New Faces

Mike LeBarre is in charge of foodservice sales. He has been with various companies in California before, the last one being Del Monte.

Javier Najanro has been hired to enhance our presence at production level in Mexico and the rest of Central South America. During his last job he was touring growers sites for Sysco the largest foodservice distributor in the USA.

Ron Metcalf overseas the production of retail packs. He was with Ralph's Supermarkets previously in charge of their prepared food production.

Staff Spotlight: Gilbert Ortiz

The only true American at AMS Exotic - two of his grandparents were from the Appaches Indian Tribe.

What is your job at AMS Exotic?
I am the warehouse manager. I make sure the place runs smoothly setting up the orders for outside shipping, making the cut offs at the airport, organising pick ups for imported produce. We have grown from 6 people in the warehouse to more than 40 now, so it takes a bit of organising.

What did you do before working here?
I have been on the LA produce scene for 22 years. I was born and raised in LA.

What is the most interesting aspect of your job?

Everything that sales and procurement throw at me: retail packs. Food safety programme, we went through a pretty grusesome certification process and now we are HAACP certified.

What do you hate the most?
The early hours, coming in to work at 1.00am especially on a Monday morning can be challenging.

Autumn 2002