t use genetically modified seeds that are lethal to insects, both helpful and harmful, he said.

In August, he knew he saw a lot more bees pollinating the sunflowers than occurs with conventionally farmed crops.

While organic farming makes large-scale cultivation less efficient, growing demand among consumers has opened new opportunities for smaller operators.

“It’s becoming more and more popular because smaller farmers are recognizing it as a way to make money,” Grollemond said.

For example, Dawn Davis, who is on the board of Brookfield Zoo, said she’s in early talks to provide organic foods for some of the animals there.

But as much experience as Grollemond already has in organic farming, this was his first year raising sunflowers.

“They’re pretty easy to grow,” he said. “Easier than I thought they would be.”

In addition to their striking color and size, young sunflowers are heliotropic -- meaning they turn to face the sun as they mature.

While larger fields exist in the western United States, Barrington Hills Farm’s are now the largest in the Midwest, J.R. Davis said.

Once this year’s crop has been harvested in October for its seeds -- used for everything from bird feed and snacks to cooking oil and medicinal purposes -- the growing season will end with planting clover and radishes to further improve the soil.

J.R. Davis said he knows what crops will be grown once Barrington Hills Farm is certified organic, but he can’t yet reveal it.

In preparing the fields for that future, there was one more reason sunflowers were the perfect choice this year: “I’ve always loved sunflowers,” Dawn Davis said with a laugh.

Chicago-area fruit and vegetable shippers expect strong holiday sales

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 18:20:01 GMT

Chicago-area produce distributors generally enjoyed strong sales for the Thanksgiving holiday, and they’re hoping for more of the same for Christmas.

“Business for us has really been tremendous this year,” said Josh Wolff, director of growth and strategy for The Ruby Co., Buffalo Grove, Ill.

Historically, the company’s business has largely been built on potatoes and onions — “hearty commodity offerings utilized across more segments and commercial purchasers,” Wolff said. Sweet potatoes have been a particularly strong growth area.

Ruby has also continued to expand operations and focus on other fresh commodity categories, such as warm vegetables, including tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers, he said.

Business also is up over last year for Coosemans Chicago Inc., said company President Mark Pappas. Sales would have passed pre-COVID-19 numbers, except that 133 Chicago restaurants did not reopen after the peak of the pandemic, he said, putting a dent in foodservice sales.

Thanksgiving business was “very steady, but not the bump I thought we would see,” he said. Christmas sales also should be “steady,” but he pointed out that consumers also have holiday presents to buy during these times of high inflation.

“I’m sure we’ll still do well,” he said. “I hope to get back to where we’re on a growth pattern shortly.”

Berries may be synonymous with summer, but they’re also a holiday favorite at Sun Belle Inc., Schiller Park, Ill., said Janice Honigberg, president and founder.

“People really are looking for berries during the cold winter months,” she said.

January is a great time to promote berries, when people start thinking about healthful eating, she added. Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and some strawberries account for the vast majority of the firm’s business, but Sun Belle also offers some specialties like ginger, Belgian endive and radicchio.

Flamm Orchard Sales Inc., Cobden, Ill., which offers primarily peaches, apples and some local strawberries, is now between seasons, said Mike Flamm, an owner and vice president.

But the company will add some new apple varieties, like EverCrisp, gala and fuji, in the spring. Barnsby Pink Lady and Ambrosia apples are under consideration for coming years.

“I think we’ve got some varieties figured out that we feel like we can grow,” Flamm said.

Flamm Orchard Sales has doubled its peach acreage to 300 over the past eight years. The firm has scaled back its production of zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers because of tough markets, he said.

All Chicago companies were feeling the pressure of price increases for everything from transportation and labor to fertilizer and chemicals. At the same time, consumers are tightening their belts, and some are cutting back on fruit purchases, Honigberg said.

“It definitely can affect us,” she said. “It’s been a very competitive market over the last month or two particularly.”

Every component of fresh produce has gone up double digits year-over-year, Wolff said.

“We are seeing volume in certain areas start to taper off or slow, especially in the foodservice sector due to inflation rates,” he said. “They are out of control with no end in sight, unfortunately.”

Consumer efforts to control inflation “are going to be a headwind for us as a supplier moving forward,” he said.

Still, Wolff remained optimistic. “Thanksgiving was bustling for us, and we anticipate a similar track for us for Christmas.”

Top retailers in the Midwest by market share

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:42:33 GMT

Each year, The Shelby Report showcases valuable retail market share data. In the interactive map below, find each major market around the Midwest. Also, highlighted are the major cities in each market.

All markets are “labeled” or identified by their primary state (with metros or key cities). Percentages are estimates based on annualized sales, industry data, institutional research and store footprints. Shares are updated as market metrics dictate and retailers supply their store lists.*

Market shares are for chains, independents and/or the wholesalers (voluntary or cooperative) which supply them within each region’s distribution area, extending well beyond typical metros or CBSAs. Each market is defined by the sphere of distribution, not by a rigid geographic boundary.

Major cities in each market:

Illinois /Indiana - Chicago, Gary
Indiana/Ohio - Indianapolis, Fort Wayne
Iowa/Illinois/Montana/Minnesota - Des Moines, Sioux City, Cedar Rapids
Kansas/Missouri - Kansas City, Topeka, Wichita, Columbia
Michigan - Detroit, Ann Arbor, Flint, Saginaw
Western Michigan - Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Traverse City
Minnesota - Minneapolis, St. Paul, Dultuh
Missouri/Illinois/Indiana/Kentucky - St. Louis, Springfield, Champaign, Terre Haute, Evansville, Paducah
Nebraska/Colarado/Iowa/Kansas/South Dakota - Omaha, Lincoln, Sioux Falls
North Dakota/Montana/South Dakota/Minnesota - Fargo
Ohio - Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Youngstown
Ohio/West Virginia/Kentucky - Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Toledo, Huntington
Wisconsin / Upper Michigan - Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire, Marquette

Produce Alliance announces retirement, new president at conference

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:38:12 GMT

From its annual conference hosted in Austin, Texas, Produce Alliance announced Joe Collier’s retirement and Melissa Ackerman’s transition to president of the Chicago-based produce management company.

“The potential we have as (a group) today would not have been possible without Joe’s many contributions from the very start of this business,” Produce Alliance CEO George Melshenker said in a news release.

Collier joined Produce Alliance during its 1996 founding year and served as its first business development officer, helping to grow and sustain the national network.

Ackerman enters her new leadership role after supporting the business as associate general counsel, vice president of sales and executive vice president of sales. Her work has been central to business growth since 2012, adding more than 100 employees and enhancing the synergies among customers, distributors and the management expertise of Produce Alliance, according to the release.

“It’s a privilege to step into this role at this time because we have achieved so much, and I feel confident we can continue to transform and lead by helping our clients navigate in an industry encountering a lot of change,” Ackerman said in the release.