Paradigm Fresh, with offices in Fort Collins, CO, and a warehouse/distribution center in Denver, is adding a new onion line at the Denver facility.
According to John Harris, company founder and president, the new line is in keeping with the company’s steady growth.
“Our new onion line is very exciting news for us,” John said on June 14. “Since we were a company born from onion roots, this simply is the next logical place to grow from for us.”
The line is being custom-built by Innovative Weighing Systems located in Loveland, CO. “Dan Lambrecht of IWS based out of is our brains and engineer,” John said. He said that Lambrecht is well known in the industry, and “… this was a very comfortable fit and easy decision for us to make. Dan is able and willing to customize some things for us that are special to us and our location that other companies just don’t do.”
Focus for the new line will be on retail packages, Harris added. “We will have the ability to sort out of grade product when necessary, and convert the bulk product back into any 25# and 50# bags efficiently. With addition of this capability, we’ll also be able to sticker product and do cartons as well.”
He continued, “Repacking here in Colorado gives us the ability to use the ‘Colorado Proud’ labeling, which has become such a big local driver here in Denver and along the Front Range. Our volume to start out with will be six to eight truckloads a week, and we’ll probably double that within the first 90 days as we highly anticipate the need to put in a second repacking machine. The line is being designed for multiple machines, although we will only begin with one to start with.”
Paradigm’s main business is onions, and John said that even after the line is installed, “We’ll still broker the majority of our onion movement out of our Fort Collins location. Most of that business is focused on wholesalers in many different locations of the country, with an occasional retail order here and there and still a fair amount of business with different re-packers scattered throughout the United States and Canada.”
