Fresh Express history

TransFresh® Corporation was originally formed in 1966 as a business partnership between Whirlpool Corporation and Bruce Church Incorporated, a major lettuce grower based in Salinas, California.

In 1968, the first pallet bag of fresh strawberries was shipped under the Red Coach label.

Under his leadership, Fresh International was finally able to reach a settlement in an epic conflict with the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). Since 1978 the two sides had been fighting in the courts of law as well as in the court of public opinion over a contract to pick Red Coach lettuce.

In 1981 Ted Taylor asked his son Steve to spearhead an effort to sell packaged salads to the retail market.

He traveled east to earn a Harvard University M.B.A. After a stint running a Los Angeles restaurant, he returned to the family business in 1987, but while he was away film suppliers had made significant progress on meeting the needs of TransFresh.

In 1989, Del Monte was the first produce company to develop “value added” fresh produce.

In 1990, TransFresh® introduced the first process controller (“TransFresh CA”) which was capable of reading and controlling atmosphere mixes inside a refrigerated sea vans during the entire ocean transit period.

Just as Fresh Express was beginning to take off, Ted Taylor, who had championed the idea of packaged salad for a quarter-century, died in 1991.

Steve Taylor took steps to replace his father, first becoming president of Fresh Express retail marketing in 1992, then becoming the company’s chief executive officer two years later when he also took on the chairmanship of Fresh International.

As Fresh Express entered the new century it generated $509 million in sales in fiscal 2000 and controlled the leading share of the bagged salad market, nearly 38 percent compared to Dole’s 35.7 percent.

Duman, Jill, “Salinas, Calif.-based Packaged Salad Company Plans to Expand Market Presence,” Monterey Count Herald (Monterey, Calif.), February 2, 2001.

Although Fresh Express posted sales of $933 million in 2003, its performance did not live up to the expectations of its parent company.

In 2005, Performance Food Group decided to sell the same group of companies to Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (“Chiquita”).

To help in this effort, in January 2007 Fresh Express announced that it would provide up to $2 million to conduct research to help the fresh-cut produce industry prevent future E. coli outbreaks.

In 2014 TransFRESH sold the marine CA Division to its long-term Chilean associate Liventus Global

Following several productive years, in 2015, the Cutrale-Safra Group acquired Chiquita Brands and transitioned its holdings to a private investment concern.