A successful distributor thinks outside the box to accelerate growth and de-risk their expansion journey.
Case Study
Carcione's partners with Silo.
“It’s hard to put a dollar figure on flexibility and strategy, but that is what I feel Silo has made possible. Now we just stay focused on the task at hand, which is to continue to explore opportunities and stay more in tune with our customers’ needs.”
Xavier Ponce
Operations Manager at Carcione's Fresh Produce Inc
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Carcione's Fresh Produce Company Inc.
In 1969 Pete Carcione started Carcione’s Fresh Produce, building upon the same principles he learned from his family–quality and freshness. Carcione’s is one of the first Bay Area’s produce companies to install banana ripening rooms offering both Dole and Del Monte products to its customers. Now serving many of the Bay Area’s finest grocery stores and local neighborhood markets, Carcione’s currently occupies approximately 50,000 sq ft at the Golden Gate Produce Terminal in South San Francisco.
Location
South San Francisco, CA 125 Terminal Court #53
Team Size
32
Their Goals
As a multigenerational business, Carcione is committed to accomplishing a seamless transfer of knowledge from their more experienced workers to newer employees that have joined the Carcione’s family. Leadership feels strongly that innovation and change must be rooted in respect for the relationships and processes that built where Carcione's is today. Years ago seasoned team members saw what it was like to move away from pen and paper and now a newer generation will expand on the insights Silo’s platform provides to cultivate a broader network and explore newer growth opportunities.
Special ingredient to share
Enchiladas | Salsa Verde
You’ll need to eyeball it like Abuelita and make sure to use a Milpero Tomatillo. The more purple, the better the flavor…
To prepare the tortillas, divide the chicken and half the cheese between the tortillas. Start with chicken and sprinkle a tablespoon of cheese on each tortilla. Wrap them up into rolls and set aside.
In a 12 inch skillet, heat oil and add half the enchilada sauce in the base of the pan. Lay the enchiladas side by side and top with the remaining enchilada sauce.
Cover and cook on a slow flame for 15 minutes. After 10 minutes, top with remaining cheese. Cover again, and cook for 2-3 minutes till the cheese melts and the enchiladas are cooked through. Serve hot. Add Garnish.
Create the salsa verde enchilada sauce:
- 2 cups Tomatillo Milpero
- 1/2 cup Cilantro
- 1 Jalapeño to taste
- 1 Garlic Clove
- 1/2 tsp Salt and Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Onion Powder
(Add water if too thick)
Create the Filling
2 cups cooked shredded Chicken
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack Cheese or Mexican Cheese
Tortilla Prep
1 teaspoon Oil
10 ounce Enchilada Sauce
5-6 Flour Tortillas
Garnish
- Crumbled Queso Fresco
- Mexican Sour Cream
Carcione's thinks outside the box–unlocks working capital to accelerate growth.
The Challenge
Like many distributors, Carcione’s had come to see cash flow fluctuation as an inevitable part of doing business in the produce industry. As a successfully run distributor in the San Francisco area, Carcione’s kept their growth investments limited to the working capital they generated through day-to-day operations, limiting their growth potential.
The Solution
Through Silo they were able to re-visualize their growth potential. By applying Silo Instant Pay to select invoices, Carcione’s bridged their cash flow gaps, and automated their bookkeeping process. Having access to more of their capital upfront, resulted in a 50% increase in sales volume, and a 24% increase in profits, over a span of 6 months. The increase in volume has allowed them to iteratively address their infrastructure, de-risk their growth journey, and prepare for future growth.
Little by little we have the flexibility to execute on innovating our business and the efficiencies are giving us our valuable time back.
The Results
Increased Volume by 50%
The Carcione's team was able to buy and sell more in the same period of time, while still hanging on to quality margins.
Increased Profits by 24%
The extra volume and strategic partnerships they have built upon has led to a 24% increase in profit.
Stronger Strategic Vendor Relationships
The time and space to strategize, paired with the working capital to execute on opportunities enabled the Carcione's team to build deeper relationships with select vendors.
Saving 5 Hours a Week Reconciling Payments
Through Silo's Collections Services, Accounts Receivable is saving 1 hour a day to focus on strategic initiatives.
Read the Full Story
How Carcione’s turned capital flexibility into a growth mindset
In 1969, Pete Carcione founded Carcione's Fresh Produce Inc on principles he learned from his family: "quality and freshness." Starting in California and Florida and later expanding to Arizona and Texas, the business forged long-lasting relationships that continue to this day.
Now, a 32 person company equipped with a wholesale delivery service, the Carcione’s team has discovered new found agility in Silo’s platform. Actionable insights, automated workflows, and modern payment and collections solutions are bridging the gap between sales and accounting, empowering each team to execute with a growth mindset.
It can sometimes take a big event to forge a new path.
“It wasn’t always this way,” says Xavi Ponce, Carcione’s Operations Manager. The company had been using tools that, despite being an industry standard, were frustratingly obsolete in practice. Like many businesses across the produce industry, it can sometimes take a big ‘event’ to forge a new path. Ponce recalled a moment when they knew it was time to reevaluate what software they were using to run their business.
We now know how we're performing across our vendors, and we're able to summarize our sales with ease.
A Y2K-style-event paved the way for a fresh start
"The software we were using could only handle up to six digits. Once it hit 999,999, we got all excited–ready to celebrate 1 million! Instead data started showing up–wrong. Inventory was showing up in different places, we got money signs, asterisks–it was like Y2K!”
We knew that the next solution we brought on needed to be modern, easy to use, and had to unite our sales and accounting team.
It was soon after that Ponce evaluated the produce technology space and found a culture match and true partnership in Silo. “We knew that the next solution we brought on needed to be modern, easy to use, and had to unite our sales and accounting team,” says Ponce.
Two and a half years later, the Carcione’s team has night and day visibility into their inventory. "We know how we're performing across our vendors, and we're able to summarize our sales with ease,” he says. “It's fun! Sometimes out of curiosity I'll pull up Silo to see what the best performing commodity was on a certain day, or week, or this month. It's always so interesting."
It was this window into their sales and activity that changed the way they think about the business: "The space and insight to think strategically is there," Ponce said. "If you see the patterns, why not get into mangoes, or mushrooms, or whatever is trending, more aggressively?”
Putting aside any preconceived notions about funding, we stepped outside of our comfort zone to discover Instant Pay bridged the cash flow gaps and acted as a booster to accelerate our growth potential.
Solving for cash flow fluctuations led to exponential growth
But not all opportunities are easy to execute on and the sticking point is usually money. Like all distributors, Carcione’s is dependent on their client terms, supplier terms, and to the rhythms of the market, for their operating funds.
We had never entertained the idea of financing... We hadn't considered cash flow fluctuation as a challenge to be solved for, just something you plan for.
"The problem with cash flow is you get these ups and downs," said Ponce. "It’s an orchestrated dance between accounts receivable and accounts payable with a twist or two. For example, if tax day's coming, or the holidays are coming, customers will hold onto their cash for an extra week or two based on their terms. It's pretty predictable.”
It’s this type of cash flow limbo that Silo’s Instant Pay is designed to solve for. "We never entertained the idea of financing. As a company we've never borrowed money or done anything like that," says Ponce. "We had never considered our cash flow fluctuation a challenge to be solved for, just something you plan for and deal with."
This mentality across the industry is not uncommon. Many companies pass on financing, seeing the cost and complexity of typical financing solutions like factoring or traditional banks as just another thing to manage.
Instant Pay isn't like factoring, often taking over a company's valuable sales relationships, or like banks, whose lending programs are simply unsuitable for the fast-moving produce industry. Silo built Instant Pay from the ground up to address the problem of month-to-month cash flow in companies like Carcione's, and when applied across even a small percentage of a company's invoices the benefits can feel life changing.
"We decided to give it a shot," Ponce said. "It was approachable, relatively seamless, and by putting aside any preconceived notions about funding, we stepped outside of our comfort zone to discover Instant Pay bridged the cash flow gaps and acted as a booster to accelerate our growth potential."
While some Silo customers are leveraging Instant Pay as a stand alone solution, companies like Carcione’s are attacking business inefficiencies from all angles.
“We use all of Silo. It gives us insight into the true value of our inventory,” says Ponce. “Sales are more seamless and the documentation needed to pay and reconcile payments is more efficient. Through activating Silo's Instant Pay we're able to keep our cash flow steadily incoming, so we don't feel the dips. Now we just stay focused on the task at hand, which is to continue to explore opportunities and stay more in tune with our customers' needs."
These are good conversations to be having, especially since we have plans to grow.
A low risk growth journey with results
In the produce industry, everyday counts. Having a solution that’s seamless and reliable is an important part of growth. With Instant Pay, Carcione’s is able to push more volume through their operations, pressure testing infrastructure, and de-risking their growth journey–all at the same time.
After 2 months of using Instant Pay, Carcione’s was able to increase their volume sold by 38%–while keeping their quality margins.
"By providing our sales team with a more consistent green light to buy, our conversations have pivoted to how to support the demand," Ponce explained. "The request for an additional truck to help with extra deliveries, the need to hire someone part-time to move the additional boxes, or the necessary reallocation of people from different departments to fulfill orders — that sort of thing. These are good conversations to be having, especially since we have plans to grow."
Morale is up. You can feel it without even looking at the numbers. You just see the movement on the floor.
It shows on the bottom line, too. After 2 months of using Instant Pay, Carcione’s was able to increase their volume sold by 38%–while keeping their quality margins. After 6 months they have averaged a 50% increase in volume resulting in a 24% increase in profits. "Morale is up. You can feel it without even looking at the numbers. You just see the movement on the floor."
Even with the increase in sales, accounting is seeing improvements as well. "Alicia used to spend a majority of her time recording checks," Ponce recalled, "But through Instant Pay we’ve been able to funnel some of our payments through Silo’s bookkeeping service. Alicia has reported saving an hour a day. She uses that time to live-troubleshoot with customers, transition more customers to digital payments, and collaborate across depts to ensure more timely payments.”
Working with Silo and leveraging Instant Pay has helped Carcione's transform itself into a more forward-thinking organization, with an eye towards growth.
"It’s hard to put a dollar figure on flexibility and strategy, but that is what I feel Silo has made possible," Ponce said. "Little by little we have the flexibility to execute on innovating our business and the efficiencies are giving us our valuable time back."
