Tribute to Barney Bossard, a Respected Member of the Midwest Produce Industry.

A Tribute to Barney Fozzard, a respected member of the Midwest's produce industry.

Barney Fozzard is a respected member of the Midwest’s fruit and vegetable growing and repackaging industry with an excess of 50 years of management and financial positions in southern Illinois. Barney began his career in the produce industry in 1951 after his graduation from college with an accounting degree. He first produce industry position was the Office Manager for the Illinois Fruit Growers Exchange which is located in Carbondale, Illinois. Carbondale is in southwest Illinois near the Shawnee National Forest. The Illinois Fruit Growers Exchange specialized in locally grown fruits and vegetables and was best known for their apples and peaches. The soil and growing conditions are excellent for fruit trees in that part of Southern Illinois.

The Illinois Fruit Growers Exchange was a cooperative of 146 stockholder members. This cooperative provided its members a superior way to market and distribute their locally grown fruit and vegetables from their orchards. The Cooperative became so successful that it constructed and relocated into a brand-new facility in 1964. Barney Fozzard toured the United States for the cooperative to research the most advanced facilities at that time for warehousing and repackaging operations of the member’s produce. The new 50,000 square feet facility was then constructed on 12 acres at 7995 North Jamestown Road Cobden, Illinois 62920 which is in Union County and 11 miles from Carbondale, but closer to the local orchard industry. The produce repackaging storage facility included a state-of-the-art ammonia refrigeration mechanical system. It was necessary to very quickly remove huge amounts of temperature from the apples and peaches picked from the local orchards of the members of the Illinois Fruit Growers Exchange. The fruit and vegetables would be received at field temperature, quickly cooled to 32° through blast cooling then held at the facility in cooler warehouse space. The refrigeration system was capable of taking produce at ambient temperature of the mid-90° to 32° within 36 hours. The refrigerated warehouse area had 26 foot c Hawk eilings which was unusually high for a 1964 produce repackaging facility. The product was marketed nationally, repackaged and then shipped throughout the United States.

As agriculture in general shifted from the small family farm to larger scales of farming and produce growing operations, Barney orchestrated the sale of the Cooperative to its 4 major shareholders. Barney stayed on as the Comptroller and managed the business operations of the new company. Then in 1991, Heartland Harvest and Rose Farms purchased this cooperative. Rose Farms operated a 5,000 acre vegetable growing operation that specialized in red peppers, green peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes. Heartland Harvest and Rose Farms employed up to 350 employees in the farming operation and 175 employees in 2 shifts in the packaging and repackaging operations still located at the Cobden facility. Barney stayed on as the Controller of this company until Heartland Harvest closed its doors in 1996. Barney then stayed on as custodian of the property until it was sold to Rosemont Farms in 2005 and reestablished a packing operation for locally grown fruits and vegetables in the southern Illinois region.

Barney Fozzard’s 55 year career is perhaps one of the longest and most successful careers ever in the produce industry. Barney's thorough understanding of the Midwest produce growers and the repackaging industry is unrivaled. His honesty, integrity and efficiency and industry knowledge was appreciated and admired by throughout his distinguished career.

If you would like to contact Barney; please contact Jim Cronin, a real estate broker at Hawk Distribution Services, LLC http://www.hawkds.com/ at either 314-994-0577 or j.cronin@hawkds.com