The companies reached an agreement to transition Modern Mushroom’s fresh business to the Giorgio family of brands.
Brian Threlfall, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Giorgio Foods Inc., said the Ciarrocchi family will continue to own Modern Mushroom farms. The fresh mushrooms produced by the farm will be contracted to Giorgio Foods, Threlfall said Oct. 27 at Fresh Summit 2012 in Anaheim.
Under the agreement, Giorgio will manage Modern’s packing facility in Chester County, Pa., and purchase those mushrooms from Modern’s growing operations, he said. Also, the Modern Mushroom sales and customer service staff will become a part of the Giorgio staff. Both Modern Farms and Green Giant Fresh brands will continue to be in the market, and Green Giant Fresh will continue featuring Box Tops for Education, according to a joint news release.
“We will be growing in the Chester County area, growing where we are now in the Reading, Pa., area and packing in both facilities and servicing customers from both facilities,” Threlfall said.
“I feel strongly that our combined entities will allow us to work more closely with our customers and help them grow their mushroom category,” Chuck Ciarrocchi, president of Modern Mushroom, said in the news release. “We fully expect to execute a seamless transition for everyone.”
Blandon, Pa.-based Giorgio Fresh Company, is a a third-generation mushroom grower-shipper and Avondale, Pa.-based Modern Mushroom Farms is also a third-generation business with more than 85 years in the mushroom industry, according to the release.
Threlfall said both companies can learn from each other’s best practices, starting at the growing level and including distribution and sales.
“We can take the best of what we do and turn it in to a better overall effort for our customers,” Threlfall said.
