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PHILADELPHIA MARKET PROFILE
n WIDENING THE MIX
Philly’s continuing demographic
evolution results in widening demand for product variety. Stephen Secamiglio, owner/sales at Colonial Produce,reports social media trends and ethnic influence definitely affects product sales. “When we first opened in 2012, we moved maybe six skids per week of kale,” he says. “Now, since kale has become trendy, we sell six loads a week. Methi leaves, an Indian item, is another great example. We can’t bring enough in. We’ve seen growth in items the different ethnic communities want. Ethnic items have somewhat overtaken the more traditional ones.”
M. Levin salesman Brian Kriebel heads the company’s tropicals program and is credited with the company’s success with this line. “As more and more immigrants move into the Philadelphia area, we envi- sion our tropicals continuing to expand.”
Merchants broaden product lines to offer more to current customers. “The
number of items we’ve taken on has more than doubled in the past two years,” John Hickey, managing partner at Coose- mans. “We have become more than just a specialty house, adding peaches, broccoli rabe, hard squashes, the Mexican winter deal and more. We have a good base of customers, and I’m trying to sell more to those customers.”
Todd Penza, salesman with Pinto Brothers, says the company continues to add items to serve its customers’ needs. “The dynamic of the market is to always look for what more you can do for your customers,” he says. “This means changing our product mix to sell what our customers are looking for. As the marketplace has evolved demo- graphically, so has our product mix.”
North American Produce Company (NAPCO) handles a full line of domestic and imported fruit and vegetables. “We are always looking to create better relation- ships with growers and have really seen
growth in the last few years in our local offerings,” says John DiFeliciantonio, owner. John Collotti, sales manager for Collotti & Sons, reports doing more with an expanded organic line. “Demand for organic is slowly increasing,” he says. “We see it as a future growth area, especially as the price has
come down.”
Mushroom sales and sales of limes,
avocado, garlic, and mangos are growth areas for BRS. “This is a credit to the salesmen I have,” says Rick Milavsky, pres- ident. “They are bringing in more product and moving a lot more.”
Dan Vena notes John Vena Inc.’s goal is to find the most interesting products and make them available to customers. “We’re different because of what our customers are looking for,” he says. “The process is similar, but the items are different. We now carry more than five times the number of items as we did 25 years ago and 10 times the SKUs.”
74 / SEP TEMBER 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS