Prime Produce International relocates to office and cold storage facility near Anaheim
Prime Produce International relocates to office and cold storage facility near Anaheim
Prime Produce International LLC, an avocado marketing organization in Lake Forest, CA, is relocating its corporate offices to Placentia, CA, near Anaheim, where the company will now also operate its own cold storage facility, according to Prime Produce President and CEO Avi Crane.
The move will allow the company to better serve customers and growers, he said.
Prime Produce, which sources avocados both domestically and globally, was founded in early 2004 by Mr. Crane, an avocado industry veteran.
The Placentia facility was previously used by Sunrise Growers Inc. to store strawberries. It became available when Sunrise recently consolidated its fresh operations to a new facility in San Clemente. It has a 60,000-box capacity and four loading bays.
Prime Produce's move to the new facility will take place beginning in early August "as the California season winds down and ahead of the Chilean season," Mr. Crane said.
The new headquarters and storage location has a superior cooling facility that includes the ability to pre-cool fruit arriving from the harbor and hydrocooling fruit arriving from the field, he said. The new facility is now the closest avocado-specific storage site to the port.
It is located in close proximity to several interstate highways, allowing us to rapidly offload fruit from the harbor and ship it to our customers.
Prime Produce has had a great reception from the trade since opening its doors in early 2004, Mr. Crane said. This [move] is a logical step. Having our own cold storage will enable us to service our customers more directly, he said.
As the companys volume has expanded, it now has the economies of scale to run our own cold storage, Mr. Crane continued. Also, we needed additional office space.
Having offices and cold storage in the same facility will enable the sales personnel to see the fruit as it comes in and out. Since the offices are located over the cooler, our sales teams will be literally on top of the fruit, he said.
Since the cooler has greater capacity than Prime International needs at the present time for its own fruit, it will provide us with opportunities to store other products as well, he said. There will be plenty of room to store products for other companies that need storage in that good location, including other companies that have avocados.
Operating our own cold storage facility is just one more way that we at Prime Produce are ensuring that we stay focused on serving our customers, said Operations Manager Diana Mathias.
The facility will be managed by Miguel Guzman, who is an avocado expert, she said. [He] and I worked together when he ran the Irvine Company avocado packing and cooling facility in the mid-90s.
According to a company press release, Prime Produce handles avocados from California, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Mexico, marketing under the Prime Produce label and exporters labels. The companys California avocados are packed and shipped from the CCH Avocado packinghouse in Riverside, CA, under the Prime Produce label.
The move will allow the company to better serve customers and growers, he said.
Prime Produce, which sources avocados both domestically and globally, was founded in early 2004 by Mr. Crane, an avocado industry veteran.
The Placentia facility was previously used by Sunrise Growers Inc. to store strawberries. It became available when Sunrise recently consolidated its fresh operations to a new facility in San Clemente. It has a 60,000-box capacity and four loading bays.
Prime Produce's move to the new facility will take place beginning in early August "as the California season winds down and ahead of the Chilean season," Mr. Crane said.
The new headquarters and storage location has a superior cooling facility that includes the ability to pre-cool fruit arriving from the harbor and hydrocooling fruit arriving from the field, he said. The new facility is now the closest avocado-specific storage site to the port.
It is located in close proximity to several interstate highways, allowing us to rapidly offload fruit from the harbor and ship it to our customers.
Prime Produce has had a great reception from the trade since opening its doors in early 2004, Mr. Crane said. This [move] is a logical step. Having our own cold storage will enable us to service our customers more directly, he said.
As the companys volume has expanded, it now has the economies of scale to run our own cold storage, Mr. Crane continued. Also, we needed additional office space.
Having offices and cold storage in the same facility will enable the sales personnel to see the fruit as it comes in and out. Since the offices are located over the cooler, our sales teams will be literally on top of the fruit, he said.
Since the cooler has greater capacity than Prime International needs at the present time for its own fruit, it will provide us with opportunities to store other products as well, he said. There will be plenty of room to store products for other companies that need storage in that good location, including other companies that have avocados.
Operating our own cold storage facility is just one more way that we at Prime Produce are ensuring that we stay focused on serving our customers, said Operations Manager Diana Mathias.
The facility will be managed by Miguel Guzman, who is an avocado expert, she said. [He] and I worked together when he ran the Irvine Company avocado packing and cooling facility in the mid-90s.
According to a company press release, Prime Produce handles avocados from California, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Mexico, marketing under the Prime Produce label and exporters labels. The companys California avocados are packed and shipped from the CCH Avocado packinghouse in Riverside, CA, under the Prime Produce label.
