Ready Pac Celebrates 45 Years

The new year marks Ready Pac Foods 45th anniversary of providing innovative fresh-cut produce solutions to customers across the country. From their beginnings as a produce supplier to the foodservice industry in 1969, Ready Pac first came into being when founder Dennis Gertmenian received an urgent request from his father’s largest customer for ready-to-eat salads. Pressed for time and eager to please their customers, Dennis bought French knives, cutting boards and a bathtub for washing the produce in order to prepare and deliver his pressing customized orders. Upon delivery of the freshly prepared salads, Ready Pac was born. Hitting the ground running since its inception, Ready Pac has steadily positioned itself as a family-oriented trend setter within the produce industry. They have utilized strategies set forth by CPG companies to cultivate a strong history of product and packaging innovation by combining consumer and culinary insights to understand and better serve the needs of their customers. Ready Pac first secured its reputation as the most innovative supplier in fresh-cut foods by being the first to bring the concept of European Salad Blends to the U.S. From there, they created the “pillow pack” for bagged salads and later introduced a unique, proprietary “crisp” packaging for bagged salads which allowed for superior visual graphics and communicated better product freshness to consumers. When they pioneered the triple wash system, they set the standard for bagged salad processing, and went on to lead the way in sustainable packaging and processing through their recycled plastic packaging materials and significant usage of solar power within their processing plants. Under the strong leadership of CEO Tony Sarsam, Ready Pac produces a wide variety of award-winning fresh foods for both foodservice and retail, constantly generating buzz within the CPG industry through their unwavering commitment to creative product development and great tasting fresh foods. “My favorite thing about working for Ready Pac is the rapid pace for progress that we’ve set for ourselves,” says Tristan Simpson, senior director of marketing and corporate communications. “The fresh foods industry is built on the concept of moving product quickly and efficiently – but Ready Pac’s passion for innovation takes that idea one step further.  While other companies seem to get comfortable playing their role within the industry, we are working as a team to find new ways to bring our fresh foods to completely new arenas. That’s precisely how we became the first company to introduce a single serve complete salad in 2001 with our Ready Pac Bistro Bowl Salads.” Serving as another outstanding symbol for the success of Ready Pac, single serve salads are now the fastest growing salad segment in the packaged salad market today, and Ready Pac’s Bistro Bowls remain rightfully at its helm, say company officials.

With their extensive and versatile product line, dedication to environmentally sustainable packaging, unparalleled freshness and cutting edge flavor profiles, Ready Pac has continued to power through their competition to develop innovative, fresh and delicious meal solutions, and we anticipate the next 45 years will bring about more milestones to contribute to their incredible story.