News from Elk Grove Economic Development Corp

An Elk Grove Location Proves Fruitful for Agriculture, Produce Related Business

Often referred to as the "breadbasket of the world," California is the largest producer of agricultural products and the top exporting State, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Elk Grove is located right at the mouth of California's Central Valley that plays an integral part of the state's agriculture scene at nearly five hundred miles long and an average of 50 miles wide. From small restaurants and big chains to wholesale food distributors, these businesses enjoy the direct availability and affordability of California's fresh food bounty in the Elk Grove area.

An example of one such business is Trinity Fresh--a thriving $100 million wholesale fresh produce distribution company headquartered in Elk Grove. The business provides service to more than 227 stores including Garden Fresh, Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes, Outback Steakhouse, Cattlemens Steakhouse, Sizzler, and Chuck E. Cheese. Elk Grove was a natural choice for company headquarters because of affordable real estate and a central location to the Sacramento region as well as the Central Valley where most of the state's fresh produce is grown.

"In Elk Grove we have good access to product, good access to highways and we can deal with the growers directly in the field who are growing the product, then bring it to our warehouse and ship it to our target audience which is medium size restaurants and casual family dining restaurants," said Wendy Mazzoni, Director of Sales and Marketing. "Our headquarters location allows us to very quickly go up and down the Interstate 5 corridor and meet with growers, pick up their products, ship it down to Southern California or bring it up from our new Southern California distribution center all along that corridor and it makes business really easy for us. It's a good fit."

Fresh California Strawberries

Elk Grove has a superb advantage of being strategically located between Interstate 5 and Highway 99--the cornerstones for efficient transportation of goods and services out of the Sacramento region. I-5--the main interstate highway on the west coast of the United States--parallels the Pacific Ocean from Canada to Mexico, serving several of the nation's largest cities. Highway 99--a north-south state highway--stretches almost the entire length of California's Central Valley. Elk Grove is also close to Interstate 80--a major east-west route leading from the San Francisco Bay Area through Sacramento, then over the Sierra Nevada, crossing into the state of Nevada. Nearby is U.S. Route 50 that runs east-west from I-80 near Sacramento to the Nevada state line in South Lake Tahoe. In addition to these four major highways, Elk Grove is further served by an international passenger and freight airport, transcontinental rail and a cargo port-each only minutes away in the neighboring state capital of Sacramento.

"An advantage to being in Elk Grove as opposed to downtown Sacramento or a larger metropolitan area, is that Elk Grove has very easy on and off access to all the freeways and you don't get the traffic congestion you see in downtown Sacramento," added Mazzoni. "Plus we have a lot of things in one central location here, so many restaurants and places we can do business with that are very close to our office."

An Elk Grove location also means these businesses are physically close enough to growers to build personal and constructive working relationships.

"We have a good relationship with our growers--we've been working with our growers for years," noted Mazzoni. "Trinity's founder and CEO, Paul Abess, has been in this business for 25 years and because those relationships are set up, we can offer our clients a really good value on a contract. When lettuce prices went through the roof a couple of months back, we were able to hold our prices on contract for our biggest and best clients."

According to the Sacramento Area Commerce & Trade Organization (SACTO), the Sacramento region has the most affordable lease rates for all industrial facilities space in the Western United States with an average of $0.48 per square foot per month triple net rent. Orange County is 42 percent higher, Phoenix is 63 percent higher, and San Jose is 120 percent higher than the Sacramento Region. Elk Grove offers outstanding opportunities for new businesses to take advantage of choice properties at affordable rates and plenty of available land to develop new projects.

"Real estate in Elk Grove is still relatively inexpensive to rent and lease which is why we're here right now," said Mazzoni. "There are a lot of warehouse and industrial sites that can be easily purchased for a lot less than in downtown Sacramento."

For more information about locating business to Elk Grove, please contact the EGEDC at (916) 691-3895 or send an email to info@elkgroveedc.org.

[Top]