Jordano’s Foodservice has grown to become the premier distributor of food, beverages, and culinary equipment in Central and Southern California. Numerous Santa Barbara restaurants depend on Jordano’s and its sister business, Pacific Beverage. To keep up with the growth, Jordano’s has opened a huge new warehouse in Goleta.

A ribbon cutting ceremony was held this month, hosted by CEO Peter Jordano and his son, company President Jeff Jordano. “Why are we doing this?,” asked Jeff Jordano, about the new changes they have made. “We want to grow for the future, hopefully for the next 10 or 15 years. We want to improve our efficiency. These floors are built to have freezer capacity at below zero degrees.” The warehouse now has nearly 140,000 square feet of overall space with 27,000 square feet of cooler space.

In 1915 the first Jordano Brother’s Market opened in Santa Barbara. Four sons of an Italian rancher joined forces to open a grocery store on State Street and their hard work grew that single store into Santa Barbara’s first chain of modern supermarkets. By the 1960’s, there were 18 Jordano’s Supermarkets up and down the Central California Coast.

But the growing dominance of national supermarket chains forced the company to adapt to changing times, so in 1975, with CEO Peter Jordano at the helm, Jordano’s sold its supermarkets to focus on a wholesale food and beverage operation. Having been raised here I remember that many of today’s local grocery markets used to be a Jordano’s.

Pete Jordano is one of my all-time heroes and a great friend. His company is known for its integrity and as an amazing place to work, often retaining individual employees for decades. Jordano’s turns 108 years old next month. Visit jordanos.com.

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