1982

South Mill is Born – The Pia family, through its South Mill Mushroom Sales corporation, purchased their Kennett Square, Pennsylvania mushroom growing operation from the Clorox Corporation, which operated the facility under the “Grocery Store Products” label, selling predominantly to the cannery markets. South Mill converted the production of this facility to the fresh market, which was just beginning to develop in the United States

1983

Direct Harvesting - Due to the increasing demand for quality into the developing fresh market, South Mill converted standard harvesting practices from mushrooms dumped from the harvesting container to the final sales container to a practice of harvesting directly into the final sales container, reducing bruising, incidence of dirt and, most importantly, improving quality and extending shelf-life.

1984

Vacuum Cooling – In the large holding coolers typically used by produce growers-shippers, cooling of mushrooms in thousand- pound pallets conventionally took 24 hours. Vacuum cooling, a technology then available, was implemented by South Mill via the purchase of a 12 skid (12,000 lb capacity) vacuum cooler, which provided South Mill the ability to cool 15,000 pounds of mushrooms from 70 degrees to 33 degrees, in just 20 minutes.

1990

South Mill Distribution is Born – South Mill Distribution (SMD) is the company’s concept project of “bringing the farm to market” by establishing regional distribution centers throughout the United States. Dallas, Texas Opens! South Mill’s first of what are now six distribution centers located in major metropolitan cities, opens. Strategically located, these distribution centers receive bulk mushrooms shipped from Kennett Square, Pa in the original harvesting containers and repackage to meet local demand. Slicing at the destination city, rather than at the Pennsylvania facility, significantly increases shelf life on sliced product since the degradation process of mushrooms, like any fruit or vegetable, accelerates as soon as the slicing occurs.

1991

South Mill Opens Charlotte! – A transfer station was established in Statesville, North Carolina to accommodate freight transfers, of northbound freight, or south bound mushrooms and produce items that need to be in more than one place at the same time. Several trucks can be dispatched out of the Charlotte depot to meet these demands.

1992

South Mill Distribution Expands, With Facility #3 – Houston, Texas Opens! Due to the acceptance of the concept in Dallas, Houston is opened to accommodate the southern Texas markets, including shipments into western Louisiana.

1994

South Mill Distribution Adds Facility #4 – New Orleans, Louisiana Opens! Our “farm-to-market” concept is expanded into the gulf-coast states, expanding upon transportation services used to service the Dallas and Houston market. The exceptional humidity issues of this region accentuate the benefits of our “farm-to-market – package on demand” concept, allowing South Mill to service these distance markets from over 1,000 miles away in competition with local mushroom providers.

1996

South Mill Distribution Takes On The Southeast - Atlanta, Georgia Opens! Filling a geographic void in the southeastern region, the upscale metropolitan market of Atlanta was chosen to establish our fifth distribution center.

1999

New Composting Technology! - South Mill’s mushroom production affiliate, Kaolin Mushroom Farms begins testing a new technology to produce mushroom growing substrate (mushroom compost) indoors in fermentation “tunnels”. Environmental and social pressures combined with added operational efficiency warrant South Mill/Kaolin’s risk of appropriating human and financial capital toward this concept; a methodology which had never before been implemented in North America, but which if proven to be successful, would likely be adopted by the mushroom industry as common protocol in future years.

2001

Twelve Fermentation tunnels come on line! – The country’s first indoor facility for the fermentation of mushroom growing substrate begins! Full commercialization of this roll-out accommodates South Mill’s/Kaolin’s entire productive capacity of over 50,000,000 lbs of fresh mushrooms via production of 5,000,000 (five million) pounds of fermented mushroom compost weekly

2002

Satellite Tracking Technology – South Mill is one of the first mushroom farms in the Country to install satellite tracking in its over-the-road transportation fleet. This allows in-transit data to be communicated live so that important delivery data including estimated times of arrival (ETA) can be communicated to the customer.

2004

Six Pasteurization Tunnels Roll-Out! – A unique method of pasteurization /sterilization of mushroom growing substrate rolls-out. While the process of indoor pasteurization has been utilized to a small degree in the US, the South Mill/Kaolin’s facility is the first to incorporate “walking floor” technology in the materials handling segment of the process, automating, for cost and hygienic purposes, the entire pasteurization (aka Phase 2) process.

2005

South Mill Secures National Brand Marketing Rights – South Mill (one of only two suppliers of white mushrooms nationwide) secures rights, as a sub licensee, to market the Dole Brand on a national basis for all fresh mushroom products – The Dole label, is one of the most well known and well respected produce labels in the world Dolemushrooms.com

2009

Food Safety, Our Proudest Achievement - South Mill becomes the first, and as of early 2009 the only mushroom farm in the United States to pass the new, higher standards of food safety as defined by the recently published USDA audit. No higher commitment to food safety can be exemplified than this voluntary effort South Mill made to set the tone for the mushroom industry.

2009

Seven Additional Pasteurization Tunnels Come On-Line! - We now have enough capacity to sell phase 2, pasteurized compost, for the first time ever, to other mushroom farms

2009

South Mill Assumes the Business of Manfredini Enterprises!!! - On 8-1-2009, South Mill assumed the business of Manfredini Enterprises, a local mushroom distributor domiciled in Landenberg PA, with operations in North Lima Ohio and Louisville Kentucky.

Manfredini and South Mill had enjoyed a 25 year independent relationship prior to this integration. For South Mill, benefits include a supply base of quality mushrooms from contracted growers developed by Manfredini over the years as well as an excellent customer base in 5 states.

Food Safety enhancements as well as availability to additional product lines, both mushrooms and non-mushrooms, cold storage and frozen services as well as enhanced transportation services are benefits that the Manfredini customer base can take advantage of under the South Mill relationship