The Chuck Olsen Co. in Visalia, CA, is involved n a variety of commodities as shipper, distributor, exporter and load consolidator for foodservice and retail, but the company’s two major product lines are citrus and grapes, both of which are year-round programs, according to President Jeff Olsen.

The Olsen family has been in the consolidation side of the business for four generations.

In its California citrus program for 2013-14, at Duda Farm Fresh Foods Inc. in Visalia, CA, will be offering navel oranges, Eureka and Lisbon-type lemons, Meyer lemons, Mandarins and Minneolas, according to Paul Huckabay, citrus manager for western citrus.

“In addition, we will be importing Mandarins from Morocco into the East Coast,” he said.

The company’s citrus crop volume will be up this year, and “a lot of our growth is attributed to new plantings” coming into maturity, Huckabay said Oct. 23.

Ahold USA announced that Gordon Reid will join the Giant Landover Division as president, effective today.

Reid replaces Bhavdeep Singh, executive vice president of operations of Ahold USA, who has served as interim president since September. Singh continues to serve as executive vice president of operations for Ahold USA.

The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, in cooperation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the Food & Drug Administration, is investigating potential links to an E. coli outbreak in Denver. The investigation is focusing on three Jimmy John's restaurants in the metropolitan area.

Eight people reported being sickened after eating at the sandwich shops in early October. Additional cases have been reported, and at least one person has been hospitalized.

Kelly Bros. Inc. in Exeter, CA, was started in 2010 to focus on finding a home in the processing industry for byproducts from fresh citrus packinghouses.

“We would go to the packinghouses and ask for their eliminations,” meaning basically anything that was not being packed in a carton or tri-wall for the fresh market. “We would then take it to the juice plants” which make not-from-concentrate orange juice, said Patrick Kelly, president and one of three brothers in the company, the others being Brian Kelly, supply chain manager, and Christopher Kelly, chief of operations.

Homegrown Organics LLC in Porterville, CA, which had its first year of production in Mandarins in the 2011-12 season and increased volume the following year, will have similar acreage in production this year to what it had in 2012-13. “But we have on the docket some good increases penciled in for the following year” and the year after, said President Scott Mabs.