Texans have black gold. Prime Produce International LLC has its green gold,avocados.
The Orange-based company packs avocados and sells them to more than 250 customers nationwide. It counted $20 million in sales last year.
Prime Produce buys its avocados from California growers in Santa Barbara and Ventura, San Diego and Riverside counties. The company also buys avocados from Mexico, Chile and the Dominican Republic.
Rivals include Santa Paula-based Calavo Growers Inc., formerly based in Santa Ana, Mission Produce Inc. in Oxnard and Temecula’s WestPak Avocado Inc.
The company sends empty plastic bins to California growers, who fill them up with avocados. The bins are hauled to Prime Produce’s 80,000-square-foot headquarters at a historical citrus packing plant that’s now part of Chapman University.
Prime Produce’s Mexican avocados are trucked to its cooling warehouses in Orange, Texas, Florida and New Jersey. Avocados from Chile and the Dominican Republic are shipped to the Port of Los Angeles and trucked to its Orange headquarters.
Independent trucking companies haul the fruit to stores. Avocados without scratches or marks are called “No. 1 fruit.” They’re sold to grocery chains such as Boise, Idaho’s Albertsons LLC’s Northern California stores, H.E.B. of Texas and Buena Park-based Tawa Supermarket Inc.’s 99 Ranch Market.
“No. 2 fruit”,avocados with a few cosmetic imperfections,are sold to restaurants with the help of companies such as Costa Mesa-based Ingardia Brothers Produce Inc., which sells produce to other food businesses.
Avi Crane started Prime Produce in 2004. He learned about the avocado business after years of living on a kibbutz in Israel. When Crane moved to the U.S. in the 1980s, he worked for the California Avocado Commission and a series of companies including Calavo and Chiquita Brands International Inc.
Prime Produce employs 13 workers, including Crane’s sons Yair and Gahl. Yair joined the company as a business development manager after graduating from the University of Southern California. Gahl became a sales manager after studying at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The key to making money in the avocado business is to buy and sell fruit from several locations in case frost or storms damage a region’s supply, Crane said.
Avocado seasons vary from location. Profitability depends on where the company sources its fruit, according to Crane. Prime Produce plans to add more growers to its list, buying avocados from New Zealand, Australia and Peru, he said.
The organic food trend also is fostering growth, Crane said. Last year, Prime Produce started using a technology called “prime ripe,” a natural ripening method that uses plastic bags instead of ethanol gas.
The company plans to use and sell this technology. It signed a global licensing agreement with its creator, StePac L.A. Ltd., a custom packager that’s part of Israel’s DSS PLC.
“We’re a smaller player in this industry but with this technology we’ll be able to market and sell (the bags) to anyone, even our competitors,” Crane said.
Prime Produce is considering importing avocado oils for health and beauty companies that make soaps and lotions, Crane said. The company expects $30 million in sales this year, he said.
Sexy Spirits
Trago International Inc. is taking a sexy approach to tequila. The San Juan Capistrano company last year came out with its upscale tequila packaged in colored chrome and glass bottles. The company’s looking to sell the liquor in all 50 states by the end of this year.
Trago’s tequila is made at the Los Alambiques Distillery in Central Mexico, which is owned and operated by Felipe Camarena. The Camarena family has been making tequila for more than 150 years.
Trago makes its tequila with 100% Weber Blue Agave, native to Mexico. The agave is baked in brick ovens and distilled in copper and steel stills. The finished tequila is hand poured in Trago’s signature bottles.
Trago distributes its products through Orange-based Young’s Market Co. and Empire Merchants LLC. Rivals include Las Vegas-based Patr & #243;n Spirits Co. Trago’s tequila sells for about $40 to $60. Patr & #243;n has tequilas in the same range and higher.
Trago began five years ago. Founder Chris Condon wanted to make the “Rolls-Royce” of tequila. Tequilas back then portrayed “old world Mexico,” he said. He wanted to make upscale, trendy tequila that represented the elegance of modern Mexican culture.
Raising capital and working with manufacturers, suppliers and distributors was a long process but worth the wait, he said. Trago International’s Silver tequila won the double gold medal and its Reposado and Anejo tequilas won silver medals at the 2007 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Condon declined to disclose the company’s sales. Trago counts 20 workers, he said.
On the Radar
EAgency Systems Inc. has shifted its focus from the office to the home.
The Newport Beach-based company is known for Nice Office, software that allows people to manage business contacts and sales through their BlackBerrys.
Now it’s come out with Radar, a program that helps parents monitor their child’s cell phones by immediately alerting them when their child receives an unwanted call, e-mail, text or instant message, according to Robert Lotter, eAgency’s chief executive.
Parents can pay about $10 a month to create a profile on mymobilewatchdog.com for the service. It’s available for BlackBerrys through major wireless networks.
Lotter started eAgency in 2000 and began developing Radar last year.
He declined to disclose sales or the costs associated with creating Radar. EAgency counts about 50 workers, mostly engineers, Lotter said. The company plans to launch child locator services later this year, he said.
