Jordano’s Foodservice expands Goleta footprint
Goleta-based Jordano’s Foodservice, a family-owned broad line foodservice distributor, announced Jan. 11 that the company has increased its cooler distribution center.
With the additional 27,000 square feet of cooler space, Jordano’s will be adding — bringing its total to nearly 140,000 square feet — the company will be expanding its presence in the region for the first time in about 30 years, Patrick Day, Jordano’s general manager told the Business Times.
“As we came out of the pandemic, our growth was very good. We’re growing at a rapid rate and because of that we needed to expand the space to accommodate the new items that we stock for our customer base as well as enough spots to replenish our stock,” Day said.
Jordano’s is the second-largest independent broad line food service distributor in California and the leading independent food service distributor in Central and Southern California.
Founded 108 years ago, the company is now made up of two major divisions, Jordano’s Foodservice and Pacific Beverage Company, which together post annual sales of more than $300 million and employs over 500 food and beverage professionals, according to Day.
The expansion is primarily for the food service arm of the company.
“Our current warehouse, it adds extra slots, and then allows us to bring in more and more national brand items to sell a more diverse portfolio,” said Day.
The new space will house a full range of national, regional and local brands. The company’s sales and distribution network span more than 37 individual market segments in the six key Central and Southern California counties.
Pacific Beverage, the other branch of Jordano’s, is the side of the business that has a deal with Anheuser Busch and has seen its own expansion in the past few years, paving the way for this current expansion.
“In the past, the space was dedicated to the alcohol division, Pacific Beverage. And over the last number of years, Pacific Beverage opened its own distribution warehouse down in Oxnard to service the lower part of the region as well as having a warehouse up in Santa Maria. As they were able to move out of the space, we repurposed it into our expansion so that we can be centralized for the food service,” said Day.
In partnership with Diani Construction, Jordan’s Foodservice began construction of the expansion in early 2022. Jordano’s customers served from this facility are bolstered by a team of committed specialists and customer service agents as well as corporate and sales staff.
“We’ve had over 108 years behind us, and we’ve built solid relationships within the region. So our goal is always to look as locally as possible,” said Day.
As for their joint venture with Diani, he added that the construction company “happens to have been on many projects that we’ve had over the years. They’ve partnered with the Jordano family in their businesses and in any construction projects so it was just a natural progression to have Diani partner with us.”
The company’s continued commitment to reducing its carbon footprint can be seen in its operation, as the warehouse expansion includes energy-saving LED lights as well as energy-efficient, variable-speed refrigeration systems.
“With the new laws that came into play, we’re very active in recycling our products, cutting back on the landfill issues, and so on. We’re looking at every which way we can reduce our carbon footprint,” said Day. “What does it mean? I can’t tell you exactly what it means dollars and cents-wise, or how much fuel we’re going to save. What I can tell you is that we know it’s more beneficial to the community and the world to use LED lights because they take less energy and they’re more reliable.”
Day also mentioned that Jordano’s has even started thinking about electric vehicles such as tractors following the new California law stating that all motor vehicles purchased after 2035 will have to be electric.
“The discussions are there within the company as to how we can be a better partner in the community,” said Day.
