Business features

The just-washed and pre-packed salad mix bought from the local supermarket, or from the fresh produce market on the weekend, is quite likely to come from one of Tripod Farmer’s five picturesque lettuce farms covering 500-acres in Bacchus Marsh.

The company’s 20-30 different varieties of premium quality fancy lettuce – such as minuet, butterhead, red and green coral, red and green oakleaf, cos and baby cos, premium salad mix, baby spinach and wild rocket – are in big demand with Melbourne markets, retailers, processors and export clients.

“The demand for ready-to-eat salad mix began in the mid-1990s,” said Frank Ruffo, who runs Tripod Farmers with wife Angela, younger brother Joe and sister-in-law Carmel. “We grew with the demand, we developed with the product.”

The Ruffos remember a time when fancy lettuce wasn’t in such big demand. When Angela’s father, Frank Candeloro, moved from southern Italy to Bacchus Marsh in the 1950s he brought with him his love and knowledge of growing the purplish minuet.

“My father-in-law would take a few boxes of minuet to the market and no-one could sell them,” Frank explained. “No-one knew what it was.”

Frank Candeloro’s original property is today part of the expansive Tripod Farmers business, as is the piece of Bacchus Marsh land on Lawson Road originally bought by Frank and Joe’s father in 1979.

“I first moved to Bacchus Marsh in 1979 when I was only a young fellow,” Frank said. “I was there for three years, until I met my wife. We then moved to Melbourne where I went to work at the Footscray Market as a salesman. Then from 1985-89, my brother and I ran our own business – Valley Fresh Group. We specialised in apples.”

Frank and Angela Ruffo returned to Bacchus Marsh in 1989 when Frank Candeloro passed away.

“My whole life has been spent in the fruit and vegie business. Joe and I grew up on a vineyard in Swan Hill. My dad gave us the Bacchus Marsh property in 1981. We started with five acres and now we’ve got around 500 acres in Bacchus Marsh. We’ve been quite aggressive since we started.”

The five Bacchus Marsh properties operate all day, every day, all year. Each site, located within 5-10km from each other, all have different soil characteristics and management requirements. “It would probably be easier to manage the one site double the size than the five different sites.”

Running a fancy lettuce growing and packing business is a lot different to Frank Candeloro’s day. Even as early as the 1980s, farming was very much a manual, family-run operation. Today, the 100-or-so small family-run farms which once operated in the area have evolved into 10-or-so major farming operations.

“We’re still a very labour intensive business, but farming today is very specialised,” Frank said. “Once all you needed was a farmer with a pair of gumboots, but technology is changing the industry rapidly.”

Tripod Farmers employs a few food technologists who test and monitor the lettuce for nutrition and quality. Operation of the company’s two custom-built 35mx2m wash-lines – which can cost up to $1 million each if bought direct from a European manufacturer – requires knowledge, skill and practice to use.

“It definitely has changed over the last couple of decades,” Frank said matter-of-factly. “And it still has more to change.”

One thing that has not changed is the company’s family-run management approach. The company has four directors. Frank manages production. Wife Angela takes care of harvest and sales, as well as the export business. Brother Joe Ruffo looks after domestic sales, including supermarket sales. Joe’s wife Carmel manages company administration and “farming issues”.

Frank and Angela’s “two boys”, Joseph and Frank Jr are already part of the business which includes running another property in Boisdale close to Maffra, specialising in full head lettuces. Joe and Carmel’s two children, Joe Jr and Maree, are expected to enter the family business once they finish secondary school.

“My day starts at 5am and ends at around 7.30pm,” Frank said. “Sunday is easier – I start at 7am and finish at 4pm. I enjoy my work. I don’t take any time off at all – which may be part of the business’s success.”

Frank also attributes Tripod Farmers’ success to good family work ethic and communication, “good, rich alluvial flats”, access to irrigation, the short 40-45 minute drive from Bacchus Marsh to Melbourne, and the area’s temperate climate. “There is a balance. It doesn’t get too hot in summer, or too cold in winter.”

In response to the global trend to grow and pack produce on-site, the substantial infrastructure on the Victory Arch-based site ensures that the company is relatively self-sufficient. In addition to the two indoor wash-lines used to wash and pack the hand-picked lettuce, there are cool-room storage facilities and a fleet of six refrigerated transport trucks. Operation of the five farm-sites are tracked and monitored by specialised software.

Production is an on-going, all-year-round process. The lettuce is grown and harvested in constant 12-week cycles. Around 40% of the produce is sent to Melbourne’s market, 30% to supermarkets, 20% to interstate markets and 10% is exported. The Ruffos recognise that sales will shift and change as the industry continues to evolve.

“It is becoming a global market,” Frank enthused. “It is no longer small farm competing against small farm. At the end of the day the sky is the limit.”