This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies
By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
Refrigerated Frozen Foods logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Refrigerated Frozen Foods logo
  • Home
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Digital Edition
    • Archives
  • Exclusives
    • Refrigerated Foods Processor of the Year
    • Frozen Foods Processor of the Year
    • Foodservice Distributor of the Year
    • Sustainable Processor of the year
    • State of the Industry
    • Top 150 Frozen Food Processors
    • Editor's Blog
    • Best New Retail Products
  • Topics
    • Case Studies
    • Energy Management
    • Food Safety
    • New Retail Products
    • Packaging
    • Supply Chain & Logistics
  • News
    • Industry News
    • Technology Showcase
    • People News
    • Supplier News
  • Directories & Guides
    • Cold Storage Warehouse Guide
    • Cold Storage Construction Guide
    • Take a Tour
    • Food Master
  • More
    • eNewsletter
    • Expert Columns
    • Trade Education
    • Partners
    • Polls
    • Directory of Associations
    • Market Research
    • Custom Content & Marketing Services
    • Nominations for RFF Awards
    • R&FF Store
    • Sneak Peeks
  • Events
    • Food Automation & Manufacturing (FA&M) Conference & Expo
    • Calendar of Events
  • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Photo Galleries
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • Video Spotlights
    • White Paper eBlast
  • Contact Us
    • Contact
    • Advertise
  • Subscribe
Home » Pre-cooler facility helps grow fresh produce businesses
Case Studies

Pre-cooler facility helps grow fresh produce businesses

June 27, 2019
KEYWORDS cooling equipment / organic produce / produce / produce grower
Reprints
No Comments

Since 2014, lifelong friends Tony Serrano, president of JAS Family Farms Organics, and Pat Coash, owner of Koppes Plants, both in Watsonville, Calif., have been sharing cooling for commodities. In doing so, they gain two seasons out of what’s typically one seasons.

JAS grows organic squash, artichokes and Brussels sprouts and sells to retailers and wholesalers throughout the United States, while Koppes is a wholesale strawberry nursery supplying commercial growers throughout the United States and Canada.

When Serrano needed to refrigerate his product, he turned to Coash, whose strawberry plants’ season is October through May, and idle in the summer when JAS harvests. Cooling in Koppes’ large refrigeration facility is provided by Jet-Ready Precoolers, manufactured by Global Cooling, Inc., Athens, Ohio.

The cooling arrangement helped JAS land Costco as a customer shortly after Serrano starting his company in 2014.

“If this cooling system is good enough to cool down product that goes into Costco and is good enough for the biggest customers, you can get your product to anyone else,” says Serrano.

Aside from Serrano and Coash’s relationship, the Jet-Ready Precooler is the reason the business partnership has worked, says Coash.

“I have known Tony for so long. It was such a seamless and easy transition,” he says. “It’s ‘Here’s the set of keys’ is how much we trust each other, which is very rare in this day and age. It’s almost like having a brother here watching the place while you’re gone.”

Coash and Serrano met when children. Coash’s uncle, the late Max Koppes, who founded the operation in 1949, would see Serrano running around the fields as a child when he sold Serrano’s father strawberry plants during the 1970s. After graduating college in 1988, Coash entered his uncle’s business and took it over after Koppes passed away in 1999.

Born to migrant workers from Mexico, Serrano came to the United States in the trunk of a red Grand

Torino when he was three years old. Raised in the fields, Serrano went to school and acted as a translator when his parents started their own strawberry growing business. There, he learned a myriad of skills, from picking strawberries and driving trucks to setting up irrigation systems. Serrano also worked 8 years in sales and marketing for Alba Organics, Salinas, Calif.

“It is a natural situation where Pat and I could work together,” says Serrano. “We work well with each other and haven’t had a disagreement on anything. Like any industry, this is a small community. Word gets around of your ethics, your personality and your mode of operation. To have someone like him know me and be able to say some good things about me goes a long way.”

Coash plans to more than double cooling capacity. The Jet Precoolers work so well that both companies plan to purchase more units to refrigerate product.

“This cooler doesn’t break down, which is super important,” says Serrano. “With its two fans, it cools the product fast and doesn’t sweat, which means it won’t create mold or decay in the product. This unit is small compared to the others. You wouldn’t think of it as powerful as it is, which is important when you’re limited in cooling space.”

“It was pretty intriguing, because it is so portable,” Coash adds. “As our facility didn’t have capacity to add tunnel cooling, these jet coolers are perfect. They move a lot of air, which is something you wouldn’t think about for a machine of this size, but it’s not as simple as it looks. At first, I was skeptical, but these work so well.”

“Our Jet Precoolers are made in America, right here in Philadelphia at the Philly Navy Yard business park,” says Jim Still, vice president of Global Cooling. “All our components are the best that money can buy, and our portables are amazingly powerful. Time after time, we outperform bunker wall systems and farm-built box fans.”

 

Subscribe to Refrigerated and Frozen Foods

Related Articles

Pre-cooler for fresh-cut produce

RedHat Cooperative, Star Produce join forces to grow U.S. business

Unit coolers for walk-in coolers and freezers, distribution facilities, dock arrangements, storage facilities

Capitol City Produce acquires Table Fresh Foods’ distribution business

You must login or register in order to post a comment.

Report Abusive Comment

Subscribe For Free!
  • Print & Digital Edition Subscriptions
  • What’s Hot in Cold eNewsletter
  • Online Registration
  • Subscription Customer Service

More Videos

Popular Stories

ARYZTA Mixed Rolls

ARYZTA announces new frozen bread line at Ancaster, Canada, bakery

Gotham Greens Chicago greenhouse

Gotham Greens opens largest urban agriculture campus

Jeff Thomas, TransPlace

Transportation trends and 2020 market outlook

Zucchini

2019 Frozen Foods Processor of the Year: B&G Foods makes giant-sized footprint in frozen food category

Meijer Flashfood app

Meijer’s new app-based pilot program aims to reduce in-store food waste

ColdStorageConstructionGuide_360

Events

April 26, 2020

Food Automation and Manufacturing Conference and Expo

Food Engineering's Food Automation & Manufacturing Conference and Expo (FA&M) is a 2 ½ day event that brings food and beverage processors and suppliers together to gain valuable information on the latest trends and technologies in manufacturing, automation, sustainability and food safety.

January 1, 2030

Webinar Sponsorship Information

For webinar sponsorship information, visit www.bnpevents.com/webinars or email webinars@bnpmedia.com.

View All Submit An Event

Poll

How will your company be affected?

President Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. How will this decision affect the future of your company?
View Results Poll Archive

WarehouseGuide_360

Refrigerated & Frozen Foods Magazine

Refrigerated & Frozen Food November 2019

2019 November

Check out the November 2019 edition of Refrigerated & Frozen Foods: 2019 Frozen Foods Processor of the Year, trucking trends, renewable energy initiatives, and much more!
View More Create Account
  • Resources
    • Food & Beverage Brands
    • Packaging
    • List Rental
    • Exclusives
    • Privacy Policy
    • Survey and Sample
  • Want More
    • Connect

Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing