Growers Express deals allow Church Brothers new growth avenues

Last week Church Brothers Farms BB #:161800 announced the acquisition of the Green Giant Fresh value-added vegetable business from Growers Express, LLC BB #:126866.

The move came a year after Church Brothers bought the commodity vegetable business of Growers Express.

Kori Tuggle-Dinner, vice president of marketing/product development, said the Green Giant Fresh brand brings national recognition and trusted brand awareness with consumers and is important to the company’s growth plans.

“With the first acquisition, we not only increased our growing acreage, we increased the number of total employees we now have at Church Brothers Farms,” she said. “Those new employees brought talent, experience and insight that our company and customers are benefiting from in the last year. We need that influx of new talent to successfully continue our growth trajectory.”

She said the moves allow Church Brothers to offer both retail and foodservice customers more SKUs that they can load in one location.

In the high-growth value-added categories, she said the company now offers Brussels sprouts, riced vegetables, vegetable noodles, single serve vegetable bowls and Little Gem lettuce.

The company plans to give further details on the deal in the near future, Tuggle-Dinner said.