From
seed to Tomato / From
Farm to our customers / "Split"
Program
Many
of our customers have found that a full case of Fruit or Produce is
much more than some of their customers need. They will order a full
case and will watch a large portion of it perish in their refrigerator.
This is a waste of food and money.
With
this in mind Thomas Colace developed our "Split" program.
In this program Thomas Colace Co. takes full cases of fruit and produce
and divides them into smaller units that meets our customers needs.
These packages are custom tailored by size, weight, and specific customer
labeling.
This virtual
tour will show the process of how a six count "Split" of celery
is produced.
Step 1)
"Split" forman adds all of the customers celery orders together
and determines the number of full cases need to fill everyones order.
Step 2)
The full case order is given to our broker that works on the Phildalephia
Regional Produce Market. Our Broker looks at all of the lots of celery
at the many warehouses and purchases only the finest quality to be used
for the splits. The ability to choose from many differenet lots of celery
makes us able to consistently ship the finest quality to our customer
each day.
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Step 3) A Thomas Colace Co. Inspector picks up the celery, to be delivered
to our wharehouse, and inspects it again to make sure it meets our high
quality standards.
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Step 4) The celery is then hand packed into customer specific boxes.
Which have customer specific markings and or SUPC codes. It is important
to note that each stalk of celery is checked for quality as it being
packed. Any supstandard stalks will be will be seperated during packing
and discarded. These packages can be by count or by weight.
Just like
tomatoes other fruits and produce require additional care in packing
to protect them in shipping. For example, to keep from dehydrating it
is best to bag parsley before boxing it, and like tomatoes apples should
rest one inch air filled bubble pack to keep from bruising. Before the
first package is sealed we will discuss and tailor all packing requirements
with each customers merchandising department.
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Step
5) Each "Split" order is stacked with several factors in mind.
A) Ability
to ride on truck without damaging
B) Customer
specific pallet requirements
C) Customer
specific block and height requirements
We will always do our best to load our trucks so that the unloading
in our customer warehouse is as smooth as possible. So as not to overwhelm
their loading dock.
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Step 6)
Processed at the shipping department the splits are wrapped in plastic
film wrap to secure them for their ride to the customer. In some instances
the pallets will be sealed in plastic bags so that they will retain
their temperature. This allows us to lower the temperature of a truck
accomodating different types of fruit and produce that require different
temperatures such as mushrooms and peppers without hurting the various
splits.
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Step 7)
Like our tomaotes our splits are loaded on trucks with air suspension
to give as smooth a ride as possible.
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