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Chilean company to expand further into U.S. By Doug Ohlemeier
Chilean-based
packaging industry supplier Integrity S.A., Santiago, plans a large
expansion in the U.S. market. Integrity, which also has Argentina
blueberry acreage, plans to increase its U.S. sales and open cold
storage and distribution facilities in Miami and Southern California.
Integrity has packaging, cold storage and blueberry production
divisions.
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(March 20, 11:55 a.m.) A Chilean-based packaging industry supplier has some big plans for expanding into U.S. markets.
Integrity
S.A., Santiago, Chile, is on an aggressive expansion plan for Southern
Hemisphere blueberries packaging, logistics and Argentina berry growing
and shipping.
Integrity, which began operations in 1994, has a
goal to increase its U.S. sales and plans to open cold storage and
distribution facilities in Miami and Southern California in the next
year-and-a-half said Gabriel Fonzo, chief executive officer.
While it is beginning its U.S. sales, the company expects to have up to a third of its sales come from the region, he said.
Integrity
doesn’t have any U.S. warehousing facilities yet, but is looking to
leverage its strong market shares in Latin America and other countries
for berry clamshell production, Fonzo said.
“We have been
aggressive in expansion for two years,” he said. “We are buying lots of
new machinery to expand our production capacities in order to serve in
a better way the larger markets in the states. Also, quality is an
issue, which has meant changing our molds and increasing our product
lines.”
Some changes came after buyers requested larger packs
for blueberries. Fonzo said there’s a demand for larger packs to serve
club stores.
“The marketing (of Chilean product) in the states
is growing so fast from products in Chile, they’re demanding larger
packaging sizes,” he said. “We’re trying to make our job as much
efficient as possible to give better prices to a very competitive
market and achieve efficiencies in the industry in packaging and in
services.”
Three years ago, club stores could only purchase
4.4-ounce blueberry clamshells from Chile. Integrity is helping the
Chilean blueberry industry change by providing the bigger pack sizes,
such as 18- and 24-ounce packs the club stores have been requesting,
Fonzo said.
Integrity is developing clamshells to become more
efficient in shipping to the U.S. so there’s more usable space in the
containers to limit freight costs, Fonzo said.
“We have to make
more efficient the usage of warehouses, the cold storage, the trucks
and containers and sea freight for the fruit,” Fonzo said.
The
logistics are more critical, Fonzo said, especially for berry growing
countries such as Argentina that don’t have infrastructure for the
massive volumes they will likely have in upcoming years.
Integrity
was founded by Fonzo’s father, Gabriel Fonzo, who has long worked in
Chile’s produce industry. The company has three divisions: packaging,
cold storage for Chilean exporters and blueberry production in
Argentina.
Gabriel Fonzo serves as president of the company’s board of directors.
In
2002, Integrity started production on 250 acres in the Argentinean
Province of Concordia, Entre Ríos, exporting to North America and
Europe.
Integrity’s Santiago plant has 23 cold-storage rooms
with a 7,000 pallet storage capacity and provides controlled atmosphere
storage, vacuum cooling and logistics consolidation.
Integrity’s
customers include Naturipe Farms LLC, Naples, Fla., Driscoll Strawberry
Associates Inc., Watsonville, Calif., SunnyRidge Farm Inc., Winter
Haven, Fla., and Sun Belle Inc., Washington, D.C., Fonzo said.
E-mail Doug Ohlemeier |
© 2008 Vance Publishing Corp.
