ISELIN, NJ — The Produce News had a rare opportunity in mid-October to spend the entire day with Victor Savanello, director of produce and floral at Allegiance Retail Services LLC, a retailer-owned cooperative headquartered here in central New Jersey. Allegiance has served communities at more than 95 locations in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania for more than 50 years under the name Foodtown Inc.At Allegiance Retail Services headquarters in Iselin, NJ: Vic Savanello (center), flanked by Sam Bartley and Noel Barboe.

The full day offered a chance to watch and listen how Savanello conducts meetings and interacts with those involved in the fresh produce department as well as with those in some other perishables departments, such as meat, seafood and bakery.

While there is probably no such as thing as a “typical day” in anyone’s schedule, the day I spent with Savanello — Wednesday, Oct. 21 — was fairly representative of the kinds of issues he deals with on a day-to-day basis.

6:15 a.m.
Savanello left his home in Caldwell, NJ, for the 45-minute drive to the Allegiance headquarters here, and began to prepare for the day’s schedule.

7:45 a.m.
I arrived at Allegiance, where Savanello greeted me and took me to his office.

He explained that separate meetings of the perishables departments are held every other week to discuss a variety of issues, including advertising plans for the upcoming weeks. Those meetings were set for today, with produce first, followed by meat and then by bakery. Each separate meeting usually last about 90 minutes.

After taking some freshly brewed coffee, we walked to a conference room for the produce segment’s meeting, which began a few minutes after 8 o’clock. In addition to Savanello and five other members of his team, two retailers were taking part via a video link.

The video component “is a great tool,” said Savanello, as retailers far away “don’t have to drive two hours but can still participate in the meeting.”Members of the produce team met at 8 a.m. to discuss a variety of issues, including advertising plans for the upcoming weeks.

The participants went over the ads for the weeks of Oct. 30 and Nov. 6, for both New York and New Jersey stores, noting that this would be retailers’ “last shot for Halloween-type items.” In reviewing the Halloween season, they recalled that there had been “a lot of early chatter about a [possible] pumpkin shortage,” but that “it never really materialized.”

As they reviewed items for the upcoming weeks, they commented on the increasing popularity of the Honeycrisp apple variety with consumers over the last few years. They also noted that chestnuts would be showing up soon for the first time this season as well as some later apple varieties — a sure sign that autumn was progressing.

They also went over plans for the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, always one of the key food holidays of the year for all retailers. One of the key items for that holiday is yams, and the participants noted that some consumers prefer bagged yams while others continue to prefer loose yams. Savanello and the others noted that they would continue to offer both options to their member-retailers.

Grapes were also a topic of discussion. The participants remarked that many of their retailers like to handle the “Pretty Lady” brand, which Savanello said is known for its high quality, especially late in the season.

The group then discussed in what it calls its “Produce Market Report” both current produce supplies as well as how supplies are expected to look in the next few weeks. The discussion then moved to its “Western Vegetable Report,” which is supplied every week by The Nunes Co.

Next up on the meeting’s agenda was a discussion of some new items that supplies had sent to Allegiance. One was a variety of organic salad dressings from Litehouse, another was “Sicilia” brand basil lemon juice, another was a series of juices in cans — slightly carbonated but not an energy drink. The fourth new item was bagged vegetables from Green Giant. Savanello said that he would be meeting with representatives from Green Giant at the upcoming Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit in Atlanta to discuss those and other items.

9:40 a.m.
The meeting ended, and Savanello and I returned to his office, where he told me a little about Allegiance Retail Services, specifically the fresh produce end.

Three produce distributors supply Allegiance’s retailers with fresh produce: C&S Wholesale, followed by Bozzuto’s Inc. and then Procacci Bros. Sales Corp. Partnering with those three companies “gives us such a huge advantage,” stated Savenello. “They bring that to the table for you. They make it so you can hold your own.”

Allegiance currently services about 95 stores, “but that’s about to increase significantly,” said Savanello. With the recent demise of A&P, “We have 10 stores scheduled to come on in the next two months,” he stated. “And there should be more to follow.”Taking a quick break for lunch were Vic Savanello, Noel Barboe and Sam Bartley.

10 a.m.
Savanello, who also currently serves as president of the Eastern Produce Council, took a phone call from EPC Executive Director Susan McAleavey Sarlund.

The council holds dinner-meetings throughout the year at different locations in the metropolitan New York-New Jersey area, and the two discussed some possible locations for those meetings in 2016. They also discussed membership and some charitable donations that the council might make in the coming year.

10:15 a.m.
Savanello continued to tell me about his company and his daily routine. “Every day I get a report of sales and gross profit on all the stores, brokered out by different zones,” he said. Those zones are New Jersey, New York urban, New York suburban and Pennsylvania. “Sales and gross profits are the two keys,” he declared.

Savanello noted that after a full day tomorrow (Oct. 22) at the office, he and some of his colleagues would be flying down to Atlanta to attend the PMA Fresh Summit. Savanello said that he is one of the judges at the PMA’s Sensory Experience Contest on Friday, Oct. 23. He is also on the 2016 Fresh Summit Committee, which would be discussing the planning of the 2016 Fresh Summit in Orlando, FL.

11:10 a.m.
Savanello spoke on the phone to Randy Levine of Bozzuto’s about the lettuce situation in California, and shortly after that he spoke on the phone to Tim Umscheid of C&S.

Savanello and I continued to chat while he answered a number of e-mails on his computer.

11:50 a.m.
Savanello gave me a quick tour of the Allegiance offices, introducing me to a number of his colleagues in produce and other areas of the company, including Allegiance President John Derderian.

12:20 p.m.
Savanello almost always eats lunch at his desk, but he made an exception on this day. He and I had lunch at nearby Kona Grill with two of his colleagues: Noel Barboe, produce category manager, and Sam Bartley, a merchandising analyst.

1:20 p.m.
Upon returning to Allegiance headquarters, the two men from lunch gathered in Savanello’s office for a conference call with representatives from C&S.

Savanello and his team hold a conference call with C&S once a week. The purpose is to discuss a market report and ad plan review for an upcoming week — in this case the week of Nov. 13.

Some highlights of that conference call: Tomatoes will be a challenge until around Thanksgiving, Bell pepper volume looks adequate, green bean quality looks very good, squash volume offers good promotional opportunities, strawberries will offer limited supplies through the middle of November, and raspberries and blackberries look promotable for all of November.Vic Savanello went over some figures in his office with Noel Barboe, produce category manager at Allegiance.

Also from the conference call: The whole month of November should see good volume of avocados, especially 48s and 60s; there should be steady volume of asparagus out of Peru; pineapples will be a challenge for Thanksgiving; Western celery looked to have limited volume the whole month of November; Eastern white potatoes looked very promotable; squash could be a good item to promote for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

With the important Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday period in mind, yams were also a topic of conversaton. As Savanello put it, “They’re what makes this department tick for the next two weeks.”

2:20 p.m.
With the conference call ended, Barboe and Bartley returned to their offices, and Savanello got ready for the next meeting on his schedule.

While we had a few minutes, I asked Savanello what he enjoyed most about the produce industry in general and his job in particular.

“I like that it’s constantly changing,” he replied. “There’s always something new evolving — a new trend, a new item, a new product — which changes what you do. And then Mother Nature throws some twist at you that makes you bob and weave.”

Is there anything he doesn’t like? “It’s constantly changing,” he replied with a laugh.

“I love doing this. I really love doing this,” he stated with enthusiasm. “That’s what I always tell my son. I know my son is going to be good at acting because he loves it.”

He continued, “There’s no way of avoiding problems [in the produce industry]. You’re always going to have problems with supply, with logistics, with weather. But you can’t freak out. The best people know how to deal with it and get around it.”

2:40 p.m.
Representatives of all the perishables departments —produce, floral meat, seafood and bakery -— took part in a meeting to discuss advertising planning for the first quarter of 2016. Samer Rahman, director of meat and seafood, along with Chris Mormak, bakery category manager, joined Savanello at this meeting, which was led by Dean Holmquist, Allegiance’s vice president of perishables.

“This meeting will set the plan for the first quarter,” Holmquist began, as the group discussed which items would be featured from his or her department for each week, in accordance with each week’s theme.

For example, tailgating would be the theme for the week of Jan. 8. Other themes for the first quarter of 2016 included Valentine’s Day, the Super Bowl and St. Patrick’s Day.At an afternoon meeting of the perishables departments were Dean Holmquist (seated), Allegiance’s vice president of perishables, with Samer Rahman, director of meat and seafood; Vic Savanello, director of produce and floral; and Chris Mormak, bakery category manager.

3:45 p.m.
We returned to Savanello’s office, where he checked a few more e-mails and prepared for the next meeting. Savanello informed me that the Allegiance board of directors meets one Wednesday per month to develop and review corporate strategy. That monthly meeting happened to take place during the morning of my day with Savanello.

4 p.m.
Upper management, including all of the Allegiance directors who run the various departments (including Savanello), met to review what had transpired at this morning’s board of directors meeting. I was not part of this meeting, but Savanello estimated that it would last approximately one hour.

Following that upper management meeting, Savanello would return to his desk for some last-minute paperwork, which included going over his upcoming itinerary at the PMA Fresh Summit, since he and a few colleagues were scheduled to fly to Atlanta at 7:30 the next evening.

He concluded his day around 6 p.m., and drove back home to Caldwell.