Spotlight On: Southern Specialties

Southern Specialties has become a success by providing retailers and foodservice with top-quality branded and bulk specialty produce items.  

Is there a dedicated space in your produce department for Kalettes?

If not, there soon will be, and you can thank Southern Specialties for that.

“Kalettes is a cross between a Brussels sprout and kale,” says Robert Colescott, founder, president and CEO of Southern Specialties, based in Pompano Beach, Fla. “It is very versatile. It can be eaten raw in a salad. It can be grilled, sautéed or roasted, and it has a much higher nutritional value than the typical Brussels sprout or kale.”

That is why chefs at trendy white-tablecloth restaurants have been seeking out Kalettes to add to their menu. To do so they turn to Southern Specialties, which has been supplying the nation’s finest restaurants and hotels, through its distribution partners, with specialty produce for 25 years. It has also become a supermarket mainstay through its Southern Selects fresh produce brand and private label offerings.

Colescott started in the produce industry as a grower/importer of product from Guatemala in the late 1980s. Realizing that growers in Latin America had to adapt to the new global demands of business, Colescott created Southern Specialties in November 1990, as a “new approach” to supplying the foodservice industry. Over the years, the company has formed coalitions, or cooperatives, of small, medium and large-scale farmers and has implemented strict food safety and traceability controls.

That has resulted in centralized packing sheds that handle product from various regions and growers, allowing Southern Specialties to minimize additional handling and costs and maintain a tighter grip on its supply chain.

“This unique relationship with our growers/owners provides an unusual degree of control throughout the entire supply chain, from harvest to shelf,” Colescott says. “Our model provides the opportunity to supply customers on a year-round basis with top-quality produce.”

Southern Specialties flies in product daily. “That means we’re typically harvesting and packing in the same day,” says Charlie Eagle, vice president of business development. “It is shipped out by air the following day and then received into our facility. So within five days it is on the store shelf.”

Today, in addition to its Pompano Beach headquarters, Southern Specialties operates sales offices in Los Angeles and McAllen, Texas, along with offices in Guatemala and Peru, and has built a network of farmers throughout the Americas. “We’ll follow the season starting in Chile, work our way up through Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, then into the U.S. and work our way up into Canada, and then we’ll turn around and start over again,” Colescott says.

When the company was founded, about 40 percent of its product was domestically produced; today it is only 10 percent. “We had no choice,” Colescott says. “Our growing costs were high, labor costs were high and farmers were selling their land for real estate development, so we put a focus mainly on Central and South America.”

Another key reason for that is that all of Southern Specialties products are hand-harvested. “We don’t use any mechanical harvesting,” Colescott says. “That is why our quality is much better. By harvesting by hand we’re able to control our specs much better than a machine could.”

Southern Specialties handles 13 different commodities and about 180 different SKUs. Under its Southern Selects retail brand it stocks 12 different items and 45 SKUs. Items include asparagus, sugar snap peas, yellow beans, baby zucchini, baby carrots, rainbow carrots, Brussels sprouts, shelled English peas, baby patty pan squash and French beans—and 100 percent of them are non-GMO. 

“Many of these items were once considered a gourmet item, but have become an everyday item for a lot of consumers now,” Colescott says.

Take the case of French beans, or haricot vert.

“French beans were once solely a white-tablecloth item but became sought by retailers,” Eagle says. “In some instances, our Southern Selects French beans have actually replaced the traditional packaged green bean because we offer attractive pricing and present a product that is more tender, very flavorful and makes for a unique presentation.”

When it comes to asparagus, Southern Specialties is one of the largest grower/importers of the staple from Peru and Mexico. A key advantage is that much of its Southern Selects asparagus is packaged, providing a major quality and safety advantage over the typical bunches of rubber band-wrapped spears sitting in a tray of tepid water on a table in the middle of the aisle.

“In addition to safety, by us having it in a package, we’re able to tell a story,” Colescott says. “We’re able to give the consumer a story about our company, what we represent, our values, where the product is coming from, its nutritional benefits, a use-by date, some simple recipes, links to websites and a QR code.”

A lot of thought went into the Southern Selects packaging.

“When we created our Southern Selects brand we initiated studies that told us what the consumer is looking for in a package,” Eagle says. “We created our packaging in response to that survey. It has a fresh, attractive look that draws people to the shelf. We have a large window so people can see what they are buying, in addition to the information on the front and back panels.”

Not all Southern Specialties produce sold in the supermarket channel is sold under the Southern Selects brand. Colescott has seen an uptick in the company’s foodservice items, traditionally used in hotels and restaurants, being used in supermarket foodservice operations.

“Retailers are going after the prepared foods business and that is really exciting for us,” Colescott says. “We really like working with those retailers that are thinking out of the box and driving more traffic with the prepared meals.” 

Southern Specialties also likes working closely with its farmers to improve their lives and the environment. “Sustainability has always been something close to my heart,” Colescott says. “We have implemented environmental practices such as a reforestation program, where for every 100 pounds of fertilizer that we give to an individual they have to plant a number of trees. We’re really strict about soil preservation and clean water too. We teach them about chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides and are using biological pest control.”

Then there is the human element.

“Health and education are most important to us,” Colescott says. “We provide nursery schools, classes, teachers, dental care and even a doctor so there is some medical attention twice a week in certain areas. I’m very proud to see the growth within our communities. What is even more rewarding is when I see some of their families and their kids grow up and go off and start their own businesses.”

Southern Specialties is growing too. Up next is a line of organic offerings. “We’ve already begun several trials in different regions,” Colescott says. “We definitely see the growth. Our goal is to have organics become its own separate division.”