Camarillo Man Grows Successful Company by Peddling Produce

It started as just another business venture, a way for Camarillo entrepreneur Mark Monro to extend his 10-year hot streak in sales and start-ups. But somewhere along the way, peddling produce became more of a passion than a paycheck.

After learning that much of Ventura County’s best fruit never makes it to retail grocers, Monro launched a company aimed at funneling the produce to schools, sports clubs and charities as a fund-raising alternative to carwashes and candy sales.

Since the debut last year of Oxnard-based FreshSuccess, he has added a line of products to be sent by companies as business gifts. His company is on track this year to generate $1 million in sales.

But Munro also has come to know something about the plight of the small farmer, having seen firsthand how growers in Ventura County and across the state are being squeezed by rising production costs and increased competition from around the globe.

And he figures he can help, one box of fruit at a time.

“Never in a million years did I think I would get into the produce industry,” said Monro, 40, a USC business school graduate who ran a Ventura-based voice messaging business he created before embarking on the fresh-fruit track.

“Farmers have it really tough right now,” he said. “This is really a good opportunity for us to help them get their premium products to market.”

Marketing problems are especially acute for growers of rare or off-beat produce, items that have a hard time establishing a foothold in California’s competitive fruit and vegetable markets.

In researching ideas for new businesses, Monro said he was shocked to discover that a lot of that produce never reaches market because buyers for grocery store chains worry it is not durable enough to hold up on supermarket shelves.

Indeed, several growers who now sell to FreshSuccess said they had been searching for new customers for their specialty products. Take Ojai farmer Esther Wachtell, whose Eve’s Apples have become a hot seller for the company.

New to farming, Wachtell had been pushing her crop of Crimson Galas through the local farmers’ markets and a now-defunct Internet site when the head of the Ventura County Farm Bureau connected her with FreshSuccess.

About 60% of her crop--the very best apples she grows--now goes to the company, where it is hand-placed in sleek, silver foam-insulated gift boxes and shipped all over the country.

“I think in many ways this kind of niche marketing is going to be helpful in places like Ventura County, where farming is in transition,” Wachtell said. “They are really providing a great service to farming.”

It’s not just apples.

Local growers sell everything from Valencia oranges to fresh strawberries and softball-sized Reed avocados through the company.

Students at Flory School in Moorpark sold county-grown Minneola tangelos for a fund-raiser last spring. Vice Principal Cynthia Coler said she pitched the idea to the PTA as it was looking for ways to raise $800 for a new bass drum for the school band. Selling boxes of fruit door-to-door, students doubled that amount.

“This was such a healthy and nutritious way to go about it, I am a strong believer in that aspect of fund-raising,” Coler said. “It was extremely easy and very successful. I would hope we would use it again.”

At FreshSuccess headquarters, a 4,000-square-foot warehouse conveniently located next to a Federal Express office, Monro hopes so too.

He started the business by himself in June 2000, bringing in friends and family to fill initial orders. He now has six employees, including veteran sales executive Ron Wallace, who was brought on earlier this year to target sales to Fortune 1000 companies.

“If you think about it, we’re really like an upscale greeting card company,” said Wallace, as a nearby employee polished and packaged Crimson pears in a gift box that will include a detailed history of the fruit and a personalized message from the sender.

“The growers love that we handle their fruit gently, that we put it in this great box with foam all around it,” Wallace said. “They think that’s the way it should be handled.”