A company ought to be doing things right if it adopts a name that includes the word “giant.” And California Giant Berry Farms is an industry giant in many ways.
The company grows and ships strawberries, blueberries and blackberries year-round, and it offers raspberries from late May to October. It distributes under the California Giant brand throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and it exports to Europe and the Pacific Rim during the summer.
Cindy Jewell, vice president of marketing for the Watsonville, CA-based company, said among its projects and programs California Giant Berry Farms continues to update its website and blog communication this spring with several enhancements.
“Our website has a much more active free-stuff page,” said Jewell. “Consumers can click on to see and opt into the latest sweepstakes or ebook offers. We have archived all our ebooks so they can be easily downloaded at www.calgiant.com/free-stuff.
“We have also enhanced our trade blog to include archives of our recent enewsletters distributed to our trading partners,” she continued. “Every two weeks we distribute an email, which are now captured on our trade website, http://trade.calgiant.com/newsletters. These great references show potential new subscribers examples what they can receive by signing up to be in our database.”
In March, California Giant announced the completion of its New West cooling facility in Watsonville. It includes a new cooling tower and condenser system that replaces the original unit installed in 1988. It is expected to reduce cooling time by about 20 minutes per tunnel while using significantly less energy. The more than $200,000 investment of is part of the company’s overall commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility.
Related to a commitment to sustainability, it continues to feature its Food Waste Free ebook to consumers.
“The book provides hints on how to prepare recipes that use up all berries in the fridge, and how to set berries aside in the summer months for freezing and use at a later date,” explained Jewell.
California Giant is currently shipping strawberries from several California locations. Blueberries are being shipped from California, and Georgia was slated to begin in late April. This program will continue until June when it begins to harvest blueberries from the Pacific Northwest region. Its blackberries are shipped from California.
“We are completing our most recent consumer sweepstakes that began the first day of spring,” noted Jewell. “A new sweepstakes will launch shortly after Mother’s Day. It will run throughout June featuring summer snacking recipes and opportunities for consumers to win prizes.”
05/19/2016
The Produce News
