This past January 9th, 2015 three generations of Chiala family members, owners of GC Farms, gathered wearing hardhats and holding gleaming commemorative shovels. The celebration, a groundbreaking for a new vegetable processing facility in Hollister, CA, is historical. Not only is the new facility going to be the first of it’s kind, but it is the first time the Santa Clara based family has broken ground in neighboring San Benito County. The new 92,000 square foot facility, currently being built on a 38-acre parcel on Fairview Road, will house 3 high-tech freezing process lines all controlled via tablets. Expected to be fully operational by the end of September, the new facility will process about 60 million pounds of locally sourced produce annually and bring some 200 jobs to San Benito County.
The revolutionary facility, which has been in the planning stages for 6 years, will have some unique, never before seen design attributes based on 3 key considerations: Food Safety, Accessibility and Flexibility to run a diverse array of products. Most of these attributes are expressly related to the design of the new processing equipment, which is currently being built off-site and expected to arrive on location in Hollister sometime in August of this year.
The lead engineer on the development project, Joe Torquato, formerly worked for Earthbound for 18 years. He joins the Chialas with a vast repertoire of experience having previously built 8 plants in North and Central America.
The Hollister expansion site was chosen after an extensive search. The Chiala family sought a rural area with good freeway access and utilities at the road. This, combined with great support from San Benito County, made the decision unanimous. When asked how he felt about expanding the family business to San Benito County, Tim Chiala, who will be the General Manager of the new facility and who currently resides in Hollister with his wife and three children, replied: “We’re really excited. San Benito is a smaller county, a great place to grow vegetables, and it’s in an ideal location – close to both the Santa Clara Valley and the Salinas Valley.” When asked about working relations with the county Chiala explained: “They’re very easy to work with. What’s been great is that they listen, they’re flexible, and agricultural processing is not new to them so they understand where we’re coming from.”
The new Hollister facility is a long-time dream come true for the Chiala family. Although freezing innovation is certainly not new to them – they have specialized in vegetable processing, including freezing, since the early 1980s – this new expansion marks the first time they’ve been able to design a facility from the ground up. They couldn’t be more excited about their chosen location in Hollister, nor the prospect of becoming a part of San Benito County’s rich agricultural heritage.