Locally-based TRE Olive finds new outlet for products

April 15, 2020 | Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com

EAST LONGMEADOW – April 2 marked a new business opportunity for the locally-based olive oil importer, TRE Olive. That was the first day the company’s product was available for order through the online produce delivery service, Misfits Market.

Misfits Market online service delivers fresh, slightly imperfect organic fruits and vegetables to consumers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic “at a savings of up to 40 percent over grocery store prices,”  stated a realase about the new partnership.

According to its website, Misfits Market delivers its weekly or bi-weekly subscription boxes to all zip codes in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts (except Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard), Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine, Ohio, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee.

TRE Olive co-owner Joe Maruca said the new partnership seemed the right move at the right time for the 11-year old importer. “I was just kind of hearing more and more about them and I looked into the company,” Maruca told Reminder Publishing. “I saw it coming up on social media more and more - it was a company on the move and I kind of reached out to them.” Maruca said he was impressed by Misfits Market’s business philosophy of  “using fruits and vegetables not acceptable to the supermarkets, but still of great quality” to help reduce food waste in America.   

“I reached out because we had some olive oil tins that we had mistakenly mislabeled [and] we started working with each other,” he explained.

Maruca said he first contacted Misfits Market in January, and because of the new partnership, moved their annual product delivery date up for 2020.

“It helped us quite a bit because we usually bring the olive oil from our family farm over in March, but because we had this partnership  we brought it  over earlier, which was a huge benefit, “ he said.

Though the area in southern Italy where the TRE Olive family farm is located has not been as hard-hit by COVID-19 as the northern areas of the country, Maruca said his cousin, farm manager Diego Fazio, and everyone else in that region is “locked down, they can’t even jump in their car and take a drive. We certainly wouldn’t be able to bring anything over right now if we wanted to.”

Maruca said TRE Olive traditionally brings its oil over in two shipments a year, one in October and the second one in the spring. The early delivery means the company has a reserve of products that will ensure customers will be able to order their 100 percent pure olive oil either through the TREOlive website, Treoliive.com, or by adding an oil to their subscription box at Misfits Market, www.misfitsmarket.com. (Misfit Market’s website indicates new subscriptions are currently on a waitlist because of COVID-19 response to their service.)

Though Maruca did not have any sales figures for the company’s first two weekends with Misfits Market – which accepts orders Thursday through Sunday each week – he felt the partnership had potential for both companies.

“We’re certainly looking forward to a fruitful relationship.” He said.”We like to align ourselves with brands that are similar to our own and we think Misfits Market fits that mold for us.”

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