In 1892, Giuseppe established Loffredo Fruit and Tobacco Company at 4th & Court Ave downtown Des Moines

• Original gardens located near old Holiday Inn on Fleur (near Gray’s Lake)
• Purpose was to service Hotels, Restaurants and Soldiers
• Used horses to cultivate land and also to deliver throughout Des Moines
• Grew many different green vegetable items and tomatoes

In 1918, moved operations to 9th & Porter Ave in Des Moines

• Needed larger warehouse and space for growing crops
• Now had 300 acres
• This was around the time Tony (son) took over the business
• Tony known to introduce broccoli to Des Moines
• Slowly phased out growing operation as interstates were developed and transportation from California took shape. This allowed the company to offer new items not familiar with the area
• Tony retired in 1960 and left the business to his son Gene L. Loffredo
• 1965 began purchasing 100% of product sold

1970 – We began our cutting/processing department

• Two employees started peeling potatoes and shredding fresh lettuce in the back of our warehouse

In 1984, moved operations to airport location on McKinley & SW 34th

• Business started transitioning to 4th generation ownership
• Gene, John, Mike, Jim, Larry
• The warehouse grew to 30,000 SF

• Moved to our current location on 63rd Street in 1997 - 85,000 SF facility
• Began building regional warehousing and distribution system
  • Quad Cities - 1997
  • Omaha - 1999
  • Kansas City - 2000
  • Madison - 2005
• 1996 Gene Loffredo Sr. – Transitions into 4th generation management
• 1999 – Became Pro*Act Member - Pro*Act is a National Network of local, independent distributors specializing in fresh produce and specialty food products.

In 2010, fifth generation began working in the business full time.

• The company is currently going through a transition period to move the business from the fourth to the fifth generation
• Established Produce Innovations in 2014 to embrace growth in fresh-cut segment

• Square miles serviced (over 175,000 square miles)
• Active accounts (over 2,500 active accounts)
• Cases shipped annually (over 6 million annually)
• Created Hwy 28 Farms label
• Launched Season Well label – 2017
• Omaha Purveyor of the Year