When Bill Moncovich says he found good ground, he means it literally.
We sat down together on a bright Thursday afternoon, settling into the latter half of the week as the California air carried a crisp cold from tree to tree. He in his Watsonville office space and me in my Sacramento apartment, we set aside a half hour to recall his 50 years in the berry industry and California Giant Berry Farms’ growth trajectory over that time.
“We went from the hillside ground to the good, flat ground, increasing volume with the growers who were doing well and pulling back from the ones that weren’t,” Bill, Owner of California Giant, told me when he described one of the many strategic decisions he and his partners made early on in the company’s history.
Bill has been in business since 1970, starting out by founding Monc’s Consolidated Produce. The brokerage company consolidated loads for produce suppliers such as J.M. Smucker Company out of Oxnard, California. Back then, Bill even tried his hand at growing strawberries in ’73.
“We grew for a few years before experiencing some intense flooding that took us out of the business. It was at that point that I figured out we were better salespeople than we were growers,” he joked. “We came back to Watsonville and started working with three 3-acre growers. In those days, a big shipper harvested about 400,000 trays per season. Now, we do that in two days!”
Ten years after he planted that first crop, in 1983, Bill founded California Giant Berry Farms with three trusted partners who have since left the business for different reasons.
“The leadership structure was such that I ran the business, my partner Pat Riordan ran the sales, Frank Saveria took care of the coolers, and Red Bryant did all the banking,” Bill relayed. “We were a good team. We wouldn’t ever leave the boardroom without coming to a final answer on something.”
Their vision was to keep growing the company and become a major shipper—which is exactly what was done over the past 40 years. The industry evolved tenfold since those early days, and Bill was one of the pioneers leading the change.
Not only did he witness the incredible growth in the sheer volume of strawberries being grown, but in the length of time when strawberries were available to consumers.
“In the beginning, you started in March or April and the season was over on July 1. So, you had the rest of the year to plan out what you were doing for next season,” Bill explained. “Eventually, the industry caught on that you could provide berries year-round. We started producing them longer, developing new varieties that gave more volume, and expanding into new regions like Florida and Mexico. Foodservice and retail buyers quickly took notice and demand boomed.”
Although strawberries had always been California Giant’s flagship product, Bill told me he dabbled in raspberries and blackberries throughout the years. It wasn’t until the early 2000s, though, that the company officially made its foray into blueberries through a Chilean import deal.
"...if I don’t want to eat it, I wouldn’t want anybody else to eat it. That helped CHANGE THE INDUSTRY...Berries are sexy and working in the category has always been FUN."
Bill Moncovich, Owner, California Giant Berry Farms
“Starting up our blueberry program helped grow the business quite a bit,” Bill added. “Buyers grew to expect a year-round supply, so we made sure to partner with growers in different regions to provide that consistency.”
From growers to buyers and everyone along the way, California Giant Berry Farms was the product of great decision-making and strong partnerships—all with a core focus on one thing: quality. Bill jokingly recalled, “I’ve never known a quality company to go broke.”
“From the beginning, our focus was quality. We have high product grading standards, good ground—literally—excellent growers, and good people. Our growers and staff are who helped me build this company along the way. Hell, I didn’t do this alone,” he assured me.
From there, California Giant continued expanding at retail, picking up retailers one by one until its products landed on shelves in every major chain across the country.
“I was walking down the hall one day and I said, ‘You know what? We’ve got them all.’ We had Kroger, Costco, Safeway, Albertsons, Walmart, the list goes on. I looked at Pat Riordan, who did all the sales, and said, ‘We’ve finally done it,’” Bill remembered fondly.
Of course, California Giant’s berry shipments looked much different back then—imagine the little green baskets you see at farmers markets packed 12 to a box on a 39” by 39” pallet. As of now, Bill told me, California Giant sells over 25 different SKUs. Part of that explosive development is due to the increase in demand for exceptional flavor.
“Consumers started finding out that strawberries taste good all year long, and the category aligns with health and wellness trends too,” Bill outlined. “We phased out flavorless, high-volume varieties and replaced them with high-flavor, consistently quality berries. I decided we’re only going to work with berries that taste good, because if I don’t want to eat it, I wouldn’t want anybody else to eat it. That helped change the industry.”
Bill lives and breathes this belief that what is offered to the consumer should be of the highest quality. He told me that, at the most basic level, he is passionate about berries because it is the only produce item he would want to gift to a loved one or friend.
“Berries are sexy and working in the category has always been fun. For over 50 years now, I have been thinking about the industry seven days a week, 12 hours a day. The only thing I miss now is not being able to run down the furrows every day,” Bill stated. “There’s always something going on, and something’s different every day. You may have rain, you may have labor challenges—there are many different parts of it. To make it all flow smoothly is pretty rewarding.”
"The products keep getting better, they’re shipping better, and consumers continue to seek out healthy and sustainable options, which berries absolutely are."
And, as Bill pointed out, the berry category only continues to grow.
“I think it’s a healthy industry. The fresh berry category has grown leaps and bounds. I don’t see it going backward by any means. The products keep getting better, they’re shipping better, and consumers continue to seek out healthy and sustainable options, which berries absolutely are,” Bill added.
Retailers, too, can keep that growth going strong, Bill shared with me. As we already know, merchandising is your golden ticket to increased produce sales, and the berry category is no exception.
“The way retailers market the berries in the stores is very important. Putting them up front as the first thing you see is one way to guarantee consumers make their way to the berry patch,” Bill noted. “Berries are one of the best movers in the produce department with good margins, and good merchandising makes all the difference.”
It seems as though Bill has come full circle in his journey to grow one of the most prominent berry suppliers in the industry on a national scale. From plantlet to store, he has made strategic decisions that landed California Giant-branded berries on shelves across the country since the ’80s.
California Giant Berry Farms has successfully established itself as a fixture of the berry industry, and it all started with Bill Moncovich finding some good ground to stand on. 
