VANCOUVER, B.C. / Oxnard, Calif. — “Our Roots Keep us Growing” is the theme at The Oppenheimer Group this year, as the full-service marketer celebrates its 150^th birthday. Among the roots that keep the company thriving, said John Anderson, Oppenheimer’s chairman, president and CEO, are its enduring relationships with a global family of growers.

One such grower, Casey Houweling, president of Houweling’s Hot House, Delta, B.C. and Oxnard, Calif., recently renewed his supply arrangement with Oppenheimer, assuring an integrated marketing approach for his premium mainstream and specialty hot house-grown tomatoes through 2013.

“Oppenheimer has done an outstanding job of helping us solidify our business since we became partners seven years ago,” Houweling said. “We have introduced better systems and streamlined our operations — and the quality of our product has been enhanced as a result. We evolved from a ‘machine’ to a ‘finely-tuned machine’ with much greater efficiency.”

Anderson points to Houweling as a pivotal grower in establishing Oppenheimer’s foothold in the hot house category.

“We had worked with Houweling’s since its inception through our shared affiliation with BC Hot House many years ago. When we joined forces directly in 2001 we knew there was untapped potential for greenhouse-grown tomatoes,” he said. “We were fortunate to create a partnership with a grower who shared our vision. Through hard work and a great deal of innovation, our collaboration has enabled us to help our customers grow the category. With quality production from Houweling’s Hot House, and growers who joined us subsequently, greenhouse has become a cornerstone of Oppenheimer’s business.”

Anderson notes that the partnership has influenced the scope of the tomato category, and helped it evolve. The intensely sweet strawberry tomato is the latest in a series of specialty items the Oppenheimer-Houweling marketing partnership has yielded. It follows Amorosa™, the sweet cocktail tomato-on-the-vine, which was introduced in 2005, and the rich, brown Dulcinea Rosso Bruno™ Premium Vine-Fresh tomato, launched the following year.

Looking ahead, 40 new acres will be added to Houweling’s Oxnard operation in the coming months, with full production anticipated this winter.

“We’re motivated to continue building on our extraordinary success story with Oppenheimer,” Houweling said. “Our new expansion will build our volume by 60 to 70 percent. We’ll be working together to assure our product mix addresses the needs of the market.”

In partnership with Oppenheimer, Houweling’s Hot House will continue to deliver its signature ‘Indoor Advantage’ brand promise, which focuses in large part on sustainability. The new Oxnard facility will entail fully pressurized greenhouses to optimize integrated pest management, significantly reduce energy requirements and essentially alleviate the need for pesticide use. The Oxnard location offers ready access to the Los Angeles area, one of the largest consumer markets in North America, keeping the environmental impact of delivery low.

“The temperate California climate enables reduced energy use and high yield,” Houweling said. “We expend the lowest amount of energy per kilogram of tomatoes produced in the industry, thanks to the weather conditions and through the use of efficient systems like biomass in lieu of natural gas to warm the greenhouses. Roughly 85 percent of the materials used in production, like coconut fiber, are recycled.”

Houweling’s Hot House is a member of the newly-formed North American Greenhouse Hothouse Vegetable Growers Association, which recently announced the launch of its “Certified Greenhouse” program. The initiative entails a “Certified Greenhouse” logo on packaging, signifying to retailers and consumers that the product is grown to the high safety and quality standards made possible by indoor production.

“To be ‘Certified Greenhouse,’ every aspect of the growing process must be monitored and controlled, from irrigation, to climate, to growing medium — in a fully enclosed aluminum or steel structure clad in glass or impermeable plastic,” Houweling explained. “This way, greenhouse vegetables are protected from potential contaminants, in the safest growing conditions possible. Certified greenhouses exclusively use hydroponic production methods and integrated pest management.”

With summer production ramping into full swing, Oppenheimer is currently offering Houweling’s Hot House strawberry tomatoes; red, orange and yellow tomatoes-on-the-vine; beefsteak and roma tomatoes; Amorosa and Rosso Bruno tomatoes, as well as long seedless and mini-cucumbers.

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