The Sambrailo family celebrated their 100th anniversary of leadership in the produce packaging industry in 2023. The occasion was marked by many celebrations, meant to recognize the strong commitment that the company to has to its employees and customers.
“We held an appreciation lunch in August at our headquarters in Watsonville, with a BBQ and live music, to which we invited many retired team members and their families, as well as our current ones,” says marketing director Sara Lozano.“We also partnered with our major customer, Driscoll’s, for a celebration in September. Finally, we had a big Christmas party in December.”
“We wanted to thank all of our customers and suppliers who have supported us throughout all these years. And, we wanted to make sure that both team members and customers felt our deep appreciation for their service and support. Many of our team members have been with us 25 plus years!” she adds.
While Mark Sambrailo serves as CEO, 4th generation Sambrailo siblings, Kiersten and Erik, are expanding into exciting new categories. Kiersten is in charge of strategic accounts, including their largest customer, Driscoll’s, while Erik is in charge of product innovation. Data driven tools are his focus right now: compiling data and looking at how the company can utilize the data and also how it can transform into forecasting and production tools that help in all areas of service and operations.
Sambrailo makes packaging for most of the berries, tomatoes, squash and peppers you see at farmstands and in grocery stores. There are clamshells, open top pint and quart cardboard containers, pint pulp boxes, special tomato and squash cardboard boxes, and those ubiquitous yellow strawberry boxes that are used to house open top pint baskets. It’s the way you’ve gotten most of your berries for the last 30 years.
But it’s the surprising new applications they’ve developed for ReadyCycle®, the sustainable packaging concept they pioneered back in 2017, that is showing the most growth. ReadyCycle packaging is made of coated paperboard. It is an alternative to single use plastic packaging and is 100% recyclable, made without wax, and without PFAs. Fully customizable and printable, ReadyCycle allows all sides of a package to be printed colorfully and informatively, with eye-catching graphics to draw consumers in, and helpful recipe and usage ideas to keep them coming back for repeat purchases. Since it was introduced in 2017, Sambrailo’s ReadyCycle business has been growing by at least 20% a year.
Lozano says the company landed one of their biggest achievements ever in retail by getting one of their ReadyCycle display structures into Costco stores nationwide.
Surprisingly, it was for organic fresh ginger. “Three producers are supplying the fresh ginger, which is grown in Mexico or in Central America. They chose our packaging!” she says. “We get the ginger in bulk and then repack it in our packing sheds into various display boxes.”
The colorful ReadyCycle fresh ginger packaging contains recipes and suggestions for usage in smoothies, teas, Asian dishes, sautées and even for making your own teriyaki sauce for marinades, making the product instantly more accessible.
If you’re among the many eating more mushrooms and less meat, you’ve probably noticed that the category is exploding—for both gourmet grown and wild foraged varieties.
“Mushrooms have really taken off for us,” says Lozano. They used to see small quantities, like a few cases at a time, or perhaps a pallet. And now there are truckloads. “Wild mushrooms, like shitake, oyster, trumpet and lions mane, are increasingly seen as an alternative to meat protein in plant-based diets. This has pushed the price point up, which helps defray the cost of using sustainable packaging. Retailers understand this.”
“We are seeing a big demand from new customers and from many small farms that have previously used clamshell packaging. Far West Fungi has been a customer for 20 years, and have packed in PC recycled clamshells for a decade. Then they made the switch to sustainable ReadCycle, which is doing really well for them. Being able to print on all sides is a game changer for our customers. They can differentiate their products by including their family history and brand stories, along with specific product details.”
ReadyCycle can relay so much more information than a simple sticker on a plastic clamshell. Case in point is the popularity of Padrón and shishito peppers. One of Sambrailo’s long-time customers, Coke Farms in San Juan Bautista, recognized that many of their restaurant customers increasingly serve these peppers as appetizers. “They’ve done specific ReadyCycle baskets for the two peppers, complete with instructions for how to enjoy them at home.”
That said, berries remain 80% of Sambrailo’s business, with more and more berries being grown every year. Says Lozano, “We are berry centric and we’ve evolved with it. Our company has adapted through the changes of the Pajaro Valley. We transitioned from apples to berries to floral and veggies, and now we’re back around to berries. We respond to what customers demand.”
Indeed, that’s the main driver. As consumers, you can influence what stays on shelves and what gets displaced. Lozano observes that as things disappear from the Pajaro Valley, specifically acres of apples, she fears that what has made this area so prized is being lost.
“Some of the flavor profiles of fruit that grows here just can’t be found anywhere else,” she says. “There is something special about the taste of Pajaro Valley apples. Hopefully, we will maintain at least some of that acreage.” She admits though that berries are easier to grow and have a longer season, meaning more profit for farmers.
“We are exploring more year-round categories,” says Lozano. For example, dragon fruit is a focus, as they work on how to package these large fruits. “Cut and scoop dragon fruit is so delicious! My kids devour it. It is similar to kiwi in that you cut in half and then scoop it out. The seeds are super delicious: it makes great smoothies.” Like ginger, all the dragon fruit is imported from Central America, but a small growing area in Florida is showing promise.
They’re also looking at a ReadyCycle packaging alternative for microgreens, another specialty item that is rapidly gaining traction.
“We have not cracked the code for greens,” says Lozano. “It’s hard to get away from prepacked plastics. We’re trying to develop a sustainable solution for smaller head lettuce and green options, but it is so hard to do with paper, due to respiration rates and the need for precooling. We will see where the greens category takes us.”
For now it’s strawberry season, and those bright yellow containers are flying out the door. Soon will come cane berries and then blueberries. Tis the season.
More at: sambrailo.com
About the author
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
