Insurer Pacific Expands in Cypress, New Business Line

Its new Pacific Excess Insurance Marketing business caters to what are considered “higher risk” policy holders, such as owners of older buildings that are more prone to fires and water damage, or food companies with products that have a higher risk of becoming contaminated with impurities such as salmonella.

The insurance services company, founded by Taiwanese immigrant Lin Lan in 1980, is mostly known for working with hotels, restaurants and shopping centers.

Like most in the insurance business, it’s struggled during the past few years.

Pacific Pioneer had revenue of about $30 million last year, down 30% from the year before, according to Lan. At its peak in 2005, the company had $60 million in revenue, she said.

But Pacific hasn’t had to lay off any of its 112 employees.

Lan started her business from a 300-square-foot office in Cerritos, going door-to-door to drum up business.

Her first customers were mainly other Taiwanese and Chinese immigrants, a number of them hotel owners. When President Nixon improved relations with a visit to China in 1972, he opened up a wave of immigration that Lan capitalized on.

Since then, the business has catered to all types of customers. About a third of them are Asian.

Lan credits the growth of her businesses to her employees, as well as her background in sales.

“I’m from the street,” she said. “Brokers I deal with know I know what it’s like to be in their shoes. I can relate to them.”

The company also has offices in San Diego, Northern California, Scottsdale, Las Vegas and Seattle.

Prime Produce International LLC in Orange is off to another year of higher avocado sales.

The family run business founded by Avi Crane in 2004 says the market for its Haas avocados, the most common variety of the fruit, has been increasing at about 15% a year in the U.S.

The company expects to grow 20% this year. Last year it did $28 million in sales, shipping out 25 million pounds. The previous year’s sales were $17 million.

A big part of its growth comes from product promotion by Hass Avocado Board, an Irvine-based organization that sponsors the fruit through TV and radio commercials.

Prime Produce and others in the industry pooled together $40 million for the ads last year, which talked up health benefits and gave cooking advice for avocados. They were intended to follow in the success of the “Got Milk” campaign.

The Midwest and South, as well as East Coast cities such as Boston, are some of the fastest growing markets, according to Yair Crane, business development manager for Prime Produce and son of the founder.

Prime Produce has 180 customers in the U.S. and Canada, many of which the company claims are well-known retailers it declined to name.

It also sells to food service companies that supply restaurants with a variety of products.

The majority of Prime Produce’s avocados come from Mexico, but it also taps into the Dominican Republic and New Zealand.

The company expects other foreign markets such as Peru to open soon if trade approval from the government is granted.

Prime Produce has 80,000 square feet in the last of the county’s packinghouses. It was built in 1918.

Equity Through Energy

Orange-based Equity Thru Energy is looking to double sales this year of its controllers used by pool and restaurant operators to manage their hot water more efficiently.

With Irvine Company and restaurateur Black Angus Steakhouse, part of Los Altos-based American Restaurant Group Inc., as two of its largest local customers, it did close to $10 million in sales last year.

In all, it has about 10,000 customers in 22 states.

The biggest reason for the projected growth comes from the California Public Utilities Commission, a state run organization looking for ways to reduce energy usage.

The commission gave approval for the company to do $10 million worth of business through Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas and Electric Co., both part of Sempra Energy.

“That certainly primed the pump for us,” said Tom Debin, founder and chief executive.

Equity Thru’s controllers cost about $1,200 each and are four by eight inches. They attach to boilers and air conditioning units to measure temperatures.

Operators use the data to identify time periods where they may be wasting energy. The controllers are then used to automatically adjust the temperatures.

In the case of pools, where the controllers are used by businesses such as Irvine Co., weather data also is factored in.

Debin, who started his business in 1999, says larger companies such as Morristown, N.J.-based Honeywell International Inc. and Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls Inc. dominate the industry with most of the big-name clients.

“We invented this market for smaller users,” he said.