US: Korsgaard ships frozen foods

During the past couple of decades, Watsonville has seen many frozen food processing facilities depart, but Salinas resident Alex Korsgaard said he's happy to be part of an effort that has reversed that trend. Korsgaard is plant manager of Blue Ribbon Frozen Foods LLC, a start-up that began operations this summer. It's processing spinach now, but will turn to Brussels sprouts soon, he said.

Located in a building on Airport Boulevard owned by Naturipe Berry Growers, Blue Ribbon had to install its own production line. Korsgaard said he acquired the necessary know-how for the job working for Mike Cleugh in Salinas. Cleugh, a longtime family friend, encouraged the youthful Korsgaard to pursue a food science degree at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, telling him food businesses do well during recessions.

Cleugh also offered Korsgaard summer employment during his college years. "While at Cal Poly, I began working in Salinas during the summers running night shifts in the packing shed," Korsgaard said. "This was a satellite location processing  strawberries." Doing everything from driving a forklift and loading trucks to quality control, he learned the business from the ground up. Upon graduation, Korsgaard became superintendent of production at Cleugh's Salinas plant and eventually moved up to plant manager.

Although he began by working with strawberries, bell peppers, and Brussels sprouts in the frozen food business, Korsgaard switched to spinach when he moved to Blue Ribbon. Explaining his decision to take this new position, Korsgaard pointed to the newly assembled production line. "This was a nice match," he said. "I seized the opportunity to get in on the ground floor and see a new venture grow, while my employers needed someone with experience in frozen food."

Korsgaard's involvement in the start-up process began with the "blue-print" phase more than a year ago. With a big grin, he said it took many long days and weekends to get the plant up and running by the middle of July, but it was worth all the effort.

"I feel good that we are now producing something that people are going to eat," he said. Initially, Blue Ribbon will employ just under 20 people. Although spinach is the immediate focus of the operation, Brussels sprouts will replace the leafy green later this fall. By operating year-round, Korsgaard said he hopes the plant will be able to keep most, if not all, of the line staff busy throughout the seasons.

With plenty of unused floor space in the building, Korsgaard said it would be fairly easy to add additional processing lines if the market demanded a greater output.
Hoping to create a niche in the frozen spinach market, Blue Ribbon is a co-packer that ships its product in 900-pound, bulk containers for businesses that use it as an ingredient in something else. The spinach eventually will be included in a wide range of products from pizza to various types of dips. "We'll never be as big as Birdseye or Green Giant, but I think there is definitely a place for a company like this," Korsgaard said.


Source: thecalifornian.com

Publication date: 9/23/2008

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