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  The Franzella Distributing Story started back in the early 1930’s when Joe Franzella Sr., along with his wife and 10 children, left their home in New Orleans and headed west to San Francisco.  Joe and his family opened a 24 hour retail store on the Old Bay Shore highway called “Franzella Bros. Fruit Market”.  This 24 hour shop not only provided enough for him to support his large family but it also created jobs for every one of his kids.
Picture-Big Phil on Left in white jacket
   Philip Franzella, Joe’s oldest son aka Big Phil, worked in the family market for the next 30 years.  In the early 1960’s he was given an opportunity to take over a wholesale produce company by the name of Berti's in the San Francisco Produce Market.  He  gained valuable insight on the wholesale produce industry while running Berti's and decided to follow in his father’s footsteps starting his own company.  In 1975 Big Phil opened Franzella Produce Inc. located in the Golden Gate Produce Terminal in South San Francisco.
Picture- Phil Franzella Jr.
   In the early 1980’s Phil Franzella (Big Phil's son) and his first cousin Joe Sperandeo stepped up to help run the company and would eventually become Co-owners.  Wanting to continuously grow their business, they started a brokerage division within the company.  In 1992 Franzella Distributing was started.  Able to target new customers outside of the market and deal in much larger quantities of product, Franzella Distributing opened all sorts of new avenues for the company.
Picture- Joe Sperandeo

   Over the past 35+ years, Phil and Joe have ushered in the next generation of family members that will help take Franzella Produce Inc. to the next level.  Now working for the family business are Phil's sons Joe and Vince, numerous cousins, nephews, close family friends, and many longtime employees that we all now considered part of the Franzella Family.