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4 Produce Show Daily Thursday, October 17, 2013 NATURE'S EATS: QUALITY BORN AND BRED IN TEXAS By JC Taylor, Director of Marketing, Nature's Eats/Texas Star Nut and Food Company. Nature's Eats roots run deep when it comes to the nuts, mixes and dried fruit business. Three generations of Texans were basically born and bred in the business. "We pretty much have it in our blood," says John C. Taylor Jr., President and CEO of Texas Star Nut and Food Company and Nature's Eats. "It started with my dad in 1976 when he bought the Sunshine Nut Company. We grew it and then were purchased by a much larger company. I worked for them for a while and then felt a calling to do something different, but all I knew was the nut business." So John left and started a food brokerage company, and later Texas Star Nut and Food Company. Robert Henarie, who has worked with John for three decades, is head of sales, and John's younger brother Jeffrey, who heads up operations, joined John as they started to build the company. "We started with three dried fruit items at HE-B in the produce section. Now we have over 150 items and national distribution," says Robert. As the company grew and THERMAL TECHNOLOGIES REDUCES COSTS FOR TOP TEN SUPERMARKET CHAIN Saving $1 per box on bananas may not sound like much, but if you're one of the largest, fastest-growing supermarket chains in the United States, it can add up to millions. That's what prompted one of the nation's largest-volume retailers to install their own bank of TarpLess® ripening rooms. Before the new rooms were installed, the chain had been ordering bananas pre-ripened from the grower. As banana sales and store locations grew, meeting the ripening demands of over a thousand stores spread across multiple states became an increasingly difficult challenge. Corporate wanted to ensure that every store had quality bananas ripened to the exact color stage they needed, when they needed it. They decided that building their own ripening rooms would provide the best long-term solution, and expanded, they knew they would eventually need a brand that worked outside of Texas. "We did an extensive search on names and finally landed on Nature's Eats. We think it's the perfect name, and describes the natural goodness and wholesome aspects of our products," says John. While they maintain the Texas Star brand in the southwest, the Nature's Eats brand is gaining distribution throughout the United States. As the company has grown, operations have expanded to include a state-of the-art facility situated right off interstate 10 in Boerne, Texas, just north of San Antonio. The company has a strong focus Continued on Page 51 that the projected savings in ripening fees of $1 per box would more than justify the investment. After an extensive review process, including visits to a number of ripening facilities, the chain contracted Thermal Technologies to build the rooms. "This client had really done their homework," says David Byrne, Vice President of Thermal Technologies. "They had a firm handle on volume and turnover and knew exactly how many rooms they would need to manage their current and Continued on Page 69 AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION NOT AFFILIATED WITH PMA Lee M. Oser CEO and Editor-in-Chief Lyle Sapp Senior Associate Publisher Director of Sales Kim Forrester Jeff Rosano Associate Publishers Lorrie Baumann Editorial Director Hayden Neeley Senior Associate Editor Jeanie Catron Associate Editor Yasmine Brown Keaton Kohl Graphic Designers Margarite Marquez Ruth Haltiwanger Customer Service Managers Jules Denton Paul Harris Ryan Harter Lynn Hilton Chuck Kenney David Lopez Account Managers Enrico Cecchi European Sales Produce Show Daily is published by Oser Communications Group ©2013. All rights reserved. Executive and editorial offices at: 1877 N. Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85715 520.721.1300/Fax: 520.721.6300 www.oser.com European offices located at Lungarno Benvenuto Cellini, 11, 50125 Florence, Italy.