MARIANI, MARK

Fruit Packing

 

Being head of a family-owned business means more to Mark Mariani than just having a portrait of his grandfather hanging in the lobby of his dried fruit packing plant. Mariani, headquartered in San Jose, California, is an old company with a modern approach in food production.  It was founded in 1906 by Paul Mariani, and immigrant from the Island of Vis, Dalmatia, Croatia who staked our four acres in the rich Santa Clara Valley to start his first orchard.  His son, Paul Jr., introduced the company’s first dried fruits in 1947.  He was the first to offer dried fruits in a clear package.

Mark Mariani, president since 1979 was exposed to his family’s heritage- and a family approach to business- at and early age.  He grew up on the Mariani’s sweeping Santa Clara Valley prune ranch.  “i was picking prunes in diapers,” he says.  “I have always loved the business and worked in the fields and the plants before becoming president.

In the company’s earliest days, the lush Santa Clara Valley was the cornucopia that provided most of the apples, plums, apricots and other fruits for Mariani Packing Company’s production lines.  But the business branched out beyond California as modern shipping methods made it possible for the company to shop among the world’s orchards for the best prices and quality.  Other factors played roles in the change, particularly the coming of high-tech industries to the Santa Clara Valley.

“My grandfather used to say the Santa Clara Valley was good at growing two things: apricots and babies,” Mariani says.  “He knew the babies would win out.  And so he started looking overseas for new places to buy fruit.”

His early predictions were correct.  The Santa Clara Valley is now the Silicon Valley.  While Mariani kept its processing plant in San Jose, most of its California growers relocated in the San Joaquin or Sacramento valleys.  In a sign of the times, the Mariani family’s prune ranch is now the site of Apple Computers.

Grapes and plums for raisins and prunes for the company are grown in California; apples come from a variety of places, including Chile; apricots are imported from Turkey; and the Mariani family has spread it’s operations to Australia, where Mark’s brother owns a dried fruit company.  Mariani Packing also produces dried bananas, pineapple, papaya, pears and figs.  All of Mariani’s fruits however, are processed in San Jose.

The challenge has been to preserve Paul Mariani’s trademark- a hands-on contact with the growers.  The company still prides itself on working closely with growers to choose the best fruits and follows strict quality control.   In 1985, about a fifth of Mariani’s dried fruits were sold on the retail level; the rest was exported of sold to bulk buyers.

Thanks to an extensive marketing plan, the company has boosted its retail sales to 62 percent- and its total annual sales to $50 million, double over six years ago.“We changed the whole culture at the company,” says Mariani.  “We changed from a sales company to a marketing company.”

But much of Mariani’s success is not due to marketing or a change in business focus.  More people are simply discovering the convenience of dried fruit and its natural goodness.  Mariani’s dried fruits have no cholesterol, are low in sodium, rich in potassium and magnesium, and provide fiber.  It’s a combination that fits today’s healthier lifestyles.

It’s also a combination that should be around for awhile.  Mark Mariani has a first cousin working his way up in the company.  And he has twin sons at home who represent the fifth generation of a family that has its roots deep in the fruit business.