Pompano Beach, Florida – Southern Specialties, Inc. and HLB Tropical Food USA, Inc. have reached an agreement to create a new joint venture, HLB Specialties LLC.
The new company will focus on sourcing, growing, packing, shipping and distributing several varieties of papayas grown in Brazil, Ecuador, Belize, Mexico and other countries in Central and South America.
HLB Specialties will be headquartered in Pompano Beach, Florida and will distribute from the Florida headquarters as well as facilities in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and McAllen.
“HLB Tropical Foods’ main goal has been to be the most reliable, competitive and innovative distributor of papayas in the world. We are now ready for the next step in our expansion. Robert Colescott, president and CEO of Southern Specialties, and I realized that the combined strengths of both companies will create exponential value for our customers,” said Homero Levy de Barros, president and CEO of HLB Tropical Food. “The joint venture will automatically offer our clients a logistical advantage, since we’ll be able to consolidate more items then previously possible,” added Mr. Levy de Barros.
“The time is right to promote the benefits of papayas. Here is a fruit that has it all: flavor, color and tremendous nutritional value. We expect to see significant growth in the category and the company. I have great respect for the job Homero and his team have done with this product. They have set the bar for marketing papaya in this country and Europe,” said Mr. Colescott.
HLB Specialties will be exhibiting in Orlando at the PMA Fresh Summit in booth 4945.
Southern Specialties is a grower, importer, processor and shipper of a variety of specialty products grown in Central America, South America, Mexico, Canada and the U.S. The company distributes from its Pompano Beach, Florida headquarters, and facilities in McAllen, Texas and Los Angeles, California.
HLB Tropical Food USA, Inc. is the leading marketer of the Golden papaya variety from Brazil and also specializes in the Formosa variety from Central America and Mexico. The company distributes from Pompano Beach, FL, Los Angeles, CA, San Francisco, CA, and Seattle, WA, and McAllen, TX.]
Source: Southern Specialties Inc.