The wholesale firm

Frieda Caplan and her two daughters, Jackie end Karen, run Produce Specialties, a wholesale firm that each year supplies supermarkets with $20 million worth of exotic fruits and vegetables. It is a sign of the firm's suc­cess that kiwifruit, artichokes, alfalfa sprouts, pearl onions, and mushrooms no longer seem very exotic. All of these crops were once viewed as unusual. Few farmers grew them, and consumers didn't know about them. Tradi­tional produce wholesalers didn't want to handle them because they had a limited market. Produce Specialties helped to change all that.

Caplan realized that some supermarkets were putting more emphasis on their produce departments and wanted to offer consumers more choice. She looked for products that would help them meet this need. For example, the funny looking, egg-shaped kiwifruit with its fuzzy brown skin was pop­ular in New Zealand but virtually unknown to consumers in other parts of the world. Caplan worked with a number of small farmer-producers to ensure that she could provide her retailer-customers with an adequate sup­ply. She packaged kiwi with interesting recipes and promoted kiwi and her brand name to consumers. Because of her efforts, many supermarkets now carry kiwi — which has become a $40 million crop for California farmers. Because demand for kiwi has grown, other wholesalers now handle them. But that hasn't slowed Caplan. Her firm continues to be an innovator even as larger companies enter the specialty-produce field.

When a retailer complained that Jerusalem artichokes were drying out before they could be sold, Caplan put them in a film wrapped package, labeled them "sunchokes," included a recipe, and then watched demand grow. Today almost everything the company sells is packaged or stickered, which has established her brand name in an industry of faceless suppliers. She was also the first to sell produce in product lines rather than item by item, and the first to routinely use airfreight for orders. And she still adds new products — like Asian pears and kiwano melons (another import from New Zealand) — to the 250 products that carry her label.

Although Caplan faces growing competition, she continues to have an advantage with many supermarkets because she offers a high-quality as­sortment and valuable services in the channel. For example, the firm sends a weekly "hot sheet" to produce managers that tells what's selling, and the Caplans hold seminars to give produce buyers ideas about how to improve their sales.

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