Everyone sat around the old oak conference table at Verdelli's headquarters waiting for Dan Verdelli to call the meeting to order. The topic was melons. More specifically, fresh-cut melons that could be marketed in grocery stores for the "ready-to-eat" crowd. Verdelli's had been successfully marketing fresh-cut pineapples, but the acidity of pineapples made them highly resistant to microbial degradation. Melons were a different story.

Verdelli had entered the cut fruit business in early 1994 by peeling and coring pineapples to make chunks, spears and rings and packaging them under the Dole label. Prior to then, supermarkets had been coring Dole pineapples in-house, but they had insufficient labor to keep up with the demand. As a result, Dole contracted with regional processors, such as Verdelli, to peel and core pineapples. Verdelli delayed expansion to other types of fresh-cut fruit because of concern about product spoilage and safety. They had many opportunities with the vegetable business.