San Juan Bautista
– After a year in business limbo, Pride of San Juan has formed a
partnership with a Salinas-based produce company that is buying and
moving into its processing facility.
San Juan Bautista – After a year in business limbo, Pride of San Juan has formed a partnership with a Salinas-based produce company that is buying and moving into its processing facility.
Church Brothers, a produce grower and marketer, and its processor, True Leaf Farms, have already moved into the 190,000-square-foot facility in an effort to expand the company’s own operations, sales manager and partner Steve Church said.
Natural Selection Foods had partnered with Pride of San Juan owner Stephen Wyrick and begun the process of purchasing the plant in April 2006. However, Natural Selection Foods backed out of the deal in September 2006, just weeks after a nationwide E. coli outbreak linked to spinach killed three and sickened hundreds.
The plant shut down two months before the traditional shift of operations to Arizona for the winter months, Wyrick said.
Al Martinez, director of the Economic Development Corporation of San Benito County, said the partnership adds needed stability to the San Juan Valley job market.
“It’s very good news for the county and the people who will be brought back to work there,” Martinez said.
Wyrick said up to 300 seasonal jobs will return to the plant.
The bulk broccoli, cauliflower and other produce that Church Brothers processes will also give area farmers a chance to grow different vegetables, Wyrick said.
But Wyrick and Church would not estimate how many permanent jobs could be added in the San Juan Valley.
“There’s probably going to be more people in that plant than when (Wyrick) ran it,” Church said.
Looking to expand its 62,000 square feet of operations from the Salinas Valley, Church Brothers and True Leaf Farms should close escrow on the facility in May, Church said. Church Brothers began moving new equipment and staff into the larger San Juan Bautista facility on March 26, he said.
Negotiations to form the partnership and work out a purchase with Wyrick began in October 2006, Church said. The partnership deal and sale of the facility were finalized in January, he said. Wyrick and Church would not reveal details their purchase agreement.
The plant will still be called the Pride of San Juan, with production already shifting from Yuma to San Juan Bautista, Wyrick said.
“We’ve been ramping up since the middle of March,” Wyrick said. “We’ll be in full production April 16.”
The facility is now operating at about 80 percent of capacity, Church said.
Church Brothers, founded in 1999, relies heavily on bulk produce, including broccoli, whole-leaf lettuce and cauliflower. Two years ago, it partnered with King City-based True Leaf Farms to add prepackaged leafy greens to its product line. Together, the companies process about 9 million boxes of produce per year in the Salinas Valley, Church said.
Pride of San Juan will continue to produce herbs and edible flowers, while selling spring mix to True Leaf Farms, Wyrick said.
“The plant is diversified now,” Wyrick said. “It’s been retooled. All the processing equipment is new.”
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected].
