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Putting the sun to work

The 143,000-square-foot West Sacramento warehouse generates enough power to allow the company to reduce its carbon footprint while maintaining its reputation for great food.
Tony's Fine Foods

When Tony’s Fine Foods in West Sacramento put the sun to work for the company, it thought big. Its solar operation is the largest privately owned solar electrical generation project in Northern California, and it’s paying off big-time. “Our solar operation went online in June of 2007,” says Steve Dietz, executive vice president of sales and marketing. “The long-term perspective of the investment in solar will give us an operating advantage in the future. That’s good for our company and our customers. Plus, doing things that benefit the environment feels good.”
    The privately owned company markets and distributes more than 10,000 world-class perishable foods to grocery store chains, delis and bakeries, restaurants and pizza parlors from southern Oregon to San Diego, plus western Nevada, Hawaii and Alaska. Dietz says the company provides deli and bakery items, fresh meat and poultry, floral, cheese, fluid dairy, and specialty foods imported from Italy, France and other European countries. “We also do JIT or Just In Time products—highly perishable items such as packaged salads that need to get from point of manufacture to customers in a short amount of time.” The company has more than 100 accounts in the Solano region, including Nugget Market, Calistoga’s Cal Mart, Cracchiolo’s in Woodland, the Davis Food Co-op, Town & Country Market in Winters, and Vallerga’s Market and Browns Valley Market in Napa. It also supplies Cattlemen’s Steakhouse in Dixon plus Caffé Italia and Steve’s Pizza in Davis.
    Tony Ingoglia Sr., an Italian immigrant who arrived at Ellis Island with his parents in 1912, founded Tony’s Fine Foods in 1934. Today, two of Ingoglia’s grandsons, Scott Berger and Karl Berger, run the business. Dietz says the company operates out of five warehouses in the Sacramento Valley. “Our Reed Avenue warehouse on 16 acres in West Sacramento is the largest at 143,000 square feet. Our solar operation has 6,000 solar panels covering about 120,000 square feet on our office and warehouse roofs as well as on the ground.” The 1.2 megawatt system generates 1.5 million kilowatt hours annually and has a 30-year lifetime. Annual energy savings are equivalent to planting 3,000 acres of trees, or enough energy to power more than 230 homes for a year. “Our solar operation supplies 40 percent of our electricity. It takes a lot of power to run this place.”
    The solar project has about a seven-year payback, which when complete, will give Tony’s an operating advantage over competitors. “That’s good for our company and our customers,” Dietz says. “The food business is fun. We have food on one side, and logistics and efficiency opportunities on the other.” With a management team that’s mostly in its 30s and 40s, the company’s environmentalism goes beyond solar. “We recycle and have experimented with bio-diesel fuel in several of our refrigerator units on trailers. We’re focusing on local producers and small suppliers. We view it as supporting the local economy. Plus, food tastes better when it’s local and fresh.”
    Dietz encourages all businesses to invest in environmental improvements and processes. “If it makes sense for your business, just do it. It’s kind of like going camping. Our job is to leave the campsite cleaner than when we got here. If more businesses took this approach, we’d live in a better world.”

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