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MAY 2009 • VOL. 25 • NO. 5 • $9.90

inside...PUNDIT LOOKS AT NATIONALISM • WAL-MART PRICING • CANADIAN RETAILING • MARKETING TO LATINOS • STATE AG DEPARTMENTS • SOUTHERN VEGETABLESSOUTH AFRICAN CITRUS • RIPENING PROGRAMS • HERBS • TRANSITIONAL PRODUCE • CHERRIES • MANGOS • STONE FRUIT • DRIED FRUIT & NUTS • FLORAL CUSTOMERS

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ALSO INSIDE

1st ANNUAL

PRODUCE BUSINESSRetail Sustainability Award:Publix Super Markets

1st ANNUAL

PRODUCE BUSINESSRetail Sustainability Award:Publix Super Markets

Reader Service # 53

Change Service requested: POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PRODUCE BUSINESS, P.O. Box 810425, Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425.PRODUCE BUSINESS (ISSN 0886-5663) is published monthly for $58.40 per year by Phoenix Media Network, Inc., P.O. Box 810425, Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425.

MAY 2009 • VOL. 25 • NO. 5

M A Y 2 0 0 9 • P R O D U C E B U S I N E S S 3

COVER STORY1ST ANNUAL PRODUCE BUSINESSRETAIL SUSTAINABILITY AWARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Publix Super Markets: Subtle Sustainability with Substance

COMMENTARYTHE FRUITS OF THOUGHTPublix Does It Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

RETAIL PERSPECTIVECompetitive Or Contentious . . . . . . . . . . 126

EUROPEAN MARKETBeware Of BriberyBeyond Our Borders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

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FEATURESCANADIAN RETAILERS’ WINNING FORMULAS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Retailers across Canada keep consistent sales volume by catering to consumer needs by offering local, organic and value-added products.

DEBUNKING MYTHS OF THE LATINO MARKET (PART II OF II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61As the U.S. Latino community multiplies, retailers should consider ways to specifically cater to this important and influential demographic.

STATE AG DEPARTMENTS CLEAR PATH FOR LOCALLY GROWN PRODUCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66State agriculture departments highlight good agricultural practices, quality assurance methods and technological advancements to attract consumers to locally grown products.

SOUTHERN VEGETABLES OFFER CORNUCOPIA OF PROFIT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Retailers in the South, East and Midwest are capitalizing on the plentiful supply of Southern vegetables during the late spring and summer months.

ESTABLISHED SUCCESS WITH SOUTH AFRICAN CITRUS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78The flexibility, variety and quality of South African citrus allow retailers to build profits with this now established category.

INCREASE FRUIT SALES WITH RIPENING PROGRAMS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Economic worries haven’t dropped demand for pre-conditioned fruit, so don’t drop the ball on taking advantage of ripening programs in retail.

MAXIMIZING HERB SALES AND PROFITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Consumers continue to rely on fresh herbs to liven up their meals, especially when they are cross-merchandised in unique packaging.

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MAY 2009 • VOL. 25 • NO. 5

IN EVERY ISSUETHE QUIZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

WASHINGTON GRAPEVINE . . . . . . . 10

PRODUCE WATCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES . . . . . . . . 14

COMMENTS AND ANALYSIS . . . . . . 15

FLORAL WATCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

INFORMATION SHOWCASE . . . . . 129

BLAST FROM THE PAST . . . . . . . . . 130

SPECIAL FEATURESFROM THE PAGES OF THE PERISHABLE PUNDITProtectionist Stance Could Do Harm To Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

SPECIAL REPORTWAL-MART PRICING REPORTROUND XIXBattle Of The Titans In Phoenix, Arizona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

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Change Service requested: POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PRODUCE BUSINESS, P.O. Box 810425, Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425.PRODUCE BUSINESS (ISSN 0886-5663) is published monthly for $58.40 per year by Phoenix Media Network, Inc., P.O. Box 810425, Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425.

DEPARTMENTSORGANIC PRODUCE MARKETING: Take Advantage of Transitional Produce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96As the demand for organic produce grows, more retail space is becoming available for transitional produce.

MERCHANDISING REVIEWS: Cheering For Cherries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100Making the most of the short, much-anticipated cherry season with highly visible, properly maintained, creative displays is a surefire way to amp up sales.

The Challenges And Opportunities Of Mango Merchandising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109Consumer education, along with big, bright displays are the key to improving mango sales.

Ten Top Ways To Sell Stone Fruit Year-Round . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116High-quality, fresh stone fruit with proper signage and big, bright display continues to move fast, especially when it’s locally grown.

DRIED FRUIT AND NUTS:Dried Fruit & Nuts To-Go: Tips For Healthy Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Dried fruit and nuts keep up with today’s busy lifestyle and health-consciousness consumers.

FLORAL AND FOLIAGE MARKETING: Knowing Your Floral Consumers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124Getting to know your consumer base, whether by a simple conversation or a more involved and detailed research method, can help retailers fulfill consumers’ needs and maintain sales volume.

SPECIAL SECTION

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P R O D U C E B U S I N E S S • M A Y 2 0 0 94

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Reader Service # 49

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.pbhfoundation.org

Photocopies of this form are acceptable. Please send answers to: MAY QUIZ PRODUCE BUSINESS • P.O. Box 810425 • Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425

WIN A PORTABLE HAMMOCKPerfect for someone on-the-go, this hammock goes undercover as a backpack.The one-piece, accordion-style steel frame unfolds to support the soft, nylonsurface, providing relaxation on command. It comes with an inflatable pillow.

This issue was: ❏ Personally addressed to me ❏ Addressed to someone else

Name __________________________________ Position ____________________________

Company ____________________________________________________________________

Address ______________________________________________________________________

City__________________________________________________________________________

State ____________________________________ Zip _________________________________

Phone __________________________________ Fax _________________________________

THIS MONTH’S WINNER:Robert MercurioPresidentJames Desiderio, Inc.Buffalo, NY

PRODUCEQUIZ

SPONSORED BY

How To WinTo win the PRODUCE BUSINESS Quiz, the firstthing you have to do is enter. The rules aresimple: Read through the articles andadvertisements in this issue to find theanswers. Fill in the blanks correspondingto the questions below, and either cut alongthe dotted line or photocopy the page, andsend your answers along with a businesscard or company letterhead to the addresslisted on the coupon. The winner will bechosen by drawing from the responsesreceived before the publication of our July issue of PRODUCE BUSINESS. The winnermust agree to submit a color photo to bepublished in that issue.


MM AA YY 22 00 00 99 •• VV OO LL .. 22 55 •• NN OO .. 55

President & Editor-in-Chief • JAMES E. [email protected]

Publisher/Editorial Director • KEN [email protected]

Special Projects Editor • MIRA [email protected]

Assistant Editor • AMY [email protected]

Assistant Editor • JENNIFER LESLIE [email protected]

Circulation Manager • KELLY [email protected]

Executive Assistant • FRAN [email protected]

European Bureau Chief • ROBERT [email protected]

Production Director • DIANA [email protected]

Production Leader • JACKIE TUCKER

Production DepartmentFREDDY PULIDOJOANNA ARMSTRONG

Trade Show Coordinator • JACKIE [email protected]

Contributing EditorsMEREDITH AUERBACH, CAROL BAREUTHER, MIKE DUFF,JODEAN ROBBINS, BARBARA ROBISON, JON VANZILE,TRISHA WOOLDRIDGE

AdvertisingERIC NIEMAN, ASSOCIATE [email protected] [email protected]

SANDY [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Department MarketingE. SHAUNN [email protected] Solutions and Integrated SalesJIM [email protected] insertion orders, payments, press releases,photos, letters to the editor, etc., to:PRODUCE BUSINESSP.O. Box 810425Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425Phone: 561-994-1118 Fax: 561-994-1610E-mail: [email protected]

PRODUCE BUSINESS is published byPhoenix Media Network, Inc.James E. Prevor, Chairman of the Board P.O. Box 810425Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425Phone: 561-994-1118 Fax: 561-994-1610Entire contents © Copyright 2009Phoenix Media Network, Inc.All rights reserved.Printed in the U.S.A.Publication Agreement No. 40047928

Robert Mercurio depends on PRODUCEBUSINESS for its up-to-date information on thelatest shippers, product lines and packagingtechniques. “I’ve been reading it forever,probably more than ten years,” says Mercu-rio. “The pictures are outstanding and thearticles are always very informative. Whenyou’ve been in the business as long as I have— 34 years — produce becomes a real pas-sion, and I love seeing all the displays of fruitand vegetables.”

As president of James Desiderio Inc., awholesale distributor of fruit and vegetables,based in Buffalo, NY, it’s imperative Robertstays at the forefront of the industry. Hisfamily business — his son, son-in-law andthree of his nephews work with him —boasts more than 120,000 square-feet ofrefrigerated space.

As the winner of the PRODUCE BUSINESSQuiz, Robert wins a pair of business-classnoise-canceling headphones, which willcome in handy when he travels for vacationthree or four times a year. “I saw them andknew I needed a good set.”

QUESTIONS FOR THE MAY ISSUE1) How many years has Mann’s Sunny Shores been in business? __________________________

2) At which booth will you find Blue Book Services during the CPMA show? ________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

3) What was Nonpareil’s first year of business? __________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

4) In what magazine did Florida Tomatoes share a family photo? __________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

5) What is the name of Thermal Technologies’ banana mascot?____________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

6) Who is America’s Cherry Authority, according to Stemilt? ______________________________



















Reader Service # 56

http://www.taproduce.com


Publix Does It Right

To paraphrase Winston Churchill in a different context,sustainability, for much of the industry, “is a riddlewrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Indeed, it isfair to say that many have given up trying to understandit, resigned to simply following the dictates of big buyers

or waiting for governmental regulations, such as carbon cap-and-trade or taxes on carbon emissions. This is a shame because follow-ing dictates without question is inherently impoverishing to themind and spirit when, done well, sustainability is enriching to busi-ness and to life.

Publix Super Markets, perhaps because it’s employee-owned andhas such long-standing family management, has realized this. Forthis reason, as much as any other, we are pleased to honor Publixwith the 1st-ever PRODUCE BUSINESS Award for Retail Sustainability.

Regular readers know that both here at PRO-DUCE BUSINESS and online at our sister publica-tion, PerishablePundit.com, we have devotedmuch thought to issues of sustainability. Whathas become evident is that all too many effortsto achieve sustainable development failbecause they are uninspiring to those who actu-ally do the day-to-day work. A top-down deci-sion is made, a certification is declared to bethe goal and, like good soldiers, employees areexpected to fall in line and work toward thegoal of making everything “less bad” as opposedto making things good.

Not at Publix. It has found a path thatencourages individual associates to seek sus-tainability because it is so compelling to do so.This is crucial because it is associates, doing the daily work, whoare really aware of all the problems and opportunities. The deci-sions of big companies to build “the country’s largest rooftop solarpanel array” or other such high-profile items, may get a lot of pub-licity, but often those ventures are done for the sake of publicity.The actual return may make such capital-intense efforts a net lossto the world as resources that could have been employed more pro-ductively were spent to generate good PR.

In contrast, Publix has built a culture that empowered an associ-ate in the floral department to imagine and develop a recycling pro-gram for floral buckets. It may never make the front page of thenewspapers, but it may help make the world a better place.

It certainly makes all Publix associates recognize their ownimportance. After all, isn’t it fantastically inspiring to be able to say,“I’m a Publix associate and I can change the world.”? Done right,this is what sustainability does for an organization, and Publix hasgotten it right.

Of course, in getting it right for Publix, it has unleashed a torrentof creativity and commitment that will enrich the industry and theworld as a whole.

Many who pursue sustainability have sought to have an industrystandard. It is an understandable pursuit considering the difficultiesthat multiple audits and standards have imposed on growers in thefood safety sphere. Yet while uniform metrics make measurementseasier and unified audits keep expenses down, in the end sustain-ability is about choices to reinforce values, and no company cansurrender autonomy in this area to an industry consortium.

Sustainability is traditionally thought of as being composed ofthree responsibilities — environmental, social and economic — andthe inclination for those new in the pursuit of sustainability is tofind a balance between these responsibilities. Such a vision, though,is a chimera. There is no balance in math or logic between themand therefore, sustainability is, at its core, a matter of mindfulnessin pursuit of values.

In fact, when buyers approach vendors onthe subject of sustainability, they often don’t doit with the proper sensitivity. It should nevercome across as a dictate; it should come acrossas a dating query — “These are our values.This is what we believe. Are we compatible?”

In the case of Publix, it has worked withvendors productively because it has not somuch dictated procedures as clarified values. Itis no small thing in sustainability to say that anorganization will put food safety, for example,before environmentalism or that it will putproduct quality before carbon reduction. Yetsuch clarity of values is the key to enlisting aidin one’s pursuit of a more sustainable future.

So many organizations have elected to alignthemselves with dubious science — we’ll save the polar bears — orquestionable social policies — Fair Trade — in pursuit not exactly ofsustainability, but of media praise for meeting some pre-deter-mined stereotype of sustainability. It is refreshing, even joyful, toaward an organization that didn’t apply for the award, that we hadto coax into the spotlight.

Yet this too points to the benefit of pursuing sustainable develop-ment. Motivated as Publix is by its “Customer First” philosophy inpursuit of a vision of sustainability, the company has acquired newhabits of transparency and conscience attention that inevitablyreach deep in the company. In this sense, though winning an awardsuch as the one granted today is meaningful, the rewards of sustain-ability done right are transformational in an organization.

So Publix can be a better company, make the world a betterplace, provide its associates a more meaningful work experience,align with vendors in a commitment beyond commerce and giveconsumers a chance to express who they are and wish to bethrough where they shop. Congratulations to Publix and its associ-ates on the receipt of the 1st Annual PRODUCE BUSINESS Retail Sus-tainability Award. pb

By James Prevor President & Editor-in-Chief

THE FRUITSOF THOUGHT

Publix

encourages

individual

associates

to seek

sustainability.

Reader Service # 61

http://www.veggiesmadeeasy.com

In March, several pieces of food safetylegislation were introduced in Congressthat we believe will provide the founda-tion for the congressional debate onfood safety. In turn, President Obama

has announced the formation of a Food Safe-ty Working Group to look at current foodsafety laws and federal agency structures todetermine how we can “upgrade our foodsafety laws for the 21st Century.” Therefore,it is important to look briefly at the legisla-tive proposals that will dictate the debateover the next year.

The FDA Food Safety ModernizationAct (S. 510) Introduced by Senator DickDurbin (D-IL), this act would provide for: (a)a comprehensive system of preventionbased on hazard analysis and preventivecontrols; (b) specific authority for the Foodand Drug Administration (FDA) to regulatefresh produce; (c) a series of import con-trols, such as a foreign supplier verificationprogram and third-party certification for for-eign facilities; and (d) additional enforce-ment authorities, such as mandatory recall,suspension of facility registration andadministrative detention. Additionally, thebill would require the use of an accreditedlaboratory and the reporting of test results toFDA in specific circumstances. The bill alsowould establish a comprehensive fooddefense framework and direct FDA to pro-mulgate regulations to safeguard againstintentional contaminants. Finally, S. 510would authorize a limited system of userfees intended primarily to reimburse FDAfor costs associated with food product recallsand facility re-inspections.

The FDA Globalization Act (H.R.759) This act, introduced by RepresentativeJohn Dingell (D-MI), is similar to S. 510 inmany respects in that it, too, would establisha system of preventive controls; provideexpress authority over fresh produce; estab-lish a series of import controls; and provideincreased enforcement authorities. Howev-

er, H.R. 759 differs significantly from S. 510in several respects. Representative Dingell’slegislation would require a comprehensivesystem of third-party certification for allfood imports. Also, H.R. 759 would impose afee on each registered food facility andimporter to help pay for the cost of FDAinspections. H.R. 759 also would give FDAsubpoena authority and provide for civilmoney penalties; and would requireexpanded country of origin labeling(COOL). Finally, H.R. 759 expressly pro-vides that it would not preempt state law.

The Safe FEAST Act of 2009 (H.R.1332) Introduced by Representative JimCosta (D-CA) and Representative Adam Put-nam (R-FL), this act is very similar to legis-lation introduced by Senator Durbin, espe-cially concerning provisions governing pre-ventive controls, authority to regulate freshproduce, import controls and increasedenforcement authorities. H.R. 1332 containsa few sections with alternative language tothe Senate bill. One significant difference isthat the Safe FEAST Act would not requireFDA to promulgate regulations to protectfood against intentional adulteration.

Food Safety Modernization Act of

2009 (H.R. 875) Representative RosaDeLauro (D-CT) has long supported the cre-ation of a single food agency and has intro-duced prior legislation that would merge thefood safety responsibilities of FDA and theU.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) intoone agency. H.R. 875 would take an interimstep toward creatingion of a single foodagency by establishing a Food Safety Admin-istration within HHS that would haveresponsibility for all food safety issues cur-rently administered by FDA. H.R. 875 wouldrequire the Administrator of the Food SafetyAdministration to develop, administer andannually update a national food safety pro-gram based on a comprehensive analysis ofthe hazards associated with different typesof food. This analysis would include theidentification and evaluation of the sourcesand specific points of contamination extend-ing from the farm or ranch to the consumerthat may render food unsafe; the potentialfor persistence, multiplication, or concentra-tion of naturally occurring or added contam-inants in food; the potential for hazardouscontamination to have cumulative toxiceffects, multigenerational effects, or effectson specific categories of consumers; andopportunities for intentional contamination.

Recent events have led to the produceindustry considering the role the federalgovernment should play in managing pro-duce food safety requirements. This hasbeen driven by Congress, which has paid asignificant amount of attention to food safe-ty and the responsibility of the federal gov-ernment often citing that “the food laws inthis country have not been updated for over70 years.” Some of this has grown by the out-breaks associated with not just produce, butother high-profile outbreak cases includingpeanut paste, pistachios, ground beef andpet food. While none of these legislative billswill make it through unscathed, key ele-ments of each will most likely make upmajor parts of the final product.

A report on the inside happenings of government.

WASHINGTON GRAPEVINE

President Obama hasannounced the forma-tion of a Food SafetyWorking Group to lookat our current foodsafety laws and federalagency structures

SUBMITTED BY ROBERT GUENTHER, SENIOR VP, UNITED FRESH PRODUCE ASSOC.• UNITED FRESH PRODUCE ASSOC.


Food Safety Legislation Lays theFoundation for Congressional Debate

Reader Service # 50

http://www.bluebookprco.com


Produce Watch is a regular feature of Produce Business. Please send information on new products, personnel changes, industry, corporate and personal milestones and available literature, alongwith a color photo, slide or transparency to: Managing Editor, PRODUCE BUSINESS, P.O. Box 810425, Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425, or e-mail us at [email protected]

PRODUCEWATCH

J. DULCICH & SONS INC.DELANO, CAMadeline Sabovich has joined the sales staff. Shemost recently worked at Castle Rock Vineyards inDelano, CA, handling domestic grape sales. A grad-uate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with an agribusi-ness degree, she is the third generation of her fam-ily in the table grape industry.

GLOBAL ORGANIC SPECIALTY SOURCE INC.SARASOTA, FLDavid Bockner joined as merchandiser and fieldsalesperson. Based on Florida’s East Coast, he hasover 30 years of produce experience, most ofwhich was acquired by running his family’s mar-ket. A former customer of Global Organic, he pos-sesses a great passion for produce.

EARTHBOUND FARMSAN JUAN BAUTISTA, CAGlenn Daniels was named vice president of sales.In his new role, Daniels will oversee all aspects ofEarthbound's sales functions. Since joining thecompany in 2001, he has served in many roles,including director of national accounts-food ser-vice, central regional sales manager and seniordirector of national sales.

CALIFORNIA STRAWBERRY COMMISSIONWATSONVILLE, CAChris Christian was promoted to vice presidentof marketing after successfully serving six yearsas the head of CSC’s trade and nutrition pro-grams. In addition to leading the commission’smarketing program, she will also supportPresident Mark Murai in the management offinance and general operations.

Carolyn O’Donnell, formerly CSC’s issues andfood safety manager, was promoted to communi-cations director. She will oversee all internal andexternal communications including public rela-tions, issues management and marketing com-munications.

Jodi Reinman was hired as a member of CSC’scommunications team. She is a seasoned publicrelations professional who has worked for topSilicon Valley companies, including Intuit andHitachi Data Systems. She will play a key role inimplementing media relations programs andintegrated marketing and public relations activi-ties.

RUSSET POTATO EXCHANGEBANCROFT, WIChris Sobczak was hired as account manager.With over 23 years of experience in the pro-duce industry, he possesses sales and retailexperience. He most recently worked the salesdesk for Spud City Sales and has previous retailexperience with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and CoppsCorp.

TRANSITIONS

NATURIPE FARMSNAPLES, FLRobert Verloop was promoted to senior vicepresident of sales and marketing. The formervice president of marketing will step into thenew role with an eye on long-term strategicsales and marketing developments. His respon-sibilities will continue to include all marketingprograms, consumer research, sales promo-tions communications, advertising and publicrelations, as well as government relations.

MANN PACKING OFFERSIN-PACK PROMOTION AND RECIPESMann Packing, Salinas, CA, announced a newpromotion with Star Olive Oil that is perfect forspring cooking. Consumers can save $1 on pur-chases of Star Olive Oil when they purchasepackages of Mann’s Broccolini or Simply Singleswhole-leaf lettuce leaves. The promotion alsoincludes a recipe book with three recipes featur-ing Mann products.

EXPORDATA FULL CARGOLAUNCHES WEB SITE REDESIGNExpordata Full Cargo, Santiago, Chile,announced a redesign and new imagefor its user-friendly Web site. This infor-mation tool, provided by Decofrut ofSantiago, Chile, covers all Chilean fruitstatistics for all markets and is now easi-er and more effective to use under theredesigned format. The new image cele-brates Decofrut's 20 years in business.

NMB EXPANDS ONLINE MARKETING EFFORTSNational Mango Board, Orlando, FL, has createdseveral exciting programs this year for consumers,trade, retail and foodservice. By continuing toexpand its Web site offerings on Mango.org, engag-ing in social media and even developing widgets,the NMB strives to make mangos an interactiveexperience.

UNIFRUTTI PLEDGES $5,000 TO PMA'S FOUNDATIONFOR INDUSTRY TALENTUnifrutti of America Inc., Philadelphia, PA,pledged $5,000 to the PMA Foundation forIndustry Talent. The funding will go towardprograms created to broaden awarenessabout the rewards and opportunities of pro-duce careers. Programs will include intern-ships, co-ops, job shadowing, visits withindustry professors and event scholarships.

Reader Service No. 304Reader Service No. 303

Reader Service No. 301 Reader Service No. 302

ANNOUNCEMENTS

CORRECTIONIn the March issue of PRODUCE BUSINESS, Jonathan Steffy, (left) sales manager from Four Seasons Produce based in Ephrata, PA, was incorrectly identified in our coverage of the PMA Leadership Symposium.


Recognition is hereby granted to MIKE GIZA

of Big Y Foodsas Winner of the 5th Annual

RETAILER OF THE YEAR AWARDPresented at the New England Produce Council Expo

April 1, 2009by PRODUCE BUSINESS and the New England Produce Council

Excerpt from the speech by Ken Whitacre, publisher and editorial director of PRODUCE BUSINESS

Diligence. Integrity. Knowledge of the produce industryinside and out. These are just a few of the qualities recognizedby colleagues, co-workers and competitors in this year's 5thAnnual New England Produce Retailer of the Year award. Thisis an honoree that you — the members of the New EnglandProduce Council have chosen — and that PRODUCE BUSINESS ispleased to award today.

Like the first four recipients of this award — Paul Kneeland,Jack Salamon, Domenic D'Antuono, and Will Wedge — thisyear's honoree began his working career early. He started inretail at the age of 12 in his father's pharmacy. Five years later,and still in high school, he entered the produce industrywhere, for the same major chain he now works, he climbedthe career ladder from produce clerk to produce sales manag-er — the chain's corporate produce buying position.

As one nominator says, "Produce is in his DNA."This evolutionary, professional journey is something the

director of produce and floral — to whom our honoree reports— applauds and describes this way: "He always showed thathe was capable of more and more responsibility. But, alongthe way, he never forgot his experiences in each position andthis has allowed him to effectively develop and facilitate pro-grams in the retail environment. This is an ability some peoplenever attain, and greatly improves the sell-through of productsto customers."

Competitors, as well as colleagues, recognize our recipient'sjob well done. In fact, one competitor who nominated thisyear's honoree says, "His produce knowledge and merchan-dising expertise have aided his company in growing marketshare. You can always count on this chain to punctuate qualityand variety in the Massachusetts and Connecticut markets."

The cultivation of excellent relationships with growers,

processors, shippers and others is another trait for which thisyear's honoree is known. In fact, he gets an A for accessibility.As one major Northeast vendor says, "It's incredible to pick upthe phone and immediately talk to a senior representative of amajor retail chain and feel at ease. He's always there andalways willing to listen."

Outside of work, our honoree currently serves on the boardof the New England Produce Council and, as one co-membersays, "He is always the first to raise his hand when the Councilis having a major event."

Most recently, our honoree led the efforts to work with theProduce Marketing Association on the Education Foundation'shosting of 12 New England Agriculture students at the NewEngland Produce Council's Expo.

Dedication is another of our award-recipient's outstandingqualities. In fact, his wife tells of the time he was hanging abanner in a store, fell off the ladder, broke his wrist and wasback at work the next day.

Love of the produce industry often follows this year'saward-recipient home and on vacation. For example, familytrips throughout the United States and abroad always includea stop to check out the produce departments in local stores.

Beyond produce and family, our honoree does have oneother passion. As his supervisor says, "All of us who workwith him and the vendor community as well will also attest tohis command of a wine menu. He can certainly take onethrough a flight of wines that makes the meal that much moreenjoyable and the bill that much more expensive! But it's allworth the education!"

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in congratulating the2009 New England Produce Retailer of the Year — Mike Gizaof Big Y Foods.


In today’s difficult economy, it’s under-standable to look out and see a vast,volatile sea tossing about your company’sship. On the other hand, this is also anopportunity to embrace a positive mind-

set and chart a course for future, betterwaters. It is in that latter spirit that ProduceMarketing Association (PMA) is working tohelp our members find the upside of this eco-nomic downturn. We believe produce offers aunique lifeline in today’s economy, for yourcustomers and consumers alike. The foodser-vice sector offers an excellent example of thatlifeline opportunity, contrarian as that mightseem at this moment of shrinking restaurantshare of market.

The foodservice sector has long beenurged by many — PMA included — to consid-er expanding the traditional “chop mentality”of focusing menus on pricier and less sustain-able animal proteins. Now especially, movingproduce to the center of the plate is a winningsolution for everyone — it reduces plate costsfor operators and opens up many differentcuisine opportunities, while satisfying guests’demands for freshness and bold flavors. Pro-duce entrees and side dishes satisfy appetitesand add colorful eye appeal to the plate. Thevariety of fresh fruits and vegetables availablelends greater versatility and more healthfulchoices than other food groups. And talkabout the positive impact of healthier menuson our nation’s medical costs!

It isn’t just traditional foodservice either.For retailers, the produce department not onlydistinguishes the store from competitors, butproduce can also help distinguish the growingfoodservice offerings available in supermar-kets. As tightening budgets cause consumersto forego restaurants for home cooking, manyare finding they’ve lost their kitchen know-how. That helps explain the popularity of TVcooking shows: consumers need to be reintro-duced to the delicious possibilities fresh pro-duce offers, including selecting, storing andpreparing that bounty to maximize theirinvestment. This presents an opportunity forboth the retailer’s produce department and itsfoodservice operation.

Making Waves In Foodservice

To help everyone in the foodservice sectorput more produce on the menu, PMA is part-nering with industry leaders, NationalRestaurant Association and InternationalFoodservice Distributors Association (IFDA)to seek solutions that benefit everyone —consumers, operators and produce suppliers.

Our multi-phase project seeks to identifyopportunities to increase fresh produce use infoodservice to promote healthy lifestyles. Asoften happens with such bold projects, wecouldn’t have started without the financialsupport of an enlightened leader — in thiscase, Markon. Tim York, Markon’s president,had the foresight and selflessness to see thatthe industry needed the best and brightestminds to dig into the most current researchand help chart a future course for all.

We began with comprehensive research —led by the restaurant association with assis-tance from PMA’s produce industry leaders —to examine opportunities and barriers forgreater produce use in restaurants. We’re dig-ging deep and asking them a variety of ques-tions about their use of fresh produce in thepast, present and future. Where do theysource that produce from —- including local-ly? What influences their purchases? Howsatisfied do they think their customers arewith the produce they serve? What are theirattitudes about sourcing seasonally vs. year-round? What level of importance do they giveto motivators like food safety, nutritional dis-closure or daypart (time of day) in makingproduce decisions?

That research will be used to start facilitat-ed discussions of a first-ever “Executive Invi-tational Think Tank” of senior operators, dis-

tributors and produce suppliers. That dis-cussion will help expose opportunities for,and how to overcome barriers to, increasingfoodservice produce use. We expect this willbe an ongoing, high-level dialogue.

We know that this help is needed now,which is why this is a “shovel-ready” pro-ject. The research is already underway; theThink Tank is scheduled in conjunctionwith PMA’s annual Foodservice Conferenceand Exposition taking place July 24-26 inMonterey, California. Research findings anddiscussion highlights will be presented byproject participants at the conference’sopening session. We will provide a summa-ry report to the associations’ membershipslater this summer.

With the brains involved in this project,it stands to make more waves, which iswhat one has to do in these turbulent times.That’s why I’m looking forward to this con-ference session.

In fact, the whole conference is designedto stimulate solutions by offering the latestinformation on the economy and consumertrends, plus the industry’s best relationship-building opportunities and the only pro-duce-specific trade show in foodservice.Learn more at www.pma.com/foodservice.

The phrase “tough economic times” stirsa sinking feeling. Fresh produce is a solu-tion to improved nutrition and enhancedprofitability that can buoy our industry.Armed with the research and insight need-ed to make informed decisions and workingtogether across the supply chain, we can —and will — all benefit enormously by learn-ing together.

Now especially, moving produce to the

center of the plate is a winning

solution for everyone.

http://www.pma.com/foodservice


table-cloth restaurants are only a tiny portionof the industry. For many chains, cannedmushrooms or frozen broccoli are just fine.

The lower shrink, consistent availability,consistent product quality, consistent price, alllead operators to go canned and frozen, eventhough consumers often indicate a preferencefor fresh produce.

The challenge: Can we get operators tooverride their own logistical preferences inorder to delight consumers with fresh pro-duce?

5) Getting a sincere commitment tofresh produce

In recent years, many quick-serve opera-tors have featured produce on their menus.Yet it is uncertain how much of this is a sin-cere commitment to sell fresh produce andhow much is window dressing to impressgovernment and consumer advocates.

The McDonald’s located near the PRODUCE

BUSINESS office offers late-night drive-throughservice. If you order a salad they’ll tell you it’snot available on the “night menu.” Once aweek, this columnist’s children get to go toMcDonald’s, along with their car pool friendsafter religious instruction. Though everyonegets an order of McDonald’s Apple Dippers,we would say they are out of stock 20 percentof the time. This is a company that is neverout of a hamburger bun. We suspect if thisfranchisee was out of hamburgers or Frenchfries, he would lose his franchise — being outof Apple Dippers is viewed with less concern.

The challenge: Can we get quick-serverestaurants to not view produce as windowdressing for regulators, but as a core menuoffering that must be available at all times?

It is exciting news, indeed, that PMA willbe partnering with the National Restau-rant Association and the InternationalFoodservice Distributors Association toseek ways to support healthy living

through the use of more produce. Moreresearch, and kicking off an “Executive Invi-tational Think Tank” at the PMA FoodserviceConference can only help bolster this cause.Certainly Markon, along with its president,Tim York, deserve a hat tip for helping tofund this initiative.

Until the results are in, though, let thiscolumnist take a stab at identifying five of theissues we need to work on.

1) Getting it on the menu.Most growers produce product and then

look to sell it. This is at least plausible atretail where major chains carry a very broadrange. At restaurant chains, however, it mat-ters not how sweet the peach or how low theprice; if a restaurant chain doesn’t havepeaches on the menu, it is not buying.

Yet very few produce marketers have thetime horizon, the competence or the money towork with a chain for years in the hope ofgetting its product on the menu. It seemsproblematic for, say, a cantaloupe producer toinvest a lot of money to convince McDonald’sto add a half cantaloupe to the breakfastmenu. Even if McDonald’s does add it, thecompany may not buy the cantaloupes fromour diligent marketer.

The challenge: Can we come up with aninstitutional mechanism that can assist ingetting produce on the menu even in thoseindustry segments where the producers aresmall and commodity-oriented?

2) Will operators help farmers?Operators typically think the producers

should find ways to accommodate them. But,farmers are an unusual type of producer, sub-ject to many variables that factories are notsubject to, and if we want to preserve avibrant production sector, restaurants mayhave to do more.

Retailers traditionally receive many calls

from producers who are struggling with asurplus and asking for help moving it. If therelationship is good, very often retailers willgo on special, both because they can offerconsumers a great value and because theycan help their supply base.

Farmers need this kind of flexibility asoften 100 percent of their annual profits cancome from how these surpluses are handled.

Traditionally, restaurants have used pro-duce as an ingredient, or offered it on themenu at a set price and have had very littleability to swing suddenly to absorb extracrop. Yet producers need this help.

The challenge: Can we get the foodservicecommunity to do something special for thegrower because they want to affiliate withfresh produce in the mind of the consumer?Perhaps a snack fruit bowl can be placed atthe cash register of every McDonald’s withthe offering based on what is at peak volumes.

3) Value for excellenceMost top produce marketers look to sell

their produce at a price above the marketaverage. When it comes to wooing growers,packer/shippers point to this ability to sell atabove average prices as a reason for growersto affiliate.

Yet in foodservice, one consistently hearsthat most operators are only interested inprice. To some degree this is understandable;after all, the consumers won’t see the brandon those produce items when they are cookedor served. But, if foodservice is going to bethe least profitable market, it is simply notgoing to be the priority of the trade.

The challenge: Can we make foodservicesales sufficiently profitable that the produceproduction segment will be interested in pur-suing this opportunity?

4) Fresh vs. Frozen/CannedOne hopes that in some combination of a

desire to affiliate their foodservice operationswith local, healthy and fresh, foodserviceoperators will decide to focus on fresh. Yetthis may be the most difficult challenge of all.Frozen food has been improving, and white-

Issues To Digest

Five topics for

discussion

when everyone

comes to the table.


From The Pages Of The Per i shable Pundi t

Sometimes timing just doesn't work out. One of the most seri-ous problems facing the industry is an outbreak of protection-ism that is threatening to block fresh produce exports.

The United States has never honored its NAFTA commitment toallow Mexican trucks and drivers to make cross-border deliveries toU.S. destinations. The country attempted t o appease the Mexicansby running a teeny pilot program of only103 trucks and 26 Mexican trucking compa-nies with a purported goal of comparing thesafety records of Mexican trucks with theirU.S. counterparts.

President Obama signed into law, withoutcomment, a bill that blocked all funds fromthe program. The Mexicans went ballistic,as this made clear the United States neverhad the intention of honoring its commit-ments and letting in the Mexican truckers.

Mexico had already won a unanimousruling from a board set up under NAFTA toresolve disputes, so it was fully authorizedto impose retaliatory tariffs against the Unit-ed States. Having been slapped in the face,it recently imposed $2.4 billion worth,including tariffs on almonds, apricots, cher-ries, onions, potatoes and strawberriesamong others.

According to the Associated Press, grapes are being treated evenmore severely, facing a 45 percent tax. Some 55 other products willbe taxed at 20 percent, and the remaining 33 items at 10 to 15 per-cent. This could be detrimental to the domestic industry as Mexicois a substantial market.

Just a few days before this crisis, we received a letter from theCalifornia Kiwifruit Commission calling on the President to run a"Buy American" campaign on California Kiwifruit. A few keyexcerpts of its press release are below:

Today, in a letter sent to President Obama the California KiwifruitCommission called on the President to "show his support and exercisestrong leadership by asking American consumers and retailers to buyonly California-grown kiwifruit."

California kiwifruit farmers are facing tremendous threats due toimports from Italy and other countries. Now, more than ever, we needAmericans to choose domestically grown kiwifruit, or we could be forcedto lay people off and even go out of business.

When the release was issued, many thought is was a funny andattention-getting PR stunt, but the events of the week made it comeacross as downright dangerous.

Certainly, we could bring up the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, whichmany economists believe helped deepen the Great Depression andspread it to Europe. Within two years, 25 countries had retaliated

and U.S. foreign trade literally collapsed. In 1929, America hadexported $5.24 billion in goods; the total was just $1.6 billion in1932. Although the Gross Domestic Product dropped during thistime, both imports and exports dropped far more.

We understand the California kiwifruit growers are having a toughtime. Many people are, indeed, having a tough time, but if our poli-

cies are "beggar thy neighbor" — if ourstrategy to enrich ourselves is to impover-ish others — we can't possibly turn theeconomy around.

Even if, somehow, nobody retaliated andjust accepted President Obama tellingeveryone to boycott Italian kiwifruit, arewe so callous that we don't care about theItalian kiwifruit growers and U.S.importers? And if Italy has fewer dollars,how are they going to buy Boeing planesand Microsoft software?

Of course, the minute the Presidentdecides to tell Americans to "Buy Ameri-can," leaders of countries all over the worldwill tell their consumers to do the same —and you can bet they will listen more close-ly in China than consumers will in theUnited States.

American exports would collapse and whatever gain the Califor-nia kiwifruit growers would realize would be paid for 10 times overwhen U.S. apple, grape and citrus exports collapse.

Blaming Italy seems particularly odd. Typically, these types ofcomplaints are made against developing countries that have enor-mous advantages on wage rates. However, Italy is a relatively high-cost country in the world economy. Why can't American growerscompete effectively?

If the California kiwifruit growers have some specific complaintabout dumping or unfair subsidies, they should bring those com-plaints to the WTO, instead of asking for an international trade warto be started on their behalf.

Besides, all this blaming consumers and retailers is a distraction.Per capita consumption of kiwifruit in the United States lags manyinternational markets. If U.S. consumption was brought up to inter-national levels, the Californians wouldn't have enough kiwifruit.

We wish nothing but good for our American kiwifruit producers,but this approach will hurt the produce industry when everyoneretaliates, hurt the country when the trade war grows beyond pro-duce and hurt the prospects for economic recovery all around theworld. There has to be a better way.

The letter sent to President Obama is a clever publicity-baitingletter and we hope you will read it in that vein, not as a guide toU.S. trade policy! www.perishablepundit.com

From Jim Prevor’s Perishable Pundit, Mar. 27, 2009

Protectionist Stance Could Do Harm To Trade

Many people are indeed having a toughtime, but if our policiesare “beggar thy neigh-

bor” — if our strategy toenrich ourselves is to

impoverish others — wecan’t possibly turn the

economy around.

http://www.perishablepundit.com

Contact:Paul Mocettini - VP Sales and MarketingTim Tomasello - Sales ManagerSales: Katie Harreld - Pete MazzucaJerry Summers - Tony Ojeda - Michele McNeece831.772.9991 - Fax 831.772.99921124 Abbott Street, Salinas CA, 93901

Gord Love - 905.639.1174201 North Service RoadBurlington, ON L7P 5C4

Transportation InquiriesContact: Ross Wilkinson - 905.639.1174201 North Service RoadBurlington ON L7P 5C4

www.ippolito.biz

Major Growing ItemsAnise • Artichokes • BroccoliBrussel Sprouts • Cauliflower

Green Onions • Leeks • Bunch RadishLettuce: Romaine • Iceberg • Red & Green

Rapini • Romaine Hearts • SpinachReader Service # 33

http://www.ippolito.biz

Reader Service # 100

http://www.duda.com


PRODUCE BUSINESS is proud to announce the recog-nition of Lakeland, FL-based Publix Super MarketsInc. this year for its exceptional leadership in development of sustainable strategies resulting insignificant value-added benefits and deliveringgreater operating efficiencies. The following pagesprovide insights to the subtle approach of corpo-rate social responsibility at this southern chain of1,002 stores.

1st ANNUAL

PRODUCE BUSINESSRetail Sustainability Award

PRINTED ON RECYLED PAPER

PHOTOGRAPHY BY FREDDY PULIDO


Talk is cheap and for some compa-nies, sustainability is being com-posted, compacted and recycledinto a public relations buzzwordpolluted by smoke and mirrors.

Publix Super Markets, the private, employ-ee-owned, regional giant, which has shiedaway from the trade press over the years,prefers subtle sustainability grounded in sub-stance. More comfortable keeping businessstrategies close to the belt, the supermarketchain has been making a genuine differencewith understated determination and purpose-ful momentum, long before sustainability andcorporate social responsibility were hip andfashionable, and often cloaked in syntheticethical and moral superiority.

Publix deserves this award for three signifi-cant reasons:

1) PUBLIX WITH PURPOSETop Down, Bottom Up: Exercising corpo-

rate social responsibility within the communi-ty is a mantra engrained in the firm’s culture, along-term commitment instilled by its CEO,Ed Crenshaw, and encouraged with incen-tivized employee buy-in.

Crenshaw’s grandfather and Publixfounder, George Jenkins, had a saying — para-phrased here — that the company can be a lit-tle bit better place, or not quite as good,because of the associates of the company.“Years later, that still resonates. It’s in all ourbreak rooms and it’s something that we verymuch live by,” explains Maria Brous, directorof media and community relations. Sheshould know. It’s her 19th year with Publixand she describes herself as a “Publix lifer.”

Valued voices are indeed resonatingthroughout. Publix generates a grassrootsatmosphere of fresh, innovative ideas andinter-department, cross-functional teamworkat all levels. The process involves brainstorm-ing and debating the merits and costs of dif-ferent proposals, then testing and re-workingplatforms before slowly rolling them out tomake sustainability a reality chain-wide.

An associate in the floral department came

up with a great idea to recycle floral buckets,conducting a little work study in her store.“We recycle several million of those bucketsevery year now,” says Michael Hewitt, manag-er, environmental services, noting, “If we hadnot pushed sustainability all the way down tothe associate level, then those kinds of ideaswould not be able to bubble back up.”

Hewitt, a second-generation Floridian andlifelong Publix customer, joined the companyabout three years ago to apply his expertise inenvironmental engineering and years workingwith various regulatory agencies and other pri-vate companies. “When I got to Publix, I wasvery excited because what I found was a cul-ture already in place. People were passionateabout not just the basics of recycling and ener-gy conservation and water conservation, butreally interested in doing the right thing andsupporting the community.”

In talking about sustainability, sometimesthe “people element” gets lost, Hewitt empha-sizes. “When Publix is looking for new talent— for that next generation that’s going to runthe company — the message of sustainabilityis another way for us to reach out to that tal-ent pool,” he says. People want to be a part ofsomething, to feel that their input counts.Hewitt continues, “Young people, especiallycoming out of college, are willing to take a jobfor less money if it’s with a company theybelieve in, that they admire, that they believeis doing the right thing.”

“We all have skin in the game,” says Brous.“This is a personal investment and commit-ment, and you’ll hear that throughout ourcompany.” Once you’re on board, everybody’sin the same place with the same intensity andexpectations. In an industry haunted by laborissues and employee turnover, the evidencespeaks for itself: It is estimated that the firmspends an average of $6,000 in training of itsassociates within their first 30 days, and themajority of turnover happens within the first90 days. Store managers average 25.4 years ofservice, she says, noting a district manager justreceived his 55th year service award; it’s notuncommon to see associates that are “lifers.”

Brous points out that Dave Duncan, vicepresident for facilities, likes to say Publix wasgreen when it wasn’t cool to be green, leadingthe way in this effort since the 1970’s, whetherdriving early customer acceptance of reusablegrocery bags and recycling efforts, or drivingthe first hybrid cars.

“We have one of the most environmentallyfriendly fleets, with over 170 light-duty hybridvehicles,” says Hewitt. The benefit is not justfuel savings. It also helps reduce our carbonfootprint and sends the right message. “Sus-tainability is not a destination, it’s a journey,”prophesizes Hewitt. “Sustainability is really aphilosophy that’s been with Publix since thebeginning, and it’s one that will continue foras long as Publix continues.”

The commitment to excellence in sustain-ability extends to its supplier partnerships.Publix demands high standards internally andexpects the same of its produce suppliers,which it monitors and grades using vendorscore cards. Brous acknowledges Publix isoften viewed as a tough retailer. How sustain-ability fits into a firm’s operations in the con-text of its strategic vision is a decisive factor inthe relationship’s viability.

Some produce partnerships remain solidlyensconced, after being sealed decades ago ona handshake. Brous explains, “There is defi-nitely a motivator for them to understand ourbusiness more. We tell them, ‘The better youperform at all of these criteria, the more we’rewilling to sit at the table because we under-stand your commitment, and vice versa.” Thatcommitment means a willingness to investwith Publix in more sustainable alternatives,such as wax-free packaging.

PUBLIX SUPER MARKETS:

Subtle Sustainability With SubstanceBY MIRA SLOTT

Reader Service # 22

http://www.nonpareilpotato.com


“Just as Publix cannot be sustainable with-out the participation of all 146,000 associates,we’re also not an island. We cannot be sus-tainable without partnering with our entiresupply chain,” says Hewitt. “Sustainability isnot proprietary,” adds Brous. “We believe it isan industry movement that shares on bestpractices and we are more powerful together,”she says, noting joint efforts with retail com-petitors and trade organizations. The firm’slatest venture involves a “climate leaders’ part-nership” with the Environmental ProtectionAgency, and a verification process to certifyand reduce its carbon footprint.

“In a company the size of Publix, withretail operations spread out across five states,manufacturing and distribution operations aswell as various other support facilities, it is achallenge to capture all of those greenhousegases, but we are doing it,” Hewitt adds.

2) SUSTAINABILITY WITH SUBSTANCEActions & Results: Publix takes a compre-

hensive and multi-faceted approach, underthe premise that sustainability is made up ofthree silos; environmental, social and eco-nomic. All three silos must work in tandem.Many environmental aspects get prioritybecause they can often generate cash flow byreducing energy costs, for example. Addressingfuel efficiency of its transportation fleet, thecompany is weighing the pros and cons ofconverting its heavy-duty trucks to bio dieseland looking at mechanical and aerodynamicimprovements, as well as restructuring deliv-ery routes to reduce number of miles traveledand increase utilization rates of those trucks.

Other worthy projects might be tabledbecause they can’t be justified from a coststandpoint. “At the end of the day, we havestockholders that we answer to, which is eachone of us in being able to be a financiallyviable company,” Brous explains. After theGreenWise Market in Palm Beach Gardensbecame LEED-certified, people wonderedwhether Publix would do the same for all itsnew stores. “Well, no. That’s unrealistic tolook at a grocer with a 1,000 store footprintand ask us that. What’s the economic impact?What’s the long-term affect? What’s our goaland how does that impact the customer? Arewe being responsible stewards? “

“The ‘Get Into the New Green Routine’program grew out of a philosophy at Publixthat is intolerant of waste, and advocatingwhat’s right for its customers, the communityand the environment. That equates to a reduc-tion of 500,000 tons of greenhouse gases,enough to power over 64,000 homes for ayear,” explains Hewitt.

Publix recycled 215,00 tons of cardboardlast year, and about 3,000 tons of that waswax cardboard. “We also have been trying to

find a home for as much of our organic wastematerial as possible, working on ways to com-post, or otherwise convert that material into asoil amendment or a fertilizer-type product.”

Publix utilizes its GreenWise Markets asexperimental laboratories, perfecting ideasinto workable solutions with its eye on incor-porating them into its mainstream portfolio.Go into a new store, and a consumer mightnot realize the significant savings generated bythe decorative, yet highly sustainable bamboofloors and fixtures. It’s why Publix uses soycoating on the roof and is aggressively pursu-ing solar power. Among its forward-thinkingreclamation projects, the produce refrigerationducts are efficiently re-circulating the heat towarm the building’s water systems. The mis-ters keep produce fresh without excess waterwaste. The track lighting may be aestheticallypleasing to some customers, but it’s also amore energy-efficient source. Consumerswalking down an aisle may be caught offguard at first, as the lighting builds from dark-ness to brightness in line with their footsteps— a high-tech method of conserving energy.

Even though the fluorescent lights arecool-looking, you can feel that they’re puttingoff a little bit of heat, explains Hewitt. TheLEDs are not only more efficient, but generatemuch less heat, which makes sense whenyou’re installing lights into a refrigerated case.There’s an argument against retrofitting refrig-erator cases with LEDs because of the immedi-ate investment. It’s justified because over thelifespan of the cases and the products, there’sdefinitely a return, adds Brous. In the pre-pared foods areas, Publix is working on newtechnology to avoid as much air conditioningor heat loss as possible through the ventila-tion hoods.

GreenWise Markets provides a controlledarea to try new things, but the company is alsorealistic in how they will translate to a rangeof store formats. “Our goal is to be able to gointo any format or size store and maximize its

potential, but starting from the ground up isdefinitely easier,” says Brous.

As retailers confront a difficult economicclimate, Publix is relatively well-positioned topursue its goals. “In tough economic times,we are a debt-free company. We are makingacquisitions. We continue to be strong,” saysBrous. Priorities change based on consumerneeds, and the economy plays a significantpart, but the commitment level doesn’tchange. “We can take more risk in a tougheconomy, but we’ve always been very cau-tious,” she adds. “We are a very lean company.There’s not a whole lot of fluff and excess.”

3) SUBTLE STRATEGYClassy, Not Showy: Publix steers away from

“save the polar bears” hype, or flashy, over-the-top signage. It doesn’t want to yield unfairexpectations, or veer toward exaggerated ormisleading claims. “We don’t believe in funnymath,” says Brous.

Publix chooses to stay out of politics andissues of Fair Trade, says Hewitt. “We don’tlike anybody coming into our house telling ushow to do business. We don’t go into otherpeople’s either.”

In this regard, the concept of developingnational standards for sustainability doesn’tmake sense to Hewitt. “Sustainability reallyhas a lot to do with company philosophy. It’svery company-specific. I like to think that oursustainability strategy is unique to Publix, notto say that it’s better than anyone else’s, but itworks well for us.”

The company is turned off by the dogmaaround food miles labeling. Transparency inlabeling is important. “We want to be carefulnot to confuse the customer by providingthem with information that might be hard tounderstand or is contradictory,” says Hewitt.“It can be very complex. It can be so complexthat if you look at the carbon footprint of aproduct, one product that might be consid-ered a healthy choice might have a larger car-

Reader Service # 89

http://www.trinityfruit.com

http://www.trinityfruit.com


definition of local is different to every person.This year, Publix kicked off a huge media blitzto elevate its three-year-old program, “At Sea-son’s Peak,” which highlights in-season localproduce, playing to the taste, freshness andspecial availability.

Through its Aprons in-store kiosk andcooking schools, it also inspires customerswith cooking demos, guest appearances bycelebrity chefs and meal ideas of the week thatare merchandised with all the necessary ingre-dients. Publix also reaches out to the commu-nity in other ways, such as partnering withschools to motivate kids towards healthynutritious eating.

Publix customers are not necessarily look-ing for a separate segmented storefront, butrather to integrate options into the core super-market chain, explains Brous. “This is not asituation where, here’s our green store overhere for this niche.” The mission is to incorpo-rate these concepts throughout the Publixstore portfolio, to envelop sustainability intothe whole.

Publix sees itself as a friendly stalwartfoundation in the community that neighbor-hoods depend on when disaster strikes. Hitwith back-to-back hurricanes in 2004 andenduring losses of over $60 million, Publixstarted a project that would invest $100 mil-lion in back-up generators for hurricane-prone stores. The project ballooned, and thecompany now has over 700 stores with these500-kilowatt generators. According to Hewitt,many of them use bio-fuel, allowing forlonger runtime. This is an ideal example ofhow the three silos of sustainability cometogether: installing back up generatorsaddresses the conservation effort in a finan-cially sound way, while providing a critical ser-vice to the community.

PRIVATE/PUBLIC DILEMMA In many ways, ultimate philanthropic acts

emanate behind the scenes from anonymousdonors. The analogy is fitting when speakingabout Publix, sustainability and corporatesocial responsibility.

“We never overreach when we talk aboutour green efforts. We never want to be accusedof overstating anything. What you see is whatyou get,” says Hewitt. This very private, 80-year-old company is realizing the virtues ofbecoming more open. Consumers more andmore are making decisions on where to shopbased on a store’s sustainability and corporatesocial responsibility directive.

Sustainability isn’t cheap, but there’s areturn on investment — short-term sacrificefor the long-term goal. Perhaps this award willhelp spread the word and inspire other retail-ers to follow in Publix’ footsteps, while settingnew paths for the greater good.

Organic, products that contain 95 percent ormore organic ingredients. Then there’s thephrase “Made With Organic Ingredients,”which consumers are told means it has 70 per-cent to 95 percent organic ingredients.

For other terminology, All-Natural, Earth-Friendly, Vegetarian and Vegan, consumers aredirected to the company’s website to learnmore. The underplayed strategy is intentional.“These consumers know what they’re lookingfor,” says Hewitt. The approach informs with-out “being in your face.” The goal is to createan all-inclusive atmosphere that welcomes adiverse customer base.

While accommodating consumer demandfor year-round produce from around theworld, Publix does like to capitalize on pro-moting locally grown produce when it has thechance. Brous points out, however, that the

bon footprint than another one that a cus-tomer might consider to be not as desirablean option for their child.”

Similarly, organic is more of a lifestylechoice for some customers. It doesn’t neces-sarily point to sustainable,” says Brous. Publixis not in the business of claiming that eatingorganic is more beneficial than eating natural,conventional or locally grown. It’s about bal-ance. “Just because customers are livinghealthier lifestyles, doesn’t mean they’re notgoing to want to eat the pastries,” just prefer-ably in moderation, she says. Especially in adifficult economy, price may be an overridingfactor in consumer purchases. For others, itmight be whether purchasing the productgives back to a community cause.

Publix wants to provide helpful education-al labeling and merchandising without inun-dating customers with dizzying informationoverload. It’s committed to insure againstdeceptive or questionable certifications whileproviding consumers with plenty of productoptions. For example, depending on who youtalk to, one seafood item may be from a sus-tainable fishery, while someone else may saythat it’s not, according to Hewitt.

In Publix GreenWise Markets, there is atleast a 50 percent organic mix throughout theproduce department, and as high as 85 per-cent in some categories, says Brous. Subtle,color-coded signage along side products, dis-tinguish the variances. Even within the organ-ic category itself, Publix makes a point to notethe differences between USDA 100 PercentOrganic, products that contain all organicallyproduced ingredients, and USDA Certified

Perhaps this awardwill help spread theword and inspireother retailers to follow in Publix’sfootsteps, while setting new paths forthe greater good.

Reader Service # 65

http://www.blandfarms.com


Mira Slott: Congratulations on a well-deserved award. I also understand you recentlyreached a major milestone and now have morethan 1,000 stores, so we’re excited to hear howyou’re enveloping sustainability measures intothis growing portfolio.

Publix has been on top of sustainability andcorporate social responsibility for many years,long before it became a fashionable trend.Could you share with us how this mantra cameabout and how you translate this philosophyfrom corporate throughout the company?

Maria Brous: You must have heard DaveDuncan, our vice president for facilities, talkbefore because he says that we were greenbefore it was cool to be green.

We started our recycling efforts in the early1970s, long before other retailers had reallytaken interest. That began with our recyclingthat you see in front of our stores where ourcustomers can return their plastic or paperbags back to our facilities. And that’s kind ofsymbolic for the Publix locations.

Back in the 70s, there weren’t too manycompanies that were thinking about long-term impacts of sustainability, but that’swhere it really began for us.

We thought long and hard about it. Wewanted to be a retailer of choice for cus-tomers, to provide conveniences and service.And that’s our mantra no matter what topicwe’re talking about: pleasing our customers,making that shopping experience more enjoy-able and understanding what’s important tocustomers. So, that began our commitment toserving our communities, and that’s grownthrough the years.

When you look at us today, fast-forwardingto 2009, we are employee-owned and operat-ed — that’s the first part that sets us apartfrom competition — and really is about howwe execute. We have skin in the game. This is apersonal investment and commitment that wemake to our customers and to our associates,and you’ll hear that throughout our company.That’s what I hope you will note — that werelate to ourselves as associates, because that’swhat we are.

We all have a part to play, and when itcomes specifically to sustainability, Michael isa part of that team. I’m part of that team, butit began with our CEO Ed Crenshaw, who hada commitment to looking at sustainabilitylong-term. It’s not only about our profit, butit’s about people on our planet and we cancombine the three. When you try to sell sus-tainability to some companies, some will do itfor the profit and that’s it in the end. But real-ly, what we are about is showing that sustain-ability is kind of a triangle. It comes back fullcircle, and we truly do it because it’s the rightthing to do.

We all have a seat at the table. In everydepartment, we have a cross-functional sus-tainability team at Publix where every majorbusiness unit is represented. We look at issuesfrom the bottom up, as opposed from the topdown. We really study the different depart-ments. We study the issues. We study theimpact on our customers and our associates.We study the long-term affects of differentchoices and then each person has an opportu-nity to represent their point of view.

So while Michael may be the subject-mat-

ter expert for the environmental component,we have to look at how that transcends andtranslates into the real world. What do thestores face? How do we help them? There hasto be buy-in from every level with your associ-ates. You can’t dictate sustainability from thetop down. You have to really understand theprocess and relate it to people.

Mira Slott: Could you provide some specificexamples? Do you have any vignettes that couldgive a flavor for how the process works, maybein your own experience?

Maria Brous: Michael will probably defera lot over this way, but we’ll talk about theareas in which we feel comfortable.

The “Green Routine” is probably the mostgrassroots effort. It may have seemed like itstarted on a small scale, but has unequivocallybeen one of the greatest success stories that wehave at Publix, and that truly is how to reducethe amount of electricity and energy that we’reusing at our store locations. And today, at1,002 stores, that becomes even more impor-tant than when we started this in the early2000s when our store count was not signifi-cantly less, but considerably less.

It really became about looking at our foot-print, and how we can start to reduce the ener-gy consumption at stores. It started with thesimple idea of turning off computers, turningoff lights, closing freezers and refrigeratordoors, making sure that we’re constantly beingenergy-efficient, and just reminding our asso-ciates to do the small things, not only at thestore, but they could also use those simplemeasures at home — to turn off the lights

In a recent meeting at the PRODUCE BUSINESS headquarters in Boca Raton, FL, Publix’s Maria Brous, director of media and community relations, and Michael Hewitt, manager of environmental services,

sat down with publisher Ken Whitacre and special projects editor Mira Slott.

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http://www.caleafygreens.ca.gov


when they left a room.We put stickers on light switches. We made

posters letting our associates know what thismeans, what does this equate to, how muchcan we reduce our electrical consumption,and really made a competition out of it forour folks. “Okay. What can your store do bet-ter over last year? Let’s start looking at energyefficiencies and let’s start making a difference.”And that’s how we got buy-in, involving theassociates at every level, and they each had arole to play.

Ken Whitacre: So, do people actually sitaround at a table and ask, “What can we do toreduce our energy consumption at each store?”or is it a part of the team process that you dis-seminate downward?

Maria Brous: Both. There are ideas. Wehave a “Change-It” program that Publix has inplace where associates are able to submit theirideas for a variety of things; for sustainabilityefforts, how to improve work processes, look-ing from all angles. Associates can submit awork-study. There are some cash incentives ifwe roll out the programs company-wide. Nowthere is a group in place and a table where wecan come and review ideas and initiatives.

Our facilities department is over 600 asso-ciates strong and they each are responsible forthe things that we spoke about, whether it’sthe lighting, whether it’s the refrigeration, orwhether it’s the computer — I mean, thewhole landscape, and really, what do we dofrom that point on?

So, we take ideas big and small. We talkabout them, how they affect the differentbusiness units, what role everybody plays,everything from the environmental to howthis is going to look externally. How do wecommunicate that? Our marketing folks havea seat at the table. How do we engage, notonly our associates, but also our customers,and really break it down?

Ken Whitacre: It sounds like Michael hasan easy job then, because everybody’s working

for him!Michael Hewitt: That’s one way to look at

it. Really, it’s a team effort. Maria mentionedthe corporate sustainability team, which is across-functional team representing every busi-ness unit, operating really at the decision-making level. But we have many other teamsthat are directly involved in sustainability aswell. We have “Green Routine” teams.

We have a team that does nothing but lookat ideas that come in and decide which mightwork, and then elevate those ideas and try toadvocate them, implement them and trackthem, so that we can measure progress. Andwhen things work, we see if we can roll thatout across the entire enterprise.

So, it’s not the effort of a half-dozen peo-ple on one team. It’s many teams and it reallyis every associate that gets involved in thePublix “Green Routine.”

And now, more recently, if you go to Pub-lix.com/sustainability, you can see how we’retrying to take that “Green Routine” that we’vespent years developing internally, and we’retrying to share that with our customers aswell, to help them be more sustainable intheir homes.

GREEN ROUTINEKen Whitacre: So initially, the “Green

Routine” was essentially an internal programthat has now branched out.

Michael Hewitt: That’s true. It started as aprogram for us to look internally to try to dobetter, which grew out of a culture at Publixthat has been there since Day 1. Publix hasalways been intolerant of waste, and advocatesdoing the right thing for the community andfor its customers and the environment. The“Green Routine” was just a natural progres-sion of that mantra.

So it really started before the word “sus-tainability” became fashionable. It wasn’tuntil more recent years that the term “sustain-ability” has been applied to what we do. But,we’ve been doing this kind of work for many,many years.

Maria Brous: When we talk about the“Green Routine,” it’s officially tagged, “GetInto the Green Routine” because we wanteveryone to take an active role in it. So, wetalk about “Get Into the Green Routine,” but itwas a reduction of more than 500,000 tons ofgreenhouse gases...

Michael Hewitt: Since 2001.Maria Brous: Right. That equates to being

able to power over 64,000 homes for a year.

Ken Whitacre: And it also equates to thou-sands and thousands of gallons of gas that canbe consumed.

Michael Hewitt: It does. I think it’s 903million kilowatt-hours that we’re approach-ing, and that equates to 500,000 tons ofgreenhouses gases that have been reduced,and that’s enough to power all those homesfor a whole year. We try to take the savingsthat we’re measuring every day and relatethem into terms that people can understand.

Mira Slott: Can you talk more specificallyabout sustainability measures in the company’sproduce department, and provide some exam-ples that our readers could relate to in the pro-duce industry?

Michael Hewitt: Well, we’re always tryingto offer more organic products whenever pos-sible. Also, if you look on our Web site, you’llsee information about how we try to makelocally grown purchase decisions whenever wecan. We try to buy as much as we can locally,keeping in mind that we have customers toservice and we work hard to provide themwith the produce that they want year-round.

We also have been trying to find a homefor as much of our organic waste material aspossible. When you run a food retail business,you end up with organic waste. You end upwith meat scraps from the meat department,stale bread from the bakery and damaged pro-duce in the produce department. We have formany years sent some of that material for ren-dering and have tried other outlets for thatorganic waste.

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But more recently, we worked on finding away to compost, or otherwise convert thatmaterial into a soil amendment or a fertilizer-type product. We’re still continuing to workon that. It’s challenging. Even though I thinkPublix does a pretty good job at recycling andreducing waste, we’re still trying to find betterways to do it.

Mira Slott: Can you talk a little bit aboutthe logistics of handling recycling for such alarge operation? It seems like it could be a realchallenge with 1,002 stores.

Michael Hewitt: It is. In a company as bigas Publix with so many operations spread outacross the entire Southeast United States, it’s achallenge. We have training that we provide toall of our associates at the store level on howto collect this material and to collect as muchof it as possible. It then gets loaded on ourtrucks. After our trucks are unloaded at thestore, the recyclables go back on the trucksand they go to one of our centralized recyclingcenters. And that’s where it all gets collected,sorted if needed, bailed if it needs any bailing— we do some bailing at the stores — andfrom there, it gets sent off to the recyclers.

Maria Brous: Education is a big compo-nent that Michael spoke about. We do a lot toreally look at those processes. We need associ-ates to do their part. We need every associateto understand what can be recycled, what canbe bailed, how we keep bail integrity to makesure there’s not the possibility of contamina-tion, which in turn rejects that bail.

So, really getting them involved, whetherit’s with posters, because some are much morevisual learners, or with continuous training,from the very first day that they start workingat Publix, they understand our standards.

We have an orientation for every associatethat comes onboard, and part of what wespeak about in that orientation is our sustain-ability, what that means to the company andour vision.

Mira Slott: How do you work with yoursuppliers in terms of packaging and differenttypes of products that they need to switch overto in their businesses?

Maria Brous: I’ll let Michael answer a partof that, but to put it into perspective, we’re aSoutheast retailer, with 1,002 locations in fivestates: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Car-olina and Tennessee. We’re one of five chainsthat have a 1,000-store-plus landscape, but weare the only one out of the big five in thistight Southeast area.

We’re not spread out through the UnitedStates, which is what we see with our counter-parts. So, we’re really focused in this area, butwe’re a big powerhouse.

Our standards are very high. Our vendorcommunity understands we expect a large

commitment on their part. We expect them tobe sustainable. We expect them to continuelooking at their practices and their packaging.

Obviously, we have other retailers that alsoask the same thing and look at the sustainabil-ity part, but when we look at changing to awax alternative in produce packaging, forexample, how do we do that? We send out let-ters to our suppliers asking them to really lookat their practices.

We have a vendor scorecard that comes in.Based on everything from their operations tohow it affects our operations, we kind of lookat each vendor in totality and really ask themto take a look at that. Sustainability is on theirscorecard as well.

We have that working relationship and thebetter the suppliers do on their vendor score-card, the more information we’re going toshare with them about our business. So, theywant to understand it. There is definitely amotivator for them to understand our busi-ness more. They want access to figures and dif-ferent things, so we tell them, “The better youperform at all of these criteria, the more we’rewilling to sit at the table because we under-stand your commitment, and vice versa.”

Being a Florida-based company, many ofour relationships with our suppliers weremade on a handshake, from, say, Mr. George[Jenkins] and Duda Farms, and others. Youcan talk to a lot of these suppliers, especiallywith produce, and many of those deals wenton a handshake and a commitment that wewanted to do business with another Florida-based company. We ask them to look at mea-sures. What are the alternatives? What are thepotential savings? There may be an initialinvestment, but the long-term returns arewhat we’re looking at to be more sustainable.

Ken Whitacre: Would it be fair to say that

it is harder to do business as a supplier becauseof the scorecard and the sustainability efforts?

Maria Brous: No, because we do businesswith reputable companies that are looking tobe sustainable as well. They’ve heard the mes-sage, they’ve heard the appeal from the public,and I think it’s the way. It may be more hip tobe looking at those sustainable practices, butwe’ve been working on this for quite sometime. It’s not something that’s come as a bigsurprise to our suppliers. These are conversa-tions that we’ve had at the table for manyyears, and have been working on differentprograms and pilots.

Michael Hewitt: Just like Publix cannot besustainable without the participation of all146,000 associates, we’re also not an island.We cannot be sustainable without partneringwith our entire supply chain. We’ve donework with our suppliers, with our buyers, totry to find those alternative packaging optionsthat not only are more sustainable becausethey increase the recyclability of the card-board, but also do not degrade or harm thequality of the product that Publix and our cus-tomers demand.

Mira Slott: Are you trying to eliminateproduct packaging in some instances?

Michael Hewitt: We’re doing more of thatall the time, and another way that we’re work-ing on that is to partner with various associa-tions. Through participation in these associa-tions, we get connected not only with suppli-ers and manufacturers, but we also get con-nected with other retailers.

Maria Brous: Sustainability is not propri-etary. We believe that it is an industry move-ment that shares on best practices and we aremore powerful together. When we work withretailers that would typically be referred to ascompetitors, we get more accomplished forthe good of the environment.

Ken Whitacre: Have you formulated anofficial share group of retailers that you meetwith on sustainability?

Michael Hewitt: We meet with retailersthrough several associations on a regularbasis, again, not just food retailers, but otherretailers as well, because many of us share acommon interest. We all use energy, we allneed water to operate, and we all want toreduce packing and increase recycling, butthere’s another element that I want to makesure we don’t forget: the customer.

Through various efforts, we are trying topartner with our customers to help themmake more green, sustainable decisions intheir purchasing practices, to provide themwith tips on how to be more sustainable athome. A good example of that is our reusablebags, which we started selling quite a whileago. In fact, we have offered reusable bags for

many, many years. People are hopefully nowused to seeing the typical green bag or Publixreusable bag that’s being sold for 99 cents.But, for many, many years before that, wewere selling canvas bags.

Mira Slott: You were progressive here.Maria Brous: Right. People are talking

about using the bags as briefcases and giftbags, and catch-alls because not only are theymaking a statement, but they’re also beingmore user-friendly. But, we do different thingsto engage. Most recently, we engaged ourschool system in our market areas. We do apartnership with newspapers and educators.What we did this year to change up the NIE[Newspapers in Education, Troy, MI] pro-grams a little bit was to really involve kids. Weunderstand that the next generation is becom-ing so much more important in the sustain-ability of our earth and our planet, and morekids are becoming green.

We targeted and engaged all sixth gradersin our market area. We gave the teachers awhole NIE pullout on sustainability — abouteating healthy, eating green, living green, sav-ing energy and being more efficient. Itallowed teachers to develop a lesson plan.

We asked the sixth graders to design theirown reusable bag and we had a contest. Wewill reveal the winning bag for Earth Day this

year. Each sixth-grade teacher will receive thereusable bag that we’ve had made based onthis child’s rendering.

We really tried to get it from the grassrootsof working with the local schools, getting ourteachers involved, getting the parents, shop-pers, associates and suppliers involved,because they want to be part of that. So, itreally is affecting every part of our business.

Mira Slott: Do you bring the children tothe stores?

Maria Brous: We do. We do school tours.We talk about our practices and our efforts. Asa matter of fact, the Publix GreenWise Marketshave a unique program because they’re differ-ent, obviously, than any other store that wehave. So, they have a whole sustainabilitypacket that they go through. The scienceteachers usually love to go through and theywork on different activities, not only fromidentifying green products and green efforts,but we talk about some of the engineering —we talk about the roofing. We talk about thepaneling. We even talk about the restrooms,what’s recyclable, reusable. We do all differenttypes of things to engage the students.

Mira Slott: Jumping back a little bit topackaging, in the produce industry in particu-lar, food safety has become a big issue andthere’s a debate going on about packaging. Onone hand, there’s been a trend toward morepackaging for food safety. But then, packaging


“We are veryadamant that we willnever compromisefood safety or quali-ty, so we look for thatbalance where wecan ensure safetyand quality, and alsoprovide more recy-clable packaging, oreven sometimes,less packaging.”

— Michael Hewitt

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has an environmental side related to trying toget rid of more of it. How do you balance thoseissues of food safety and sustainability?

Michael Hewitt: We’re very adamant thatwe will never compromise food safety or qual-ity, so we look for that balance where we canensure safety and quality, and also providemore recyclable packaging, or even some-times, less packaging

Going back to the wax-alternative card-board again. We worked with the cardboardsupplier. We worked with the farmer produc-ing the produce, and we worked with the mid-dle company that would buy and sell thatproduce. We actually followed that producefrom the farm, through the distribution sys-tem, the warehouse, to the store. We did acomplete trial.

When that produce got to the store, wecould open up that box and look at that pro-duce and see exactly how well it did. That’sone example of our commitment to makingsure that when we do make these adjust-ments, these changes to be more sustainable,we’re not going to do anything to compro-mise our food safety or quality, or the integrityof the product.

Maria Brous: Michael and I definitelyagree that’s our philosophy. It doesn’t come toa balance for us. We will always put the quali-ty and the food safety as the top priority of

concern for us. Customers have grown toexpect that. They trust us. We work hard withthe Department of Agriculture. We work hardwith the FDA. We built all these partnershipsso that we’re close to the table, and we have aseat at the table when these issues come up.

We have a corporate quality assurancedepartment that is led by one of our directorswho has worked in the industry for othercompetitors as well as outside of the industry,and he brings a wealth of knowledge to thetable. We believe in the communication andthe establishment of relationships.

Much like what Michael said, we can’t dothis alone. We need to be informed. We needto be able to understand it from a differentperspective. But, we also bring to the tablewhat we know best, which is the food. This iswhat we do. This is our business, but there’s alot more that goes on before it even reachesour stores.

CUSTOMERS HAVE A VOICEMira Slott: How do you feel about these

issues of food miles? You had mentioned thisgoal of yours to try to bring in local produce.There’s been a little bit of controversy aboutfood miles and we’ve written a lot about it. Inthe U.K., for example, there was an issue whereTesco and Marks & Spencer were putting littleairplane stickers on packages to basically denote

that this was coming from Kenya or fromabroad, and that it would be more advanta-geous from a sustainability standpoint to pur-chase a local product. There have been all kindsof studies questioning the logic — examiningall the different issues in relation to carbonfootprints and whether it’s actually more sus-tainable to purchase that local product versusthe product from Kenya.

Maria Brous: Ironically, local is differentto every person we survey. Having said that, Iwill say that we are always attempting to givecustomers choice. One of the things we prideourselves on is that opportunity.

Specifically in our produce department,our produce is well labeled, so customersnever have to guess where their produce iscoming from. It is product of a specific loca-tion and it’s clearly denoted in the signage. Wealso have stickers that denote where the prod-uct is from, but signage is very clear.

But when we talk about availability ofproduct, there’s no seasonality in produceanymore. As a culture, Americans havebecome very accustomed to selection of prod-uct year-round, and because of that desire,local becomes very difficult to do.

Not everything grows every season locally,so there are times of the year where we have torotate, depending on if Florida might be toohot certain times of the year, and maybe it’stoo cold in Georgia. Customers still have thelargest voice with us.

Their purchasing power makes our deci-sions, so we continue to sell produce from dif-ferent areas year-round. Again, it’s about edu-cating them and allowing them to make thedecision. We don’t get involved in the seman-tics or the argument of what’s local. We letcustomers make that decision for themselves.

Whenever possible, we do like to work

“Whenever possi-ble, we do like towork locally. It’sadvantageous forus as a retailer aswell. We can bringthe freshest prod-uct to customers.

— Maria Brous

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http://www.globalorganics.ws

locally. It’s advantageous for us as a retailer aswell. We can bring the freshest product, andthere’s a lot of citrus and different productsthat grow locally that we can bring to cus-tomers. Plant City strawberries are the bestexample that I have. It’s the closest to home tous being in Lakeland.

But, we have started a campaign for ourcustomers called, “At Season’s Peak.” Cus-tomers would ideally know what is the grow-ing season for that particular item and thatwould be at the sweetest part, but also, thattheir chances of being more local to themwould resonate.

This is the third year that we’ve worked onAt Seasons Peak. It’s the first year that we’veput much more media value and we’ve actual-ly done spots that customers will see on TV.The first one that we did this year was for thestrawberries. The next go-around, I believe inJune, we’re going to be doing the berries thatare all in season, the raspberries, blackberries,blueberries-type deal.

We worked on that really hard so that wecan tell customers, “You’ve asked, we’ve heard.Here At Season’s Peak.” It doesn’t mean thateverything is going to be defined as local to allcustomers — for some customers that areholistic and live the lifestyle, it may be a 20-mile or 30-mile radius that they’ll considerlocal. However, depending on where you live,

that may not be a realistic kind of expectation. You know, at times Miami is not going to

be able to give you that locally grown pro-duce. But, you look at it and customers havethat freedom of choice. And we work hard. Imean, whenever possible, we do look local toour growers and develop those relationships.

Mira Slott: Do you put more emphasis onlocal versus organic? Do you view organic asmore sustainable as a product than local, con-ventional or other choices?

Michael Hewitt: Maria gave a couple ofgreat examples about the information we putin front of customers to try to help themmake the best decision that they can, the deci-sion that is best for them. We’re listening toour customers. We’re providing them with theinformation that’s available. We also want tobe careful not to confuse the customer by pro-viding them with information that might behard to understand or contradictory.

Mira Slott: You’re right. It can be complex.Michael Hewitt: It can be very complex. It

can be so complex that if you look at the car-bon footprint of a product, one product thatmight be considered a healthy choice mighthave a larger carbon footprint than anotherone that a customer might consider to be notas desirable an option for their child. A bottle

of soda might have a smaller carbon footprintthan a gallon of milk, and we don’t want totry to put a message in front of the customerthat might say one is better than the other. Wejust want to be able to provide customers withuseful information they can use to make theirown buying decisions.

Maria Brous: Right, and organic is moreof a lifestyle choice for some customers. Itdoes not necessarily point to sustainable. Theymay be looking for perceived health benefits,and we’re not there to make those claims ofwhether there is or isn’t a health benefit to eat-ing organic over conventional, but, it is beingsaid. When we look at traditional Publixstores, we have GreenWise product available.GreenWise symbolizes a couple of differentthings to us: Publix GreenWise products areour private label of health, natural and organ-ic products.

GreenWise is also the section of health,natural and organic products; so not just ourprivate label, but just the category itself. Thestores are laid out a couple of different ways.In some stores, the product is integratedthroughout. When you travel up and downthe aisles, usually it will be in GreenWise sec-tions. Actually, organic product will stick outso that it is easy to identify, so customers whoare looking to make that organic purchase cansee it easily. In other stores that may not have


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a large organic traffic, it will be in certain sec-tions. Organic product is merchandised in anorganic Publix GreenWise area, so customersknow exactly where to go and can shop withinthat area.

The majority of what you’ll see is in linewith the other products, because organic hasbecome a lifestyle. It’s not a fad. More cus-tomers are looking to find that balance to beable to make those purchases easily, not tohave to go to a particular section, but to beable to travel through the store, and it really isabout balance.

Just because our customers are livinghealthier lifestyle, doesn’t mean they’re notgoing to want to eat the pastries. It just meansthat they’ll eat the pastries in moderation.

It goes back to the same thing about trans-fat. We talk about transfat being one of thethings that was really high on our customers’satisfaction. But when you do a transfat-freedonut, it doesn’t really have the same affect.We’re always mindful that we listen to cus-tomers, but then we also do the research andsay, “Here’s what you asked for because it mayhave sounded good. Here’s what the endresult will be like. Now, tell us, where do wego on this?” It’s not that it’s impossible to do,but if you’re going to eat a donut, you’re eat-ing it for the transfat that’s in the donut, notbecause it’s transfat-free.

Those are all the things that we keep incontext in really understanding that our job,as a grocer of choice, is to provide options forcustomers and allow them to make the bestdecisions for their families. For some cus-tomers, price point may be the decision factor,so private label is important. For others, itmight be a belief in a more holistic, organiclifestyle. For others, it may be the productmakes a contribution to the community, so letme go with this product because of the impactthat it has from a social economic perspective.

The other part that we can’t forget is thetough economy. Decisions change in a tougheconomy. What some customers may havechosen in a vibrant economy changes, andthey’re making different decisions today.There’s something for everyone. You have tobalance the options.

And, we don’t take anything and general-ize. We don’t make assumptions. Our privatelabel organic is less expensive traditionallythan an organic product would be. PublixGreenWise tends to be less expensive becausewe have the buying power of 1,002 stores.

So, there are trade-offs. I may be willing tobuy this in a particular brand, but I’m notgoing to compromise my produce. I may besolely committed to buying organic producebased on what I’ve read. But, that’s really upto each and every customer to make thatdetermination.

Mira Slott: I’m just following up on yourcomments about educating consumers andoffering choices, and not making too manyjudgments. I don’t know if we’re sidetracking,but on your Web site, Publix discusses certifica-tion and labeling concerns regarding seafood. Iwas wondering whether there were some paral-lels to how you were labeling in produce aswell. Could you discuss what’s happening inthat seafood category, and then apply it inbroader terms?

Michael Hewitt: Well, seafood is a greatexample where we are partnering with otherretailers and suppliers to try to do better inlabeling, and to improve those certificationprograms. Because as we discuss on our Website, many of those certification programs canbe confusing to the customer.

Maria Brous: And conflicting.Michael Hewitt: Depending on whom

you talk to, one item may be from a sustain-able fishery. Someone else may say that it’snot. So, we’re listening to our customers. Weknow that they’re concerned about this issue.We are working hard on this issue all the time,and you’ll find some very frank language on

our sustainable Web site about that. And, thatagain is part of the transparency of our sus-tainability program.

We’re trying to be as open and as transpar-ent as possible with our customers, with oursuppliers, and even with our competitors sothat together, we can all do better.

CORPORATE CULTUREKen Whitacre: Are there certain bench-

marks that you are trying to achieve over theyears? I would say this is all a gigantic work inprocess that probably will never end. But, doyou have certain benchmarks that you’ve estab-lished — let’s say for example a certain percent-age of local or a percentage of organic at cer-tain times, or a percentage of wax-alternativepackaging. Is that already 100 percent or doyou have numbers that you try to look at andsee where your goals are in the future?

Michael Hewitt:Well sustainability is not adestination; it’s a journey. So, it’s not some-thing that we’re going to be working on thisyear, and next year decide well, we’re done.We’re on to the next thing. Sustainability isreally a philosophy that’s been with Publix

Exposed produce refrigeration ducts efficiently re-circulate the heat, which is then used towarm the building’s water systems.


since the beginning, and it’s one that will con-tinue for as long as Publix continues.

We certainly have aspirations. We willoccasionally set goals for ourselves internallyto do better. An example of a goal that we’llmake public soon is our “Climate LeadersPartnership” with the EPA.

Mira Slott: I was reading about that.Michael Hewitt: Publix has joined EPA

climate leaders.Maria Brous: Yes, in June of last year.Michael Hewitt: We’ve committed to cal-

culating our carbon footprint, which as itturns out is not that easy to do. In a companythe size of Publix with retail operations spreadout across five states, manufacturing and dis-tribution operations as well as various othersupport facilities, it is a challenge to captureall of those greenhouse gases, but we aredoing it.

We’re going through the verificationprocess with EPA right now to certify thosecarbon footprint calculations, and later thisyear, we hope to announce a goal for reduc-tion of our greenhouse gas emissions.

Maria Brous: We’re always looking forways to improve and it becomes more difficultthe more stores we have. Mr. George [Jenkins]imagined success as 100 stores, and now that’s10 fold. How do we continue to improve ourcommunication when we’re so spread out,with so many diverse markets and customersthat we serve? That becomes a difficult taskand we spend a lot of time focused on thatcommunication. It starts at home. That’swhere it really begins, breaking it down to itssimplest parts and then working from there.

MMiirraa SSllootttt:: You had mentioned earlier inthe interview about cash incentives to inspireinnovation. I’m having this picture of a family-like culture at Publix, where everyone’s a partof the whole process.

Maria Brous: We followed through withthe concept at our conference last year, andpeople didn’t even know there were going tobe cash incentives. That was the great partabout it. We had already measured year overlast and the moves that had significantly savedas part of the ‘Get into the Green Routine.’Savings were huge and people were recog-nized for that at our conference. We rewardedthe district manager and that collective forachieving the greatest improvement year overlast, and they were really excited.

Mira Slott: You create a challenge. Michael Hewitt: It’s competitive.Maria Brous: But retailers are competitive

by nature. It’s in the blood.Michael Hewitt: We’re all part of the same

family, but each of us...

there was one family that had 18 family mem-bers that were working for the company. Wehave a CareWise club as part of our healthbenefits program. I joke that the whole reasonI joined the club was for the simple fact theywere giving away a onesie to a future Publixassociate and I was getting it! So he will beworking at Publix when he’s old enough topush a cart, that’s for sure.

Mira Slott: Will both of you describe yourcareer paths and what led you to your sustain-ability work?

Michael Hewitt: Actually, Dave Duncan,our vice president of facilities is the teamsponsor. Presently, we don’t have any one atPublix with sustainability in their title, but Ithink that we will in the future.

Maria Brous: That person is looking moreand more like Michael.

Ken Whitacre: We wanted to talk a littlebit about you, Michael, and learn about yourevolution in the company, how you started,where you came from, what you bring to thetable and your vision. We’ll also talk to Mariaabout how she fits into the whole sustainabilityteam at Publix.

Michael Hewitt: Very briefly, I am a nativeFloridian and very proud of that. I’m a secondgeneration, actually and a lifelong Publix cus-tomer. But I didn’t start working for Publixuntil about three years ago. I have a back-ground in environmental engineering andhave spent years working with various regula-tory agencies as a consultant and for other pri-vate companies. But when I got to Publix, Iwas very excited because what I found was asubstantial culture already in place. Peoplewere passionate about not just the basics ofrecycling, energy and water conservation, butreally interested in doing the right thing, insupporting the community.

Whenever we talk about sustainability,sometimes the message of that people ele-ment gets lost, but sustainability is reallyabout people, as well. It’s not just about envi-ronment, and Publix is a company that cares alot about its associates and its customers.

So, my role as manager of environmentalservices is first and foremost to make sure thatPublix is 100 percent compliant with the myri-ad of environmental regulations that apply toour daily operations. But then, working atPublix has given me the opportunity to getinvolved at the ground level with the buildingof this new sustainability program, which real-ly isn’t new anymore. Ed Crenshaw kickedthat off in August or September of 2007, Ithink, when our corporate sustainability teamfirst started meeting.

Maria Brous: That’s when we pulled in allthe different departments that were doing

Maria Brous: Like siblings, we don’t missthe opportunity...

Michael Hewitt: ...to compete with eachother.

Mira Slott: That’s great. Maria Brous: It is, and then being able to

submit their ideas. Take the recyclable floralbuckets, for example. It was an associate whodid the job day in and day out and was think-ing, “How could I improve this process? Howcould I make it more sustainable?” She sub-mitted the idea. She did the little work-studyin her store. Turned out, she made a great ideaa reality. We did a whole story on her in thePublix newsletter.

Michael Hewitt: We recycle several mil-lion of those buckets ever year now. It was justan item that we had missed, an opportunitythat we had missed. If we had not pushed sus-tainability all the way down to the associatelevel, then those kinds of ideas would not beable to bubble back up.

Maria Brous: Just to show you how we’relooking at every aspect of our business, therewas a time where we used to have photo labsin store. We don’t have any in-store photolabs anymore, but the reports that are auto-matically generated still had the page for thatservice. We had an associate that said, “Wedon’t need this wasteful blank page.” Thinkabout 1,000 stores printing that extra pageday in and day out. Part of it was how wecould have missed something so obvious, butthat just goes to the point that something sosmall can make a really big difference.

Mira Slott: And also that you set up anenvironment where someone felt comfortableand motivated to say something, too.

Ken Whitacre: Now, if we could, I wouldlike to talk a little bit about your background.Maria, you’re a new mother.

Maria Brous: I am. I almost hesitate tosay “new” because he’s already a 30-pound,walking little boy with a mind of his own.

Mira Slott: I imagine Publix is very family-friendly with childcare.

Maria Brous: We are, definitely. I think


individual efforts and brought everybody toone table.

Michael Hewitt: We brought a focus to allthese great things that Publix had been doingfor decades and we started to pull all of thatunder the umbrella of sustainability. Eversince, it’s been going 100 miles-per-hour.

Ken Whitacre: Maria, how do you fit intothe whole sustainability picture as the commu-nications director?

Maria Brous: I’m a Publix lifer. It’s my19th year with Publix, so I bring a differentperspective to the company. I’ve been veryprivileged to be able to work with most areasof our business, and that’s how I became themouth and the face of the company. Beingprivately owned and operated, we typicallyspeak under one voice, so that is my officialcapacity, along with community involve-ments. I take care of media relations andcommunity relations.

My part in the sustainability effort is tolook at the steps that we’re taking as a compa-ny, how that affects our customers and associ-ates, how we get the message out and how wereally balance what we’re doing.

Because we’re in the forefront of sustain-ability, and innovators in this area, we mustdetermine how much is too much to put outthere, and when is the right time. There aremany companies doing great things, but we’vealways been very conservative.

Our customer base challenges us now.Many are choosing where to shop based onwhat companies do for the greater good. So asa company that was always very conservativeand private about what we’ve done, we’ve hadto take an introspective look and really put itout there. Because we always want it to beright the first time we do it, we’re going toenter a lot of pilots. We’re going to study,study and study again before we make a com-mitment. This represents who we are. Ourcommitment is long-term. We’re not fly-by-night, so sometimes the rollout is not as fastas some would like it to be and sometimes,it’s not as slow as others, but finding that bal-ance is my expertise.

I play Devil’s advocate. When we have allthese great things, my job is to look at it fromopposing points of view and examine wherethat leaves us at the end of the day. I ask thehard questions, leave no stone unturned, andthen my job is to go out there and marketwhat we do so that there’s an awareness.

Ken Whitacre: Was there any specific areaof the sustainability efforts that you had a hardtime convincing upper management, “We reallyneed to do this?”

Maria Brous: That’s an interesting ques-tion, but the most simplistic and honest

answer is no, because it started from the top,with the buy-in from our CEO. Ed Crenshawwas very adamant and committed to thethings that we had done as a company. Thatdoesn’t mean that everybody agrees on all thesmall projects all of the time.

We spend a lot of time discussing theissues. Whether it’s organic recovery, gettinginto the “Green Routine,” looking at suppliersand the wax alternatives, or our bailing sys-tem. We will not always agree on everythingwe do. The table is big and we each have a dif-ferent piece of the pie that we look at.

What we always put at the forefront iswhether or not it’s right for our customer, ourassociates, the environment, and what thelong-term will be.

Mira Slott: How do you prioritize whatyou’re going to emphasize? As you so aptlypointed out, sustainability is broad in scope. Ithas these different silos; there’s the environ-ment, there’s the social aspect with people andthere’s also the business aspect.

Michael Hewitt: It is very challenging. Ifwe had unlimited resources, you might beamazed at all the things that we’d like to do.But because we have certain constraints wehave to deal with, that everyone has to dealwith, we try to prioritize what initiatives getworked on and which ones have to wait. It’sunfortunate that we can’t do everything we’dlike to do, but it’s a reality.

We have to approach our sustainabilityefforts in a fiscally responsible manner, aswell. If it costs too much money to do, it’s notsustainable. We have to maintain the business

while we’re working on our sustainabilityefforts, so we spend a lot of time looking atfinancially viable opportunities.

We have a team that meets every month todo just that, to look at all of the opportunitiesthat come from individual associates andthrough other various avenues that must getevaluated. Those that we have the resources topursue the project and those that have meritget elevated to project status. Then we assignpeople to work on those projects and we trackprogress so that if it works, we can implementit across the entire company.

THE GREENWISE LABMira Slott: Tell us more about how you see

GreenWise as an experimental lab.Michael Hewitt: A Publix supermarket we

build today is much more efficient than onewe built just five or six years ago — moreenergy and water efficient. We build those effi-ciencies into every new store that we constructand we’re constantly looking to do better.

Our GreenWise Markets are an opportuni-ty for us to try out some things that we mightnot have otherwise had the opportunity to do.Our vice president of facilities who’s responsi-ble for all of the design and construction workthat goes into building a new Publix likes tocall the GreenWise Markets a lab, a workinglab, because it provides us the opportunity totry out new ideas and if those ideas work at aPublix GreenWise, you’ll most likely see themimplemented across the entire company.

Maria Brous: Lab is a good word for ourGreenWise Markets because they are theminority of our business. We have 999 other

Solar power is an ongoing priority for Publix. The company currently has four differentlocations that benefit from solar energy.

traditional locations. Publix GreenWise is notthe core of who we are, but we also knew thatwe needed to find an answer for customerswho were looking for that healthier lifestyle,who wanted more selection of health, naturaland organic.

We have three Publix GreenWise Markets— one in Boca, one in Palm Beach Gardensand one in Tampa. More and more customerswant to see what we’ve done with those mar-kets incorporated into the traditional stores.They don’t necessarily want a separate store tobe able to be called their Publix GreenWiseMarket. They are much happier with a hybridstore where they still enjoy the everyday indul-gences that we spoke about with differentproduct selection. They just want to see someof the other product mix.

We’ve really had to do a good job ofexplaining what some of the features are atthe Publix GreenWise Market, because somecustomers don’t even realize it’s environmen-tally friendly. They may have thought the nat-ural lighting, for instance, was just cool.There’s an energy-efficient reason why we’redoing that. We’re using bamboo in the fix-tures, which provides a decorative touch tothe store, but there is an environmentallyfriendly part to that, too. It goes far beyondthe products just being organic, to some ofthe actual materials that were used in thestore. It’s why we use soy coating on the roof.What does that do for us? Why are we usingthe track lighting and how does that help?Why are we using the misters, and why are weusing the LED lighting?

These are all things that customers see inour stores. It’s hard sometimes for customersthat have been traditional shoppers to under-stand the changes. Why does it look darkerdown the aisle until I actually start to walkdown it and the lighting starts to get brighteras I progress?

Change is a balancing act. Once we set thepriorities, we retrofit the stores. In somestores, we need to wait for the remodel, whilein others we’re able to implement the changesas they open. It just depends on the magni-tude of the project.

Mira Slott: Can you give some examples ofitems or procedures that were experimental andbeing tested that you’re now unfolding into thePublix stores?

Michael Hewitt: At one time, heat recov-ery on the refrigeration systems was experi-mental. Now, I think it’s pretty routine. Evenwhen it comes to the ventilation hoods in theprepared foods areas, we’re working on newtechnology to avoid as much air conditioningor heat loss as possible through those hoods,and we’re making progress there. I think oneday that may result in different hoods being

put in all Publix’s prepared food areas.

Mira Slott: You had mentioned mistingand different refrigeration techniques in theproduce department. Can you elaborate furtheron that?

Maria Brous: The misters are done for acouple of different reasons, but the first andforemost is that we can keep produce freshwithout using an excess of water.

If you remember previously, there was hos-ing of the produce with all that water anddrainage. Misting is much more efficient.You’ll see them not only at our GreenWise

Markets, but also in a lot of our producedepartments storewide.

When you look at our lighting — our tracklighting in the produce department — somecustomers may think it’s aesthetic. Yes, it maylook better aesthetically to some customers,but the lighting efficiencies involved in thetrack lighting provide not only a savings, buta more energy efficient source of lighting.

The same thing goes for the LED lighting.When we look at our cases in the refrigeratordoors, why are we retrofitting? It’s becauseover the lifespan of the cases and the products,there’s definitely a return. There’s an argument


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fleet, we have over 684 tractors on the road atany given day, so that becomes difficult in ofitself to say, “Okay, we can convert.” Welooked at our generators in 2004 after we werehit with back-to-back hurricanes. Being Flori-da-based, we always knew we had a prettytight business, but when we looked at 2004losses of over $60 million because we couldn’trecuperate before we were hit with the nexthurricane, we decided that we were going totake matters into our own hands and do gen-erators. It started off as a project that wouldinvest $100 million in hurricane-prone storesand then turned into a plan to cover the entirestate where practical.

Michael Hewitt: We have over 700 storesnow with these 500-kilowatt generators. Manyof them are bio-fuel, which means they runoff of the mixture of diesel and natural gas,making them more efficient and allowing fora longer runtime. That again gets to the peoplecomponent of sustainability and providinghelp after the hurricane hits.

Maria Brous: People look at Publix.Michael Hewitt: ...to help them buy their

medicine, to get clean water to drink and foodto eat, and ice, which is obviously very impor-tant after a hurricane.

Maria Brous: Everything goes off the shelfat one point or another. It amazes me theamount of produce, meat and dairy that wesell during that pre-hurricane rush. “What arepeople doing with this?” you wonder, becauseinevitably, you’re going to lose power no mat-ter where you are at some given point.

I still lived in South Florida in 2004 andright after Hurricane Charlie, I remember lis-tening to the radio and one of the morningDJs said, “I knew it was serious when I went tomy local Publix and they were closed. They’reonly closed three days a year.” This was thefourth day. This to him was the major topic ofconversation because we are that kind of con-gregation point.

Mira Slott: You mean the fact that peopleare depending on you.

Maria Brous: Yes, and while that is a greathonor, it also comes with a heavy load and aheavy responsibility that so many peopledepend on us as part of that community.

We have many more eyes that look at usfrom all different directions. Not only do cus-tomers expect more from us, but even regula-tory agencies and different organizations alsoexpect us to be taking the lead. There’s thepride and everything else that we have, butthere is also a higher set of standards that wehold ourselves to not only because we believein that personal accountability.

Michael Hewitt: It’s expected, and it’samazing the effort that goes into preparing fora hurricane and to make sure that after theR

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against doing this casing because there is animmediate investment. Don’t get me wrong;sustainability isn’t cheap, but there’s a returnon investment. Short-term sacrifice for thelong-term goal is what we continue to explore.

We even take that methodology when welook at our fleet. We have one the most envi-ronmentally friendly fleets.

Michael Hewitt: We have over 170 hybridvehicles in our light-duty fleet; that includescars and sedans.

Maria Brous: We have our Priuses; wehave our Camrys, which are company cars thatwe issue to our associates. It was probablythree years ago when we started testing the lit-tle Priuses, and now they’ve become morepopular. Before, it used to be if you saw aPrius, you thought of Publix. We were on thecutting edge of doing things like that.

Michael Hewitt: When we look at the ben-efit of doing that, we’re not just looking at thefuel savings. It also helps reduce our carbonfootprint and it sends the right message.

Mira Slott: You’re showing that youractions are connecting with your words.

Maria Brous: We really do question statusquo. We look at everything and ask ourselves,“How could it be better?”

Michael Hewitt: That’s a challenge for acompany that’s almost 80 years old. Compa-nies that have been around as long as Publixmight be more set in their ways, but we areconstantly working on trying to do better andalways asking why do we do it this way?

Ken Whitacre: Are you converting yourdelivery trucks to bio-diesel or any other effi-cient means of gas?

Michael Hewitt: No, but we’re looking atthat. We have a fleet of the heavy-duty trucks.We’re constantly working on increasing thefuel efficiency of those vehicles through vari-ous means, either mechanical or improvingthe aerodynamics. We’re also working on andhave achieved efficiencies in our deliveryroutes so that we can reduce the number ofmiles traveled and increase the utilization rateof those trucks, so there’s progress being madethere as well.

FUTURE CHALLENGESMira Slott: What do you think the biggest

challenges are to your future goals with sus-tainability?

Maria Brous: One of the things that I’dlist is our size. Being able to find suppliers tomeet our ever-growing store count poses achallenge in most cases. Even though we’revery regional, it’s still a large store count to beregional. When you look at those 1002 stores,783 are Florida-based.

When you ask about our trucks and our

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hurricane, we’re up and running as soon aspossible. That’s not just keeping the supplyroutes running, but hurricane debris removaland everything else that goes into opening upafter a big storm.

Maria Brous: All the things that we havedone to become more energy-efficient havealso helped us in the recovery processes.They’re all linked together.

Ken Whitacre: Has the economy slowedany of this down? Has it delayed how fastyou’re able to create a new store?

Maria Brous: The time doesn’t change forus. One of the most important things, whichFortune magazine noted for us, too, is in atough economic time we are a debt-free com-pany. We are making acquisitions. We contin-ue to be strong. We are still purchasing.

Do consumer trends change? Absolutely.Will we delay different projects because ourfocus is on our retail stores and servicing cus-tomers? Do we re-prioritize? Yes. To say nowould be inaccurate. The economy plays a sig-nificant part, but the commitment level doesnot change.

Whatever the project is that we’re workingon, whatever becomes a priority today, wemay need to wait on trying to work with aspecific vendor or on a pilot that they weredoing because it just doesn’t make good busi-ness sense now. However, that doesn’t meanwe’re going to stop talks about how to findthe next great thing in composting, or how toget back to that organic food recovery plan.We keep an open door. We’re always seekinginformation that allows us to do differentthings being debt-free.

We can take more risk in a tough economy,even though we’ve always been very cautious.We are a very lean company. There’s not awhole lot of fluff and excess. Being stockhold-ers in our company, we’ve always tried toeliminate waste — that’s part of our missionstatement — from inside out. So while theeconomy has changed for America, how wedo business hasn’t.

Mira Slott: When the gas prices keptincreasing to over $4.00 a gallon, there was bigtalk about sustainability and then, there wasconcern that maybe when the prices of gasstarted dropping, all of a sudden this big pushin sustainability was going to be pushed underthe rug again.

Maria Brous: What kills me is that ifthere’s been flooding or droughts, we’ll getcalls asking, “How is this going to affect theprice of your produce today or tomorrow?”I’m trying to explain you won’t see the impacttoday or tomorrow. It’s a longer-term affect.Come talk to me in about three months.

Rising gas prices is a perfect example. Fuelis only one part of the equation, during theprolonged period of time when problemsaccumulate. When customers saw the gasprices go down again, they assumed that thecost of goods would go down, but there’s stillthe cost of the raw materials and everythingelse that’s factored in.

The other part to that is the grocery busi-ness is a penny-for-profit business. There isnot a whole lot of room for money to bemade. Consumers see prices increasing, andthey automatically expect the grocer is profit-ing on that, when the actuality is we have towork hard for every dollar that you’re spend-ing. We’re earning pennies on that dollar. Wehave to sell a lot of groceries in order to makeit work and our commitment has to be there.

Ken Whitacre: Do you see your stores asthree separate entities — being GreenWise,your newer Publix formats that you open, andyour older Publix stores — and treat them dif-ferently in any way?

Michael Hewitt: No, we really don’t. It’sall the same to us. We have a few different for-mats because we’re always trying to service thecustomer better. But when it comes to energyefficiency or efficiencies realized during theconstruction process, insulation, the myriadthings we do to make our retail operationsmore sustainable; that mantra is the same.

Ken Whitacre: Let me throw in solar

power, for example. Does solar power have adifferent priority for a GreenWise store as itdoes for the other stores?

Michael Hewitt: No, it’s not a differentpriority. It’s a priority for the company. Solarwill be increasing in its importance going for-ward. What we’re looking for with solar is tofigure out how best to integrate that technolo-gy into what we do, and our GreenWise Mar-kets provided us with an opportunity — goingback to the laboratory comment earlier — toinstall some solar on a retail operation, andlook at how that works, how efficient it is,what the cost is, what the payback is and whatthe benefits are. We’ve also installed solar atour corporate office, so it’s not just at retail.We have photovoltaic generating capacity.

Maria Brous: We have another traditionalPublix that has solar installed, too.

Michael Hewitt: That’s right. We have atotal of four solar installations, each one simi-lar, but there are differences with each. We’relooking for how to make that work. Maybe


“A company withheart is probably thebiggest form ofpraise that you cangive us. It is our skinin the game. Wehave the commit-ment and pride andownership all tiedinto one.”

— Maria Brous


one day you’ll see solar at every Publix.

Ken Whitacre: So, that continues to be awork in progress. It’s very much a laboratory-type of an environment.

Maria Brous: There are more hands over-all at all times on the GreenWise Markets justbecause it is such a laboratory. It gives us acontrolled area to work with, so it does helpus to try things, but we’re also very realistic.Our GreenWise stores are 39,000 square feet.A traditional Publix typically would range upto 61,000 square feet, so there are differentthings that we need to try in traditional stores,as opposed to a smaller-scale store.

When we acquired some of the Albertson’slocations late last year, some of them are aslarge as 74,000 square feet. It’s a whole differ-ent prototype. We’re very careful to under-stand the impact.

Some stores are as small as 27,000 squarefeet. Urban stores tend to be a whole otherissue. We have stores with above-ground andunderground parking and condominiums ontop. There’s just an array of different storesthat we go into. Our goal is to be able to gointo any format or size store and maximize itspotential. The ground up is definitely easierfor us because we have a lot more say.

Our GreenWise Market in Palm Beach Gar-dens is LEED-certified and that became thebuzz. People ask us all the time, “Will all yourstores be LEED-certified?” Well, no, that’sunrealistic to look at a grocer with a 1,000-store footprint and ask us that, but we wantedto try things. We wanted to understand. We

hadn’t built a LEED-certified store before, sowe needed to try to do that. What’s the eco-nomic impact? What’s the long-term affect ofthat? What’s the goal? We’re not going to do itsimply to say it’s LEED-certified. How doesthat impact the customer? How does thatimpact us as a company? Are we being respon-sible stewards?

At the end of the day, we have stockholderswe answer to, which is each one of us, inbeing able to be a financially viable company.But a company with a heart is probably thebiggest form of praise that you can give us. Itis our skin in the game. We have the commit-men, pride and ownership all tied into one.

INDUSTRY RELATIONSKen Whitacre: Does Publix participate in

Fair Trade with bananas or coffee or anythinglike that?

Maria Brous: We have stayed out of FairTrade. We believe that those are issues thatneed to be handled outside of our arena. Weare not involved. We encourage the parties tocome to the table and have those discussionsand our job, at the end of the day, is to be aresponsible supplier to our customers, be anoutlet. We do not engage in this regard. We arevery respectful.

We don’t like anybody coming into ourhouse telling us how to do business. We don’tgo into other people’s and do that, but we doestablish the relationships for the long-term.It’s not uncommon for you to go to our sup-pliers that we have worked with for 30, 40,some 50 years, and still remember Mr. George.

Ken Whitacre: There are many items thathave to have certain certifications, such asGlobalGAP and ChileGAP, which actually havea sustainability or a corporate social responsi-bility element to them. I wanted to see whatyour philosophy is on that, if you look at that,if you are open to that, or if that’s somethingbeyond the realm of what you really want toget involved in at this point?

Michael Hewitt: It is beyond what we aredirectly involved in right now. We might getinto that arena somewhere down the road. AsMaria said, we have very specific philosophiesabout Fair Trade and I don’t see that changing.

Mira Slott: Beyond Fair Trade, there hasbeen this push for development of sustainabilitymetrics for specialty crops and another initiativeto create national standards for sustainability.There’s a debate about whether it’s desirable —or even possible — to have national standardsfor sustainability, even in terms of definingwhat sustainability is. Are you participating inthose discussions?

Michael Hewitt: We’re not participating inthose discussions on a national scale. My phi-

losophy of sustainability is that it is unique toevery company. So, there is no one-size-fits-allfor sustainability. What makes less sense tome is to try to come up with some nationalstandard of sustainability and then holdeveryone to it.

Sustainability really has a lot to do withcompany philosophy, who’s running the com-pany, and how engaged all of the employeesare in that company. It’s very company-specificand it’s also very business-specific.

Sustainability would be implementedmuch differently for Publix than it would befor a shoe store or an electronics store, simplybecause our operations are very different. Ilike to think that our sustainability strategy isunique to Publix, not to say that it’s betterthan anyone else’s, but it works well for us.

Mira Slott: Well, it seems to be all encom-passing. You’re covering every aspect of sustain-ability and corporate social responsibility. It’snot where you have some narrow environmen-tal initiative, which is what someone might ini-tially think with the attention on your recy-clable strategies. After talking to you here forthis amount of time, one can get a sense of howsustainability envelops your company in every-thing you do.

Michael Hewitt: You have to live it...youreally do. For some people, they were livingmore sustainable at home and that has per-meated the workplace. In other cases, we findassociates are learning more about sustain-ability at work and they’re taking that homewith them. So, it works both ways.

And now, through our Web site andthrough other opportunities, we’re helpingour customers apply sustainability at home,and we’re trying to provide our customerswith buying options in our stores that wouldhelp them live a greener lifestyle at home.

Mira Slott: What advice could you give toproduce industry companies that want to workwith you and improve sustainability goals with-in their own companies?

Michael Hewitt: Well, I’d tell them to beengaged with Publix; we’re always talking toour various suppliers looking for opportuni-ties. Another avenue might be through varioustrade associations where we can band togetherand make big changes, rather than just asmaller, local change, which might be morePublix-specific.

I would encourage produce growers tothink about, if not specifically try to calculate,their carbon footprint. Look at where theirgreenhouse gas emissions are coming from. Isit through fuel use or fertilizer use? Look forways to reduce that impact and then look forways to put that in front of customers. Findways to present that message via the Internet

or maybe through partnering with a retailer tosay, “This produce was grown at a farm thatwas more sustainable and here’s why.”

Also, I would encourage people to be verycareful about measuring. When you look atimpacts, for instance, carbon footprints, youneed to be very careful to document, and verycareful in how you collect that information soyou can be transparent when you talk about itwith other people, and when people come toyou with questions, as they inevitably do.

Mira Slott: No math manipulation.Maria Brous: We don’t believe in funny

math. No way.Michael Hewitt: We never overreach when

we talk about our green efforts. If anything,we’re conservative when we talk about itbecause we never want to be accused of over-stating anything or perhaps even brainwash-ing what it is that we’re doing.

Maria Brous: What you see is what youget. That’s what it comes down to. We are avery transparent company in every aspect.That’s the only way we know how to be. Butit’s worked for 79 years, so we’re doing some-thing right.

Ken Whitacre: Does Publix have any sys-tems where you actually highlight a certainvendor each year for going above and beyond?

Maria Brous: We are very protective of oursupplier relationships. We don’t engage inpublicizing. We don’t do a lot of press releas-es, unless it’s a mutual agreed-upon kind ofdeal. But, we are respectful of the relationship.We expect a lot, and we give a lot in return.

I think overwhelmingly, what you’ll hearfrom our supplier community is we’re a toughcompany, but when you’re in, you’re in, andit’s good to be that way. We like to set that barhigh because at the end of the day, we’re thereto serve our customers and to exceed theirexpectations. We do that every day, and weexpect no different from our suppliers.

We come in with a service mentality. Weare there to serve and we ask that our suppli-ers come to the table with the same mentality,and understand that our customers alwayscome first. Always.

Mira Slott: It seems like there’s this senseof integrity in what you do. I mean, it’s a busi-ness obviously, but I think you said somethingnice about having a heart.

Michael Hewitt: I think no one takes thatfor granted at Publix, but for the peoplewho’ve been there for years and years andyears, it becomes just everyday, natural — it’sautomatic. For those of us who came in morerecently, like I did three years ago, I still some-times just take pause and think about what Ihear and see, and think about what a neat

company this is and how unique it is.

MMiirraa SSllootttt:: Well, it’s interesting because Ihear that same family nature at PRODUCE BUSI-NESS, and it makes you feel dedicated to wantto do your best.

Michael Hewitt: You touched on some-thing really important, which we didn’t talkabout earlier, and that is when Publix is look-ing for new talent, when we’re looking forthat next generation — the generation that’sgoing to run the company after we’re gone —those are the people that we’re looking for,the people who feel that connection. Thank-fully, there are also people out there who arelooking for that connection.

The message of sustainability is yet anoth-er way for us to reach out to that talent pooland attract...

Mira Slott: People want to be a part ofsomething, to feel like their input counts.

Michael Hewitt: Right. I mean, surveyshave shown that people — young peopleespecially — are actually coming out of col-lege willing to take a job for less money if it’swith a company that they believe in, that theyadmire, that they believe is doing the rightthing, which is great.

Maria Brous: I think interestinglyenough, people always ask — especially dur-ing the holidays and summer — “Are you hir-ing for seasonal?” and our answer is no. We’relooking to make careers at Publix. It’s not justa job. It’s a career. Much like it’s a lifestyle, itreally is a sense of “This is who we are.”

Mira Slott: It must be very hard to be in anindustry with high turnover, especially whenyou’re going to all the effort of training people.

Maria Brous: I think within the first 30days, we spend, on average, about $6,000training our associates. Most of our them,within the first 90 days, know it’s a place forthem, that it’s something that they can do. So,we figure the majority of our turnover hap-pens within the first 90 days. But, when youtalk to them, it’s not uncommon to see the lif-ers come out. We have a district manager whois receiving his 55th Year Service Award com-ing up in April, and that’s not uncommon.The average — our median for store managerof years of service — is 25.4 years.

Ken Whitacre: That’s incredible. So do youfind that the people who want to work atGreenWise are more loyal, more dedicated?

Maria Brous: I don’t think so, because it’ssuch a small niche for us. When people cometo us, there is expertise at times. Their exper-tise may be different because we may havemore of the lifestyle. It’s different.

With only three stores, that was a big issueto come around the table and say the organic

lifestyle is different than a clean-cut, tradition-al associate should be. But it was importantfor us to step outside of that norm because wewere looking for the expertise in the area, andwe can continue to train associates there.

But, once you’re on board, once you’vedrunk the water, we expect you to be a part ofthis family and kind of sharing, and you don’tlast if you don’t. It’s one of those things thatpeople definitely know.

Michael Hewitt: Right. They’ll start whenthey’re a teenager stocking shelves, and theymay go to college, but they come back. It’s notunusual to meet a manager or director, oreven a vice president, who was once stockingshelves.

Mira Slott: It’s like your experience whenyou’ve seen all different aspects of the operation— it probably helps you and adds to yourunderstanding in how to answer a question.

Maria Brous: It does. I think I’m very for-tunate that way. But I think we each have ourstory to share and we’re all different. I mean,that’s the greatest thing and the greatest giftthat we have; it’s a diversity of thought. Wereally are a company that welcomes that, anddiversity is not black or white, male or female,or an ethnic group.

For us, it really is about diversity ofthought and coming to the table with a differ-ent train of reference, and really, what youbring to the table. And, Mr. George always hada saying that “Publix will be a little bit of abetter place or not quite as good because ofyou.” And that, still today, years later, res-onates. It’s in all our break rooms and it’ssomething that we very much live by. What isyour contribution in making this a little bitbetter place or not quite as good?

Mira Slott: Well, thank you so much fordevoting all this time. It’s just been fascinating.

[Editor’s Note: Special thanks to OscarKatov at OK Communications Inc., in Hoover,AL, for assisting PRODUCE BUSINESS in creatingthe Retail Sustainability Award Program.] pb


See video clips of this interview on our Web site:

www.producebusiness.com

http://www.producebusiness.com

Reader Service # 98



Wal-Mart Pricing Report Round XIX

Battle Of The TitansIn Phoenix, Arizona


S P E C I A L R E P O R T

Some believe that the future of American retailingcan be glimpsed in Phoenix, AZ. Between its largesenior citizen population and large Hispanic popula-tion, one can argue that this is what retailing inAmerica will look like in not all that many years.

So we traveled down to Phoenix for the 19th iteration of ourWal-Mart Pricing Study, seeking not just our usual quest — thelow price champion in one city — but also seeking enlighten-ment as to what the future might bring for retailing all acrossthe country.

One thing is certain: Phoenix is, in fact, a place where a bat-tle of the Titans is playing out. It is the only market in Americawhere one has a representation of three separate Wal-Mart con-cepts — the Wal-Mart Supercenter, the Wal-Mart NeighborhoodMarket and the new, small-store Wal-Mart concept known asMarketside.

In addition, Safeway has an energetic division and Kroger is

well represented in the marketplace with its Fry’s division.Tesco, the behemoth from across the sea, also used Phoenix asa launching grounds for its Fresh & Easy small store concept.

In addition to these national chain concepts, we included inour comparison a strong independent: Basha’s Supermarkets.

What can we surmise from the outcome of our produce pric-ing competition among this array of retailers in Phoenix?

Many things to be sure, but as a first order, this: If Phoenixis the future of American retailing, and if price for a cus-tomer walking in off the street is the key variable, thenthe future belongs to Wal-Mart.

Not only was the Wal-Mart Supercenter the low price leaderin Phoenix, but the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market conceptcame in number two, and Wal-Mart’s Marketside concept camein third! A trifecta! It hardly seems possible.

It is true, however. Yet in being true, it also reveals somedynamics that illustrate the way competition is playing out,

Wal-Mart’s trifecta — the Supercenter, Neighborhood Market and Marketside — rules the roost in Phoenix.

B Y J I M P R E V O R


PPrroodduuccee IItteemm HHooww SSoolldd** WWaall--MMaarrtt WWaall--MMaarrtt %% OOvveerr NNeeiigghhbboorrhhoooodd %% OOvveerr BBaasshhaa’’ss %% OOvveerr FFrreesshh && %% OOvveerrSSuuppeerrcceenntteerr MMaarrkkeettssiiddee WWaall--MMaarrtt MMaarrkkeett WWaall--MMaarrtt WWaall--MMaarrtt EEaassyy WWaall--MMaarrtt

Apples Fuji Per lb 1.47 1.77 20.41% 1.37 -6.80% 1.69 14.97% 1.33 -9.52%Apples Gala Per lb 1.00 1.67 67.00% 1.37 37.00% 1.69 69.00% 1.37 37.00%Apples Granny Smith Per lb 1.47 1.77 20.41% 1.37 -6.80% 1.69 14.97% 1.51 2.72%Apples Red Delicious Per lb 1.47 1.67 13.61% 1.37 -6.80% 1.69 14.97% 1.49 1.36%Artichokes Each 1.50 2.28 52.00% 1.50 0.00% 0.70 -53.33% 1.79 19.33%Avocado Each 0.33 0.50 51.52% 0.68 106.06% 1.25 278.79% 0.49 48.48%Bananas Per lb 0.67 0.58 -13.43% 0.45 -32.84% 0.69 2.99% 0.38 -43.28%Berries - Blackberries 6 oz 2.29 5.47 138.86% 2.98 30.13% 3.99 74.24% 2.98 30.13%Berries - Blueberry 6 oz 2.01 1.79 -10.95% 1.90 -5.47% 3.99 98.51% 2.98 48.26%Berries - Raspberries 6 oz 2.50 5.47 118.80% 2.50 0.00% 3.99 59.60% 3.88 55.20%Berries - Strawberries Per lb 1.25 4.28 242.40% 2.50 100.00% 3.99 219.20% 2.98 138.40%Cabbage - Green Per lb 0.68 0.56 -17.65% 0.64 -5.88% 0.69 1.47% 0.52 -23.53%Cauliflower Per lb 1.21 0.92 -23.97% 1.16 -4.13% 1.49 23.14% 1.24 2.48%Carrots - Table 2lb/bag 3.36 2.98 -11.31% 2.88 -14.29% 1.29 -61.61% 1.35 -59.82%Carrots - Mini Organic 2lb/bag 1.68 2.98 77.38% 1.88 11.90% 1.99 18.45% 1.97 17.26%Cantaloupes Each 0.78 1.50 92.31% 2.00 156.41% 0.99 26.92% 1.97 152.56%Celery Bunch 1.38 0.98 -28.99% 1.32 -4.35% 0.99 -28.26% 1.22 -11.59%Cucumbers Each 0.25 0.88 252.00% 0.38 52.00% 0.99 296.00% 0.98 292.00%Cucumbers Hothouse Each 1.50 1.89 26.00% 1.50 0.00% 1.69 12.67% 2.28 52.00%Garlic - whole Per lb 2.68 2.77 3.36% 2.48 -7.46% 2.99 11.57% 5.51 105.60%Grapefruit Each 0.68 0.50 -26.47% 1.14 67.65% 0.99 45.59% 0.78 14.71%Grapes - Red Seedless Bunch 1.78 1.00 -43.82% 1.78 0.00% 2.99 67.98% 2.98 67.42%Grapes - White Seedless Bunch 1.78 1.00 -43.82% 1.78 0.00% 2.99 67.98% 2.98 67.42%Lemons Each 0.33 0.58 75.76% 0.33 0.00% 0.79 139.39% 0.79 139.39%Lettuce - Green Leaf Each 1.58 1.46 -7.59% 1.44 -8.86% 1.49 -5.70% 1.39 -12.03%Lettuce - Iceberg Each 1.28 1.18 -7.81% 1.34 4.69% 1.29 0.78% 0.98 -23.44%Mangos Each 0.98 1.38 40.82% 1.38 40.82% 1.59 62.24% 0.98 0.00%Mushrooms - Baby Bella 8 oz 2.48 2.48 0.00% 2.48 0.00% 2.65 6.85% 3.32 33.87%Mushrooms - White 8 oz 1.44 2.48 72.22% 1.50 4.17% 1.99 38.19% 1.82 26.39%Onions - Red Per lb 0.98 1.18 20.41% 0.88 -10.20% 1.29 31.63% 1.16 18.37%Onions - White Per lb 0.98 0.98 0.00% 1.28 30.61% 1.29 31.63% 1.13 15.31%Pears - Anjou Per lb 1.00 1.58 58.00% 1.00 0.00% 1.69 69.00% 1.55 55.00%Peppers - Green Bell Each 0.33 0.88 166.67% 0.38 15.15% 0.99 200.00% 0.69 109.09%Peppers - Serrano Per lb 2.68 1.18 -55.97% 2.59 -3.36% 1.99 -25.75% 2.50 -6.72%Pineapple Each 3.00 2.00 -33.33% 3.73 24.33% 3.99 33.00% 3.49 16.33%Potatoes - Red Per lb 1.18 0.68 -42.37% 0.98 -16.95% 1.29 9.32% 0.66 -44.07%Potatoes Sweet Per lb 0.98 1.38 40.82% 0.98 0.00% 1.49 52.04% 1.97 101.02%Salad - Caesar 10 oz 3.38 3.48 2.96% 2.88 -14.79% 2.99 -11.54% 2.81 -16.86%Salad - European 10 oz 3.26 2.78 -14.72% 2.68 -17.79% 2.99 -8.28% 4.83 48.16%Spinach - Organic Baby 5 oz 3.38 3.48 2.96% 3.00 -11.24% 3.99 18.05% 1.98 -41.42%Squash - Yellow Per lb 0.98 1.78 81.63% 1.42 44.90% 1.49 52.04% 4.25 333.67%Squash - Zucchini Per lb 0.78 1.78 128.21% 1.00 28.21% 1.49 91.03% 1.44 84.62%Tomatoes - Roma Per lb 0.50 0.89 78.00% 1.42 184.00% 1.49 198.00% 2.00 300.00%Tomatoes - Vine Per lb 1.50 2.98 98.67% 1.50 0.00% 2.99 99.33% 3.16 110.67%MARKET BASKET 66.72 81.80 22.60% 71.12 6.59% 86.69 29.93% 87.86 31.68%

Wal-Mart Supercenter vs 6 ChainsPrice Comparison — Phoenix, AZ

Prices Available To The General Public

including strategic changes in the wayretailers are coming to market.

Wal-Mart itself has made a majorstrategic shift. In past iterations of ourWal-Mart Pricing Study when we havedone cities that feature a Wal-Mart Super-center and a Wal-Mart NeighborhoodMarket, the prices in both concepts havebeen identical, allowing for the occasion-al error or manager’s discretion at mar-keting something down.

Although Wal-Mart’s NeighborhoodMarket is still appealingly priced, comingin at only 6.59 percent over pricing atthe Wal-Mart Supercenter, it is clearlyoperating now on its own pricing agen-da. This is a significant change.

It may lead to a faster expansion ofthis concept, which has grown slowly.Wal-Mart executives have been hesitantto pour resources into the NeighborhoodMarket concept because, though always

profitable, it has traditionally realized areturn-on-capital lower than the Wal-Mart Supercenter. With higher prices, itis possible that profit margins willincrease, return-on-capital will improveand we will see thousands of Wal-MartNeighborhood markets roll out all acrossthe country.

Of course, there are risks for Wal-Martin allowing higher price points in theNeighborhood Market stores. For one, it

*Because some stores sell by the pound and some by the “each,” adjustments were made to ensure fair comparability.

% over % over % overRegion Store Wal-Mart Store Wal-Mart Store Wal-Mart

Connecticut-5/02 Super Stop & Shop . . . . . . .23% Shaws . . . . . . . . . .34% Big Y . . . . . . . . . . .36%

Salt Lake City-10/02 Harmon’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2% Smith’s . . . . . . . . . . .6% Albertsons . . . . . . .12%

South Florida-2/03 Super Target . . . . . . . . . . .22% Publix . . . . . . . . . .31% Winn-Dixie . . . . . . .52%

Dallas, Texas-10/03 Albertsons . . . . . . . . . . . . .23% Brookshires . . . . . . .7% Kroger . . . . . . . . . .19%Neighborhood Market —1.2% Tom Thumb . . . . . .27%

Portland, OR-3/04 Albertsons . . . . . . . . . . . . .30% Fred Meyer . . . . . .22% Haggen . . . . . . . . .27%Safeway . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37%

Phoenix, AZ-8/04 Albertsons . . . . . . . . . . . . .22% Basha’s . . . . . . . . .25% Fry’s . . . . . . . . . . . .15%Safeway . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17%

Palm Springs-10/04 Albertsons . . . . . . . . . . . . .19% Jensen’s . . . . . . . . .60% Ralphs . . . . . . . . . .16%Vons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20%

Detroit, MI-1/05 A&P Food Basic . . . . . . .—17% Farmer Jack . . . . . .24% Kroger . . . . . . . . . .28%Meijer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3%

St. Louis, MO-5/05 Dierbergs . . . . . . . . . . . . .22% Schnucks . . . . . . . .14%

Houston, TX-9/05 HEB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15% Kroger . . . . . . . . . .30% Fiesta Mart . . . .—0.3%

Atlanta, GA-11/05 Harry’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18% Ingles . . . . . . . . . .16% Kroger . . . . . . . . . .25%Publix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13% Target . . . . . . . . . . .3%

Denver, CO-5/06 Albertsons . . . . . . . . . . . . .16% King Sooper . . . . . .21% Safeway . . . . . . . . .25%

Portland, OR-10/06 Albertsons . . . . . . . . . . . . .32% Fred Meyer . . . . . .21% QFC . . . . . . . . . . . .54%Safeway . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30%

Toronto Canada-7/07 A&P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35% Brunos . . . . . . . . . .28% Loblaws . . . . . . . . .13%Sobeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45%

Kansas City, KS-10/07 Dillions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20% Hen House . . . . . . .15% Hy Vee . . . . . . . . . .18%Price Chopper . . . . . . . . . .13%

Los Angeles-4/08 Fresh & Easy . . . . . . . . . . .15% Starters . . . . . . . . . .8% Ralphs . . . . . . . . . .25%Vons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14%

Orlando, FL-10/08 Publix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32% Super Target . . . . .22% Whole Foods . . . . .38%Winn Dixie . . . . . . . . . . . .28%

Phoenix, AZ 4/09 Wal-Mart Marketside . . . . .23% Neighborhood Market . . . .7% Basha’s . . . . . . . . .30%Fresh & Easy . . . . . . . . . . .32% Fry’s . . . . . . . . . . .27% Safeway . . . . . . . . .37%


kets should drop the Wal-Mart name alltogether. After all, there is a danger inassociating the Wal-Mart name with high-er prices, even if they are still cheap inthe context of the market.

It is actually unclear the concern ofWal-Mart executives with the lowerreturns realized by the NeighborhoodMarket concept was ever the right way toapproach the issue. An alternative viewwas that to dominate a market, Wal-Martneeded both Supercenters and, located

between the widely spaced supercenters,the Neighborhood Market stores.

Although the blended return-on-investment may appear at first glance tobe lower than a pure Supercenter ROI,sometimes a few extra points of market-share in a city or region is enough to per-suade a competitor not to enter the mar-ket, or to persuade a poorly performingcompetitor to abandon a market. Thatlessening of competition may allow ablended Supercenter/Neighborhood Mar-

FFrryy’’ss %% OOvveerr SSaaffeewwaayy %% OOvveerrWWaall--MMaarrtt WWaall--MMaarrtt

1.49 1.36% 1.69 14.97%1.29 29.00% 1.69 69.00%1.29 -12.24% 1.49 1.36%1.29 -12.24% 1.49 1.36%2.49 66.00% 2.99 99.33%1.29 290.91% 1.29 290.91%0.79 17.91% 0.69 2.99%3.99 74.24% 3.99 74.24%3.99 98.51% 3.99 98.51%3.99 59.60% 3.99 59.60%3.99 219.20% 3.99 219.20%0.59 -13.24% 0.59 -13.24%1.49 23.14% 1.69 39.67%1.38 -58.93% 1.49 -55.65%1.50 -10.71% 1.99 18.45%0.99 26.92% 2.99 283.33%1.49 7.97% 1.69 22.46%0.89 256.00% 0.99 296.00%1.99 32.67% 1.99 32.67%2.66 -0.75% 2.29 -14.55%1.29 89.71% 1.29 89.71%2.49 39.89% 2.99 67.98%2.49 39.89% 2.99 67.98%0.25 -24.24% 0.79 139.39%1.49 -5.70% 1.69 6.96%1.29 0.78% 1.29 0.78%1.29 31.63% 1.49 52.04%3.32 33.87% 2.99 20.56%1.75 21.53% 1.75 21.53%1.29 31.63% 1.29 31.63%1.29 31.63% 1.29 31.63%1.49 49.00% 1.69 69.00%0.89 169.70% 0.99 200.00%2.49 -7.09% 1.99 -25.75%3.99 33.00% 4.99 66.33%1.29 9.32% 1.29 9.32%1.29 31.63% 1.29 31.63%3.71 9.76% 3.29 -2.66%2.99 -8.28% 2.99 -8.28%1.56 -53.85% 1.87 -44.67%1.79 82.65% 1.69 72.45%1.79 129.49% 1.69 116.67%1.49 198.00% 1.49 198.00%2.99 99.33% 2.99 99.33%

84.87 27.20% 91.10 36.54%

How They Stack Up Against Wal-Mart Supercenter

may turn off consumers, both becausethe higher prices mean less value andbecause as the media gets a hold of thisinformation that Wal-Mart NeighborhoodMarkets sell the same thing as Wal-MartSupercenters at higher prices, editorswill advise budget-strapped consumers toavoid the Neighborhood Markets andwait until they go to a Supercenter.

If they are going to be priced differen-tially, perhaps the Neighborhood Mar-


ket approach to pay off well beyond astraight Supercenter approach.

Wal-Mart’s Marketside concept doesnot use the Wal-Mart name. Its pricepositioning in the market is tricky. Wewere told that on grocery, it would stickto pricing used at its larger brethren inthe Wal-Mart family, though we have nottested this claim. On fresh produce, how-ever, it prices significantly higher than aWal-Mart Supercenter — 22.6 percenthigher in fact. Yet this still is less expen-sive than Fresh & Easy, Basha’s, Kroger’sFry’s and Safeway — if we are speakingabout the price a walk-in customer getsin the stores.

Phoenix is a market, though, whereloyalty cards do battle and Basha’s, Fry’sand Safeway all have such programs, andthey have significant effects on pricecompetitiveness.

The mighty Kroger keeps its price lev-els fairly lofty, coming in fourth in themarket, behind all three Wal-Mart con-cepts, with a price point of 27.2 percentover the Wal-Mart Supercenter. If, how-ever, one is a member of its loyalty cardprogram, it is dramatically more compet-itive, coming in at only 12.65 percent

over Wal-Mart on items affected.Less dramatic, but in a similar fash-

ion, Basha’s came in sixth in the marketat fully 31.68 percent over the Wal-MartSupercenter. For loyalty card holders, thedifference was a more digestible 17.94percent over the Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Among the big American chains, Safe-way pulled up the rear in Phoenix, allow-ing itself to be 36.54 percent over Wal-Mart’s Supercenter pricing, and evenafter its loyalty card discounts, it came inat 24.04 percent over the Wal-MartSupercenter in pricing.

Clearly, the big battle is being wagedin Phoenix to win over loyal shoppers,which leaves the field free to the threeWal-Mart concepts to pick up consumerswho don’t want to bother with the hassleof loyalty cards.

FRESH & EASYBattle Phoenix also provides some

insight as to why Tesco’s Fresh & Easyhas had trouble gaining traction: Put sim-ply, it is too expensive.

Not offering a loyalty card, Fresh &Easy came in fifth in the overall marketfor walk-in business with a price level

29.93 percent over the Wal-Mart Super-center, and the small store format wasbeaten by its small store rival, Wal-Mart’sMarketside concept, by 15.02 percent.

Perhaps most important, after loyaltycards are considered, Fresh & Easy camein dead last of the seven retailers westudied in Phoenix.

Now Fresh & Easy has spent a lot ofmoney giving out store coupons,although it will not accept manufactur-ers’ coupons. These store coupons wouldserve to reduce consumer outlays — ifthe consumer has a coupon and caresenough to save it, bring it to the storeand use it.

We wonder if Fresh & Easy executivesshouldn’t forget about the couponingaltogether and offer prices that are com-petitive for the market.

One other interesting note is how itcomes to be that the Wal-Mart Super-center was so dominant in pricing. Sev-eral items were being purchased locallyby store managers utilizing their preroga-tives to take advantage of local marketsurpluses to offer value to consumers.Specials on cucumbers, avocados andother items emphasize the Wal-Mart

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http://www.miatech-advantage.com

Wal-Mart Supercenter vs 3 ChainsPrices Available to Card Holders

Phoenix, Arizona — May 2009


value proposition.So following one visit to Phoenix,

here’s what we’ve learned about the

future of retailing:1) Flexible chains that can take advan-

tage of local opportunities can offer

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Produce Item How Wal-Mart Basha’s % Over Fry’s % Over Safeway % OverSold Supercenter Wal-Mart Wal-Mart Wal-Mart

Apples Fuji Per lb 1.47 0.88 -40.14% 1.49 1.36% 0.99 -32.65%Apples Gala Per lb 1.00 0.88 -12.00% 1.29 29.00% 1.69 69.00%Apples Granny Smith Per lb 1.47 0.88 -40.14% 1.29 -12.24% 1.49 1.36%Apples Red Delicious Per lb 1.47 0.88 -40.14% 1.29 -12.24% 1.49 1.36%Avocado Each 0.33 1.00 203.03% 1.00 203.03% 0.99 200.00%Bananas Per lb 0.67 0.69 2.99% 0.59 -11.94% 0.69 2.99%Berries - Blackberries 6 oz 2.29 3.99 74.24% 2.50 9.17% 3.00 31.00%Berries - Blueberry 6 oz 2.01 3.99 98.51% 2.50 24.38% 3.00 49.25%Berries - Raspberries 6 oz 2.50 3.99 59.60% 2.99 19.60% 3.99 59.60%Berries - Strawberries Per lb 1.25 2.99 139.20% 1.25 0.00% 3.00 140.00%Cantaloupes Each 0.78 0.29 -62.82% 0.99 26.92% 2.99 283.33%Grapes - Red Seedless Bunch 1.78 1.99 11.80% 1.99 11.80% 2.49 39.89%Grapes - White Seedless Bunch 1.78 1.99 11.80% 1.99 11.80% 2.49 39.89%Lemons Each 0.33 0.79 139.39% 0.25 -24.24% 0.50 51.52%Lettuce - Iceberg Each 1.28 1.29 0.78% 1.29 0.78% 1.00 -21.88%Mushrooms - Baby Bella 8 oz 2.48 2.65 6.85% 3.32 33.87% 1.50 -39.52%Onions - Red Per lb 0.98 1.29 31.63% 0.79 -19.39% 1.29 31.63%Pears - Anjou Per lb 1.00 0.88 -12.00% 1.49 49.00% 1.69 69.00%Pineapple Each 3.00 3.99 33.00% 3.99 33.00% 3.99 33.00%Tomatoes - Vine Per lb 1.50 2.99 99.33% 1.99 32.67% 2.69 79.33%MARKET BASKET 66.72 78.89 17.94% 75.16 12.65% 82.76 24.04%

strong value.2) Wal-Mart has abandoned uniform

pricing for its different divisions.3) Many chains choose to save their

fire to offer bargains to their loyalty cardcustomers and so allow the walk-in tosubsidize that effort.

4) Fresh & Easy may be in troublebecause without a store coupon, it offers aterrible value proposition.

5) Wal-Mart remains an amazing jug-gernaut, barely being challenged by othermainstream retailers for the low-price-leader market positioning.

Of course, many questions remain.How are hard discounters, such as Aldi,affecting consumer value perceptions? Dohigh-end retailers, such as Whole Foods orBasha’s upscale sister, AJ’s Fine Foods,have to worry about cheap competitors?Will Wal-Mart’s decision to sell at two dif-ferent price points both under the nameWal-Mart have long term implications?How important is assortment, location,cleanliness, etc., as opposed to price?

Still, for a few days in Phoenix, welearned a lot on what is percolating in thecity many call the testing ground offuture American retailing. pb

http://www.plainjaneproduce.com

Yet, the differences between their consumptionpatterns and those of their neighbors in the UnitedStates are becoming less pronounced, as similarpressures and concerns affect both populations.

WELCOME TOCANADA, WAL -MART

Some differences still persist. When Wal-MartStores Inc., based in Bentonville, AR, first intro-duced super centers to Canada three years ago, thecompany had to look at its operation in the United

States and weigh what changes needed to be madein tailoring the food operation for a new market.Wal-Mart recognized that Canadian consumerswere intensely focused on freshness, so its Canadi-an outlets incorporate a larger produce assortmentthan is found in U.S. stores, including an oversizedorganic display with plenty of signage. This notonly services consumers who prefer natural prod-ucts, but also underlines the company’s commit-ment to providing fresh food in whatever form itscustomers prefer.

Kevin Groh, director of corporate affairs for Wal-Mart Canada Corp., based in Mississauga, Ontario,notes produce is critical to assuring Canadian con-sumers that the company is meeting their prefer-ence for freshness as it expands its super center for-mat. In the first three years of super center opera-tions, Wal-Mart Canada has opened about 57 loca-tions and plans to debut 26 more by the end of thecurrent fiscal year. “It’s a format that’s obviouslycaught hold, and consumers have made that jumpbetween recognizing Wal-Mart as a great stop forgeneral merchandise to accepting Wal-Mart as agreat market for food. The focus on produce hasbeen a big part of that,” explains Groh.

Wal-Mart is still tweaking the assortment, some-times editing it as the company develops a betterunderstanding of what Canadian customers reallywant. Of course, that changes over time. “If youstop tweaking, you get left behind,” remarks Groh.For example, Wal-Mart has had to make manyadjustments to serve the range of Canadian com-munities, many of which are multi-ethnic, particu-larly in the Toronto and Vancouver areas. “There isa really broad and varied multicultural representa-tion in many of our communities,” Groh explains.“We’ve got a new store in Scarborough at the north-east end of the Toronto metropolitan area wherethe local customer base is comprised of approxi-mately 75 percent minority groups.”

In an effort to develop effective product assort-

Canadians are, as always, intent on consum-ing fresh food, viewing it as important toquality of life and health.

Canadian Retailers’ Winning Formulas Retailers across Canada keep consistent sales volume by catering toconsumer needs by offering local, organic and value-added products.

B Y M I K E D U F F


Canadian Wal-Marts incorporate a larger produce assortment than theirAmerican counterparts.

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ments, Wal-Mart has applied a communitymerchandising strategy throughout its Cana-dian stores to better serve consumers. Rela-tive to the United States, ethnic consumersin Canada are more likely to be Asian. Wal-Mart has adapted by adding Halal food andmulti-cultural assortments of fruits and veg-etables, details Groh. Still, while it courtsAsian consumers with baby Bok Choy inone market, Wal-Mart Canada — in an exam-ple of convergence with the operation in theUnited States — stocks mangos and plan-tains in locations where Hispanic communi-ties are thriving.

Melanie Richer, marketing and commu-nications senior manager for the CanadianProduce Marketing Association (CPMA),based in Ottawa, Ontario, reports ethniccommunities are having a significant impacton eating habits in Canada, both throughdirect contact as they assimilate into societyand through an influence on food culture,including restaurants and increasingly popu-

lar television cooking shows. “TV foodshows are increasing the trend,” she notes.“Eggplant sales increased for one of ourmembers quite a bit after a mention in atelevision show. Mango, papayas, lychees —they all relate back to TV food shows thatdemonstrate how to use them and how toinclude them in meals. The more exposureconsumers have to different cultures in foodshows, the more they will go to stores topick things up.”

Virginia Zimm, president of Faye ClackCommunications Inc., based in Mississauga,Ontario, also notices the considerable influ-ence Canada’s multi-cultural population hason the country’s eating habits. “We have ahuge ethnic population, especially Asian,with many emigrating from Hong Kong.Canadians love to experiment with food andtry new things, and our multi-cultural popu-lation has definitely brought their food andflavors into retail stores,” she says. “BokChoy and Chinese green beans are now


Canada And The United States:Similar, But Different

Health, interest in local and seasonalproduce and even wariness inspending during gloomy economic

times are factors uniting Canadian and U.S.consumers. So it’s hardly surprising that, ifasked, many of the people involved inCanadian produce industry say cross-borderdifferences are relatively slight.

“Our members feel the Canadian andU.S. markets are similar and getting evencloser,” notes CPMA’s Richer. “Even goingback to TV and media, people in bothcountries are watching the same things andgetting closer, especially with interest ineating healthfully — a large part of which iseating fresh fruits and vegetables.”

Some differences remain, and some-times, those differences are specific, as isthe case with salad dressings. “For refriger-ated salad dressings in the United States,the big two are ranch and blue cheese,”reports Doug Hawkins, president of Lite-house Foods Inc., based in Sandpoint, ID.“They are about 60 percent of U.S. sales.Caesar is big in Canada, and Greek isstronger. In the United States, we have mul-tiple flavors of ranch. In Canada, there aremultiple flavors of Caesar, such as Romanoand garlic.”

It’s not that Canadians don’t eat bluecheese or ranch dressings. In fact, ranch isrelatively strong in Western Canada, and, asthat suggests, regional preferences in Cana-da can be pronounced. Hawkins says Asian

flavors, such as sesame ginger havebecome more popular in Western Canada,too, as that region gets more involved withthe Pacific Rim.

The difference between Canadian andAmerican demand for organic produce isparticularly slight, remarks David VanSeters, founder and CEO of Spud, a Van-couver, B.C.-based home delivery retailer ofnatural foods operating in Canada and theU.S. He recently had his staff compareshopping habits across the internationalborder — Spud serves Vancouver, Vancou-ver Island, Calgary, Seattle, Portland, SanFrancisco and Los Angeles — and theresults revealed relative affinity. “In bothcountries, our customers purchase between33 and 36 percent fruit as total sales, whilethe remainder is vegetables,” notes VanSeters, although he pointed out that U.Smarkets lean a little more toward vegeta-bles while Canadian markets prefer fruit.

In terms of growth areas, similaritiesremain, and consumers in both countriesshow evidence of their concern for health,novelty and authenticity. “There is a generalincrease in sales of produce items that arehigh in antioxidants, for example blueber-ries, or that are of heirloom or heritage vari-eties, for example, Newton Pippen applesand heirloom tomatoes,” details Van Seters.“Asian greens are also growing in popularityand seem to be replacing chard and kale tosome extent.” pb

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mainstream produce products, when a fewyears ago, you would have had to hunt themdown in Chinatown.”

VALUE -ADDED/ORGANICSTAKE CENTER STAGE

A variety of influences is promptingCanadians to consume more fruits and veg-etables, and the produce industry is helpingthem do so by providing value-added prod-uct and convenient packaging. “We’re seeinga significant amount of growth in fresh-cuts,smaller size snack packs geared toward chil-dren and different kinds of produce that’spre-cut, making it easier for consumer tograb-and-go, taking the work out of prepara-tion,” Richer reports.

Canadian retailers are responding to thevariety of influences in the market, includ-ing the growth of Wal-Mart’s food operation.Michael Mockler, produce director forSaanichton, British Columbia-based ThriftyFoods, is dealing with the expansion of Wal-Mart Canada’s food business by concentrat-ing on higher-end products and more expan-sive assortments. A 20-store supermarketchain, Thrifty, also operates a producewholesale operation distributing to its storesand more than 60 independent grocers inBritish Columbia. Sobeys Quebec, one of

Canada’s largest supermarket chains, pur-chased Thrifty in 2007, although the Mon-treal, Quebec-based retail outlet continues

to operate under it own banner.Mockler maintains taking a high quality

position leaves him plenty of room to oper-ate. The Canadian consumer’s eagerness forflavor and variety creates a willingness to

spend money on better quality food. “Con-sumers want diversification: ethnics, vari-etals, organics. They want mangosteens outof Jamaica. I’m not going to make moneyon mangosteens, but I’m going to carrythem because those customers are alsogoing to buy triple-layer cakes, and that’swhere we make money.”

Of course, the economy could put adamper on consumers’ enthusiasm forexotics and other pricey produce, yetexchange rates have been a bigger issue inCanadian produce retailing. Sales are up inmany product areas because import priceshave risen as the Canadian dollar hasdeclined in value. Mockler believes therecession, which has only mildly impactedWestern Canada thus far, may be helping hisbusiness in some ways. Canadian con-sumers have begun to cut back a bit, butthey still want to enjoy fresh food. “The con-sumer now has no problem paying 68 to 79cents a pound for bananas, when a year ago,they were only 59 cents a pound. Part ofthat is because more people are bringinglunch to work, rather than going out.”

The slow start to the recession in Canadaand its modest effects so far have made itdifficult to tell just how the economic slow-down will affect the produce industry. Cur-


A variety of influ-

ences is prompting

Canadians to

consume more fruits

and vegetables, and

the produce industry

is helping them do

so by providing

value-added

produce and conve-

nient packaging.

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We Love CanadaCome visit your friendsat Silver Creek CPMA

booth #329

http://www.silvercreek.com

rently, the issues that have been importantfor the past few years remain top of mindfor many Canadian consumers. Wellnessremains an important consideration andorganics continue to be in high demand.Mockler discloses the organic business inBritish Columbia is among the strongest inCanada and remains vital.

“About six percent of produce sold insupermarkets in British Columbia is organ-ic, which is above average in Canada andthe United States,” he notes. “Consumers arebuying smarter. Ninety-five percent of peo-ple have a job. They’ve got money, but theymay be a little more wary spending it.Nonetheless, they are still buying healthfulfoods. They may be buying some consumerpacks and maybe a cheaper apple ratherthan the extra fancy grade, but they don’tquibble on lettuce.”

Anthony Pitoscia, vice president andowner of Fresh Advancements Inc., awholesaler and importer that can be foundin Toronto, Ontario, and on the OntarioFood Terminal, agrees that organics remainpopular among Canadian consumers, but sodoes convenience. “Our organic food selec-tion drives our business growth. We werethe first wholesaler, we believe, that dedicat-ed an entire location on any food terminalto certified organic products. We have a fullline of fully organic repackaged products.That’s a sector of growth. We’ve had growthin value-added from our other company,Freshline Foods. People are getting awayfrom 24-count Iceberg because they want togo to a no-hassle product,” says Pitoscia.

Freshline produces value-added productsranging from fresh-cuts to home meal

patterns his group has seen don’t suggestpeople are scrimping, even if they are con-cerned about the future. “The reports we’regetting are that even though potato pricesare higher, volumes haven’t declined. Withthe sort of recession or decline in the econo-my we’re starting to see, there is more inter-est in comfort food,” he explains.

In fact, Canadian potato growth reflectsother trends in the country, particularly forproducts in the right size and that providethe right eating experience. “Growth seemsto be in specialty-type potatoes, and, certain-ly, we have a wider selection of packs sizes


replacement under its own brand name andas a private label provider for retailers rang-ing from Loblaws to Costco to Sobeys. Thecompany even produces burger kits for bar-becues that include cut onions and toma-toes and is preparing to launch products inmicrowave steam bags that allow con-sumers to prepare a side dish in three tofour minutes.

Although potatoes are a food consumersturn to when times are tight, Roland Mac-Donald, market development officer for theCharlottetown, PEI-based Prince EdwardIsland Potato Board, reveals the purchasing

Canadian get excited for locally grownproduce because the season is so short.

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advantage of potatoes in its promotions.

HEALTHFUL , COMFORT FOODS

Fresh food is something Canadians con-tinue to turn to as comfort during tryingtimes. “Despite difficult economic times, Ibelieve that people still need to rewardthemselves with the occasional indulgence,”asserts Elizabeth O’Neil, chairman anddirector of marketing for mushroom special-ist, Highline Produce Ltd., based in Leam-ington, Ontario. “It’s how consumersindulge that will likely change, and I would

P R O D U C E B U S I N E S S • A L L C A P S D A T E54

“If there is any

sort of positive

result from this

economy, it’s that

people are realizing

they need to take

care of themselves.”

— Virginia ZimmFaye Clack

Communications Inc.

not be at all surprised if we see fresh pro-duce, possibly even more exotic produce,filling that role. For example, perhaps con-sumers will choose exotic fruit or berriesonce in a while instead of apples, exoticmushrooms for a gourmet meal, instead ofplain button mushrooms. It is an indulgencethat can create a special and shared experi-ence at home, but that people can still feelgood about.”

Health is becoming more important tomany Canadians as the economy wavers.Just about half of Canadians contacted in asurvey conducted for supermarket operatorLoblaws said that given the uncertain econo-my, one thing they control is themselves;thus, they need to take better care of theirphysical health. Still, 45 percent of Canadi-ans haven’t initiated a healthful eating andfitness regimen because they worry it willcost too much.

Loblaw has been trying to make it easierfor Canadians to eat healthfully on a budget.The company has combined products fromits President’s Choice Blue Menu — ahealth-oriented private label offering din-ners, entrées and other dishes — with freshproduce in a range of menu plans publishedonline. “By visiting the PC Healthy EatingChallenge online, consumers can view mealplans that encourage including fresh fruitsand vegetables to one’s daily meal plan,”explains Diane Sidik, spokesperson forLoblaws Inc., in Toronto, Ontario. “PC’sHealthy Eating Challenge encourageshealthful living overall, with suggested BlueMenu and fresh fruit and vegetable items tohelp Canadians get there.”

Faye Clack’s Zimm tries to look at thedampening economy with a silver lining. “Ifthere is any sort of positive result from thiseconomy, it’s that people are realizing theyneed to take care of themselves,” she prof-fers. “The berry trend, especially blueber-R

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and varieties, too,” say MacDonald.PEI Potato Board’s general manager Greg

Donald, adds, “Suppliers are trying to meetneeds of consumers with smaller packagesizes and individual potatoes versus largerbag sizes. Some of the value-added preparedproducts are the industry responding to con-sumers’ changing needs.”

PEI potatoes have a particular cachetthat has helped the growers and the boardestablish a gourmet reputation for the cropgrown there. Going forward, though, the PEIboard wants to address consumers’ growinghealth issues by emphasizing the nutritional

http://www.producepackaging.com

Reader Service # 97


ries, is here to stay. People are going back tothe basics because it all comes down to whatyou feed yourself. Be good to your body andyour body will be good to you.”

CANADIANS DEMANDLOCALLY GROWN

As the success of PEI as a brand suggests,Canadians are interested in issues aroundhow produce makes its way to market, andthat has boosted local and seasonal prod-ucts, a trend noted by Peter Austin, Canadi-an sales director of B. C. Tree Fruits Ltd.,based in Kelowna, B.C. “People feel the local

products get to them in a fresher state andcan give them a better eating experience,”maintains Austin. “They want to promotethe local economy. We believe we’re bring-ing better food to the community andimproving its carbon footprint.”

A significant focus of B. C. Tree Fruit’sbusiness has been development and com-mercialization of new cherry and apple vari-eties that can extend the Canadian growingseason. “On the soft fruit side, we’ve beenbusy developing a new late season cherry,”reveals Austin. “We’re the most Northerngrowing area in the world, and we have a


“Consumers would

rather buy a local

product versus an

import if available at

that time.”

— Mimmo FranzoneLongo Bros.

Fruit Markets Inc.

federally funded research station in theOkanagan Valley. We are trying to developnew varieties so we can extend the market-ing season. The latest one we have comeout with is the Staccato cherry. That seemsto be going well.”

B. C. Tree Fruit’s Ambrosia apple hascaught on and Okanagan growers are follow-ing with the Nicola, a Gala/Splendor cross.“We’ve had a lot of interest in that,” notesAustin. “It will come to market this seasonin limited volume, but in the next five yearsthe volume will increase.”

Mimmo Franzone, category manager ofproduce and bulk foods at Mississauga,Ontario-based Longo Bros. Fruit Market Inc.,a grocery chain with 17 stores in the Torontoarea, reveals consumers are expressing adistinct preference for local produce. “Con-sumers would rather buy a local productversus an import if available at that time,”says Franzone.

The caveat of Canadian locally grownproduct is that the season is short. “It’s afrenzy,” admits Zimm. “Because of the shortgrowing season — we have peaches for fouror five weeks and cherries for only two orthree — consumers really look forward toharvest time when they can finally get theirhands on Canadian product.”

Freshness is a key element of con-sumers’ preference for local product.Longo’s addresses this issue by building rela-tionships with growers both inside and out-side of Canada’s borders to get product fromfield to fork faster. While they like local,Canadian consumers demand fresh fruitand vegetables year round and certainlyhave no problem obtaining it international-ly. “Our local season — the heart of it — isonly two months,” notes Franzone. “Theystill want to buy strawberries from Califor-nia when they are around. They want exoticproducts, and that doesn’t change. Theywon’t shy away from buying a mangobecause it isn’t grown locally.” pbR

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http://www.californiatomatofarmers.com


CANADIAN PRODUCE MARKETING ASSOCIATION84TH ANNUAL CONVENTION AND TRADE SHOW

May 6-8, 2009 • Toronto, Ontario, Canada — Metro Toronto Convention Centre

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109 SWEET ONION TRADING CO.Palm Bay, FLSpecializing in quality, sweet onions fromaround the world, Sweet Onion TradingCo. is uniquely poised to offer superiorsweet onions in annually consistent sup-plies at fair market prices. Grown frompremium Granex seeds, we offer a vari-

ety of packaging options, including2- and 3-pound bags withrecipes, 5-pound drawstring

bags and 40-pound, bulk car-tons with new GS1 databarPLU stickers!

122 SAN MIGUEL PRODUCEOxnard, CASan Miguel Produce, creator of Cut ‘nClean Greens, specializes in the cookinggreens niche and is well known for offer-ing the largest variety of farm fresh,ready-to-cook greens. Cut `n CleanGreens uses no additives or preserva-tives. The company is introducing new

organic and Asian value-added cooking greensfor retail, wholesale andthe foodservice industry.

137FRESH ORIGINS LLCSan Marcos, CAWe offer microgreens, petitegreens, edi-ble flowers and tiny veggies. Our exten-sive variety list includes: FireStix,MicroFlowers, Micro Mustard Dijon,Micro Tangerine Lace and many moreexclusive items. Often imitat-ed, we produce a steadystream of original innova-tions. Our products are avail-able year-round from SanDiego, CA and we will FedExto Canada.

200 WELL-PICT BERRIESWatsonville, CAWell-Pict offers you a complete berryprogram with premium, proprietary vari-ety strawberries and raspberries available12 months out of the year. Our latestdevelopments include a re-engineered 2-pound strawberry clamshell to reduceshipping costs, our redesigned website(www.wellpict.com) and new winterstrawberries from Florida.

210PRODUCE BUSINESSBoca Raton, FLInitiating industry improvementsince 1985, PRODUCE BUSINESS isthe most widely distributed pub-lication in the industry. Exclu-sively edited for buyers, it pro-vides a monthly dialogue ofmarketing, merchandising, man-agement and procurementinformation that helps buyersaccomplish the industry’s 9-to-13-A-Day goal.

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CPMA AISLE-BY-AISLE BOOTH REVIEW

201L & M COMPANIES INC.Raleigh, NCL & M Companies was founded in 1964as a family business, and has been mar-keting in Canada for 15 years. We offeran inventory of potatoes and onions, anarray of vegetables, along with apples,pears, cherries, melons, limes and man-gos. Many of our varieties are available as

c e r t i f i e dorganic pro-duce.

204 SUNLIGHT INTERNATIONALSALES/J.P. DULCICH AND SONSDelano, CAJakov Dulcichand Sons’ 2500acres of multi-ple varieties oftable grapes are marketed in Pretty Ladyand Sunlight Labels by Sunlight Interna-tional Sales. A number of new, seedlessvarieties are being grown, including Luis-co, Autumn King, Magenta and the upand coming Scarlet Royal.

http://www.wellpict.com

214 GILLS ONIONS Oxnard, CAAs North America’slargest onion grow-er/processor, we are looking forward toserving your fresh pre-cut onion needs!Stop by and see our retail products ineye-catching, re-sealable, stackable, recy-clable packaging that offer the ultimatein convenience to your customers.

217 CAVENDISH PRODUCECharlottetown, P.E., CanadaCavendish Produce is committed to sup-plying top-quality potatoes to the retailand wholesale trade on a year-roundbasis. We supply the U.S. East Coast,Canada and the Caribbean with russets,whites, reds, yellows, blues, fingerlings,organics and otherspecialty pack pota-toes with CavendishProduce and/or otherprivate-label brands.

223 AMERIFRESH INC.Scottsdale, AZHaven’t heard about theAmerifresh Advantage?Our friendly team canshow you why Amer-ifresh has been synonymous with avail-ability, consistency and quality for thepast century. With Amerifresh, you canrely on consistent levels of freshness,color, size and flavor when you need it,where you need it, regardless of weatheror time of year.

236 BARD VALLEY MEDJOOL DATEGROWERS’ ASSOCIATIONBard, CALocated on the banks of the ColoradoRiver, we are growers and shippers of theworlds’ finest Medjool dates. We shipbulk and consumer packs.

238 CALIFORNIA LEAFY GREENS MARKETINGSacramento, CAThe LGMA incorporates science-basedfood safety practices and mandatorygovernment inspections by USDA-trained auditors. LGMA memberso pro-vide products that are healthy and safeby reducing potential sources of contam-ination in California-grown leafy greens.LGMA members handle approximately99% of the volume of leafy green prod-ucts grown in California.

248 WAUDWARE INC.Brompton, Ontario, CanadaWaudware offers computer softwaredesigned to improve the profitability andperformance of fast-paced produce busi-nesses. With a proven track record in theproduce and distribution industries, asevidenced by our flagship product PICS -The Produce Inventory Control System,we understand the complexities of man-aging inventory, fulfillment and traceabili-ty issues.

300 BONIPAK PRODUCE CO.Santa Maria, CABonipak is a multi-commodity grower,packer, shipper and processor that sup-plies both the retail and food serviceindustries. Bonipak offers products of thehighest quality and freshness with year-round availability. Our Cut-To-Cool Pro-gram ensures that freshly harvestedproducts are cooled and ready to shipwithin 24 hours.

302MISSION PRODUCEOxnard, CAMission Produce is aglobal packer, importer,processor and distribu-tor of avocados and asparagus. Ourripening and distribution centers in Cali-fornia, Denver, Chicago, New Jersey,Atlanta, Dallas and Seattle, enable just-in-time delivery to customers nationwide.New at Mission is our year-round aspara-gus program.

315LITEHOUSE INC.Sandpoint, IDStop by our booth to see what’s new inthe refrigerated dressings, marinades andsauces, fruit and veggie dips, glazes,caramel and more. Come over to samplesome delicious food and to see how Lite-house can help grow your producedepartment sales.

316 MANN PACKING CO. INC.Salinas, CaliforniaMann Packing Company is celebrating its70th anniversary in business. The leadingdeveloper of innovative packaging forfresh, ready-to-eat vegetable products,Mann introduced the first broccoli flo-rettes, Broccoli Wokly, in 1939 and putbroccoli on the map as a health food.Visit our booth to see what’s new infresh-cut sweet potatoes, a super-food

driving sales in the fresh-cut category.

242 SETTON PISTACHIO OF TERRA BELLATerra Bella, CASetton Pistachio is a processor andexporter of California pistachios, offeringraw and roasted salted, U.S. extra #1, all-naturally opened California pistachios;raw 80 percent whole kernels; kernelsplits; and flavored in-shell pistachios(asian soy, chili-lemon,garlic-onion, hickory andjalapeno).

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323 SEALD SWEET INTERNATIONALVero Beach, FLSeald Sweet proudly celebrates a centuryof service to the produce industry, grow-ing and shipping fresh citrus, grapes,pears and more from the finest growingregions around the world. Our brandsinclude Seald Sweet, Seald Sweet Interna-tional, Disney Garden Seald Fresh, WhiteTiger, Florigold, Poinsetta, Belle of Piru,Titan, Glider and Ring Leader.

329 SILVER CREEK SOFTWAREBoise, IDVisual Produce, an accounting programtargeted to the fresh produce industry,offers unique capabilities for producewholesalers, distributors, packers, brokersand grower settlements, including cus-tomer menus, contract pricing, lot con-trol, route accounting, visual Internet andmuch more.

CPMA AISLE-BY-AISLE BOOTH REVIEW216 RAINIER FRUIT CO.Selah, WARainier Fruit is dedicatedto farming using princi-ples of good steward-ship. Our primaryresponsibility is to grow the finest qualityapples, pears, cherries and blueberriesusing the natural resources entrusted tous, without compromising the ability offuture generations to do the same. Stopby to discuss our blueberry, cherry andsummer apple programs.

331RIVER RANCH FRESH FOODS LLCSalinas, CARiver Ranch Fresh Foods has introduceda line of Popeye Steamers vegetablebowls and Frais! Popeye Fresh! Premiumkit bowls. The Steamers’ proprietarysteaming technology allows perfectlycooked vegetables in five delicious fla-vors: Alfredo, Blue Cheese, Sharp Ched-dar, Butter & Garlic and Monterey Jack.

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0336 BEACH STREETFARMS LLCWatsonville, CABeach Street Farms, a premiergrower/shipper of conventional andorganic berries, is committed to provid-ing the highest quality berries available.Cultivated in the heart of the Californiastrawberry-growing regions of Northernand Southern Californi, supplies are avail-able almost year-round.

348 CALAVO GROWERSSanta Paula, CACalavo Growers is the worldwide leaderin marketing, packing and shipping freshavocados. We also distribute frozen andrefrigerated ultra high-pressure technolo-gy (UHPT) avocado products, such asguacamole and avocado halves to theretail and foodservice industries. Alsoavailable: papayas, pineapples, tomatoes,mushrooms and more.

437 COLUMBIA MARKETINGINTERNATIONALWenatchee, WAAs one of WashingtonState’s largest apple,pear and cherry ship-pers, CMI strives todeliver the finest products throughimproved growing, harvesting and ship-ping procedures. You can count on CMIfor exceptional service and selection ofconventional and organic apples, pearsand cherries.

501 B.C. TREE FRUITS LTD.Kelowna, B.C.,CanadaB.C. Tree Fruits supplies central servicesto our owner packing organizations andprovides sales, marketing and promo-tional functions under the B.C. Leafbrand. Since 1936, we have developed areputation for providing quality fruitgrown in British Columbia’s OkanaganValley, and provide exceptional serviceto customer base.

507 THE OPPENHEIMER GROUPCoquitlam, B.C., CanadaOur vertically-integrated base of growersfrom over 25 countries makes us a val-ued supplier to retailers, wholesalers, andfoodservice customers. We deliver year-round volumes of preferred items, as wellas custom packaging, category manage-

ment, quality assurance,e-commerce and trans-portation solutions.

530 P.E.I. POTATO BOARDCharlottetown, P.E., CanadaThe Prince Edward IslandPotato Board represents PEI’spotato industry. PEI produces russets,whites, red, yellow, organic and specialtypotatoes. Our shippers supply all packsizes to Canadian, U.S. and export mar-kets around the world. Prince EdwardIsland is known worldwide for its unique,rich, red soil and for its high quality stan-dards.

537 KURT ZUHLKE & ASSOCIATES INC.Bangor, PAKurt Zuhlke & Associates is an environ-mental friendly supplier of producepackaging for more than 50 years. Ournewest line of packaging, the “Keeping ItGreen Program” includes the 3JRC and3LC clamshells, made from100 percent recycled,post-consumer PETE.

542 FAMOUS SOFTWARE LLCFresno, CAFamous software provides integratedaccounting and management softwarethat is focused on improving productivi-ty, profitability and control. We areproviders of traceability, COOL, RFID,EDI, H2-A and B2B solutions and offerworld-class training, support, program-ming and consulting.

625 MASTRONARDIPRODUCE LTD./SUNSETKingsville, Ontario, CanadaMastronardi Produce/SUNSET is a pio-neer and industry leader in the gourmetgreenhouse industry that grows and mar-kets nationally recognized brands suchas Campari Brand Cocktail Tomato,Splendido Grape Tomatoes and Cham-pagne Cocktail Tomatoes under its Sun-set label.

640CF FRESHSedro Wooley, WACF Fresh is a dedicated organic salesagency representing multiple growersfrom Washington, BritishColumbia, Oregon, Califor-nia, Argentina and Chile.CF Fresh sells organicapples, pears, onions,potatoes and stone fruit.

536 FLORIDA TOMATO COMMITTEEMaitland, FLThe experts agree — there’s value ingoing back to basics. Florida TomatoGrowers proudly provide our Canadianretail and foodservice partners the high-est-quality tomatoes all year long. Sinceour tomatoes are grown with the moststringent food safety standards, our cus-tomers are finding that getting back tobasics is actually an upgrade — in bothtaste and value.

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642 THE MARCO CO.Fort Worth, TXThe Marco Company has provided theretail industry innovative and cost-effec-tive merchandising solutions for over twodecades and is still family-owned andoperated today. Marco currently hasover 1,000,000 square feet of manufac-turing and warehouse space and proudlyserves 24 of the top 25 grocery storechains in the United States.

715 CALIFORNIA STRAWBERRYCOMMISSIONWatsonville, CAVisit us to learn about the CaliforniaStrawberry Commission’s priorities - foodsafety, trade relations, research, nutrition,public policy and mar-keting communicationsfor an industry that pro-vides 96 percent of allstrawberries consumedin Canada.

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630 HIGHLINE MUSHROOMSLeamington, Ontario, CanadaHighline Mushrooms specializes in thegrowth of mushrooms without the use ofany pesticides. We offer a full line of vari-eties and pack sizes. Our newest offeringis ready-to-serve marinated mushrooms,available in four delicious flavors: KettleCooked Portabellas, Caramelized SkilletMushrooms, Garlic Sautéed Mushroomsand Marinated But-ton Mushrooms.

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717 PEAR BUREAU NORTHWESTMilwaukie, ORUSA Pears, grown in Washington andOregon, represent 84 percent of the U.S.fresh pear crop. With several varietiesand near year-long availability, USA Pearsare a fresh and profitable choice to carryin produce departments from fall tosummer. Learn about vari-eties, ripening programs,culinary applications andexciting merchandisingopportunities.

726 MACKAY & HUGHESToronto, Ontario, CanadaEarthFresh Foods, through MacKay andHughes, grows and distributes potatobrands including Klondike Rose, GreenGiant Fresh, European Gourmet, SierraGold, and EarthFresh Organic. In Cana-da, Earthfresh exclusively distributes theGreen Giant Freshbrand of potatoesand onions.

737BOLTHOUSE FARMSBakersfield, CAStop over and taste why our juices, pro-tein drinks and premium dressing busi-ness is thriving! We are the leading NorthAmerican supplier of 100 percent natur-al beverages and are raising the bar withour dressing innovation. Our categoryexperts are here to helpyou optimize sales inthese critical profit-dri-ving categories.

741 STEINBECK COUNTRY PRODUCESpreckels, CASteinbeck Country Pro-duce is a family-ownedgrower/shipper/packerof premium vegetables. Headquarteredin the Salinas Valley, we offer a full line ofvegetables year-round from Californiaand Arizona. Visit our booth to see ournewly designed packaging that will be agreat addition to your retail displays!

742 COLORFUL HARVESTSalinas, CAColorful Harvest grows premium, quality,fresh produce including strawberriesyear-round, blueberries, raspberries,blackberries, melons, sweet red corn,rainbow crunch carrots in orange and

purple, green cauliflower, pur-ple broccoli and more.

816 DUDA FARM FRESH FOODS INC.Salinas, CADuda Farm Fresh Foods isa major grower, shipperand marketer of fresh cit-rus and fresh-cut vegetables with primarylocations in Florida, Texas, California, Ari-zona, Georgia and Michigan. Duda FarmFresh Foods is a wholly owned subsidiaryof DUDA, a family-owned, diversified-land company headquartered in Oviedo,Florida.

845ACCU-LABEL INC.Leamington, Ontario, CanadaFrom its inception, Accu-Label continuesits commitment to providing all types ofenvironmentally friendly,pressure-sensitive labellingsolutions to fresh producepacking houses acrossNorth America. Our prima-ry products include: ORB-itVision Labeller, ORB-it Over-Top and STIC-it.

911 TEXASWEET CITRUS MARKETING INC.Mission, TXTexaSweet Citrus Marketing Inc., char-tered in 1962, is a nonprofit corporationthat represents the domestic marketingand promotional interests of growersand shippers of fresh grapefruit andoranges grown and produced in Texas.

948 JEALOUS FRUITLake Country, B.C., CanadaJealous Fruits is a Canadian firm, special-izing in ultra premi-um cherries, freshpicked from Julyright through theend of August. Wecater to discerningcustomers who appreciateexquisite fruit.

1007DRCOttawa, Ontario, CanadaThe Fruit & Vegetable Dispute Resolu-tion Corporation (DRC) is a private, non-profit organization of produce and trans-portation companies dedi-cated to providing fair, effi-cient, affordable andenforceable dispute resolu-tion services. Membershipis open to produce andtransportation companies trading withinand into North America.


818DEL MONTE FRESH PRODUCESt. Leonard, Quebec, CanadaFresh Del Monte offers retailers andfoodservice operators an array of innova-tive solutions to address the changingtastes and lifestyle needs of today’s con-sumers. Our extensive distribution net-work allows just-in-time deliveries of ourpremium quality fresh products to yourdoorstep.

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1012 TANIMURA & ANTLESalinas, CADiscover Tanimura & Antle’s long stand-ing commitment to quality, service andinnovation. Tanimura & Antle producesa full line of vegetables including ArtisanLettuce, Living Lettuce, Artisan RedOnions, iceberg, romaine, broccoli, cauli-flower, Broc-coflower, andbell peppers.

1016 EARTHBOUND FARMSan Juan Bautista, CAEarthbound Farm began 25years ago in a backyardgarden with a big commit-ment to organic farming. Today, 150 ded-icated organic farmers grow our top-quality organic salads, fruits and vegeta-bles on 33,000 acres, keeping about 10.5million pounds of conventional agricul-tural chemicals out of the environmentevery year.

1001 DOMEX SUPERFRESH GROWERSYakima, WADomex is aninternationalfruit marketing firm that grows and mar-kets both conventional and organicallygrown domestic and imported apples,pears, cherries, peaches and apricots.Look to Domex Superfresh Growers forinnovative marketing and promotionslike RipeSense Pears and our newApple/Food Pairings POS.



By overcoming common misperceptions andavoiding sweeping generalizations, retailers cantake full advantage of this growing important anddiverse market segment.

MYTH 5 : I ’M SELL ING TO NON-ENGL ISH SPEAKERS

While the Spanish language is important tomany Latinos, it is mistaken, and in fact risky, toassume all Latinos speak Spanish. Laura Sonderup,managing director for Hispanidad, headquarteredin Denver, CO, a company that provides integratedmarketing services to reach the Latino market,explains this common misconception, “Previously,many retailers believed a Hispanic marketing ini-tiative had to be exclusively in Spanish. However,in today’s retail environment, one must take intoconsideration the growing middle-class and affluentsegments in the Hispanic community— individuals

who possess a more advanced level of acculturationand English proficiency.”

The influence of younger generations should betaken into consideration as well. “Latino childrenwill assist in the purchasing of products throughreading labels, price differentiation and also withthe consumption decisions,” says Maggie Bezart,marketing director for the Santiago, Chile-basedChilean Avocado Importers Association (CAIA) andpresident of Bezart Marketing Communications inAptos, CA.

“Since many immigrant parents come to thiscountry with little knowledge of American brands,their children interpret marketing messages andcounsel them on what to buy,” adds Sonderup.“Hispanic youth have a different value system andmindset than their non-Hispanic counterparts andshould be considered a separate and distinct seg-ment within the larger U.S. Hispanic market.”

However, bilingual staff and signage is an asset.Dick Spezzano, president of Spezzano ConsultingService in Monrovia, CA, reveals, “You want yourcustomer to be comfortable. If you have a mixeddemographic, you need to consider having trulybilingual employees.”

“Correct bilingual signage and a proficient bilin-gual staff will allow a store to better service theLatino customer,” concurs Mike Potts, vice presi-dent of sales for Turbana Corp., in Coral Gables, FL.

Salisbury, NC-based Food Lion LLC has Span-ish-speaking associates, as well as signage in bothEnglish and Spanish. “Marketing products in Span-ish, and providing the kind of customer servicerelating to this market helps sell various products,”says marketing manager Daniel Herrera.

Maria Brous, director of media and communityrelations for Publix, in Lakeland, FL, notes, “Wehave stores that encompass bilingual signage, Eng-lish first. We also have ads driven for the generalmarket and then those driven to our ethnic con-sumers as well.”

Although many Latinos respond to marketing in

In the April issue of PRODUCE BUSINESS,writer Jodean Robbins began an explorationof the U.S. Latino community and the mosteffective manner in which retail storesshould be reaching out to this consumergroup.

Debunking Myths Of The Latino Market (Part II of II)As the U.S. Latino community multiplies, retailers should consider ways to specifically cater to this important and influential demographic.

B Y J O D E A N R O B B I N S

Variety is key when marketing to Latino customers.

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their own language, companies must beassured the translation is accurate to thegroup they’re targeting. “Literal translationsfrom English often don’t work,” explainsVeronica Kraushaar, president and CEO ofViva Global Marketing LLC, headquarteredin Nogales, AZ. “You also must be carefulabout using words and expressions withnegative meanings in Spanish or Por-tuguese. For example, the Chevy Novanever made it in Mexico because ‘No Va’means ‘Doesn’t Go’ in Spanish.”

“Although bilingual service meets one ofthe needs of the relationship, the delivery ofthe service should be via a knowledgeableand courteous person,” cautions GabrielaAlcantara-Diaz, chief strategic officer forMachado/Garcia-Serra Communications(MGS), a national, multicultural, integratedmarketing communications agency, in CoralGables, FL. “Associates must be well-trainedemployees. Simply possessing the ability tospeak Spanish isn’t enough.”

MYTH 6 : FOCUS ONLY ONMANGOS AND TORT ILLAS

Stores must have the correct products —this includes both familiar, establishedbrands, as well as new products to the mar-ket. “We’re no longer talking about a special-ty section, but rather looking at the wholeproduct mix,” says Karen Caplan, presidentof Frieda’s Inc., in Los Angeles, CA.

“Decisions in product mix should bethought of in a triangular strategy,” advisesAlcantara-Diaz. “First is understanding inci-dence of purchase — evaluating where cer-tain groups have a higher incidence thanothers. Second is the size and selection ofpurchase and understanding how a particu-lar consumer is using the product. Third isexperimentation. Stores should understandthe level of willingness of the consumer toexperiment with newer products.”

Retailers must be careful to understandhow different origins may view or use prod-ucts distinctly or even use the same namefor an entirely different thing. Hispanidad’sSonderup explains, “Most people, when theythink of tortilla, think of Mexico’s flat doughcooked on a hot, metal surface. However, ifyou hail from Spain, Puerto Rico, Cuba orSouth America, a tortilla is a round omelet,typically made with layers of eggs and thin-ly sliced potatoes. Yet in Panama, a tortilla isa small, deep-fried cornmeal disk.”

“There’s no doubt supermarkets have totailor their assortment based on what typeof Latino they attract,” concurs Kraushaar.

“There are different concepts of whatfoods are appropriate and what these foodsare called,” agrees Mary Ostlund, marketingdirector for Brooks Tropicals LLC, based in

Homestead, FL. “Resources, such as theLatino Nutrition Coalition, are great waysfor retailers to educate themselves and theircustomers. Of course, working with a salesrepresentative familiar with Latino tropicalproduce is another easy resource,” she adds.

Food Lion carefully evaluates each mar-ket and determines how the Latino popula-tion at each store is different. “In North Car-olina, there are more first generation Lati-nos,” reports Herrera. “They are character-ized by a very price-conscious attitude andthey bring with them a lot of brand loyaltyfor products they can find at home. In Jack-sonville, FL, on the other hand, there aremore second generation Latinos who arenot so concerned with price. Yet in theWashington, D.C. area, there are differentnationalities, more Salvadorians, for exam-ple, which requires more of a product mix.”

“At Publix, we have known it’s notenough to have Hispanic products, but tohave traditional items that resonate withHispanics from around the globe,” explainsBrous. “Our Publix Sabor stores demonstrateour commitment to this.”

Retail management and procurementshould also become familiar with the ingre-dients and tools required to recreate populardishes. Sonderup suggests, “Stores shouldlearn about Hispanic holidays and celebra-tions and target advertising and promotionsto them. Traditional holiday foods are servedby 80 percent of Hispanics, and 62 percentwould like their supermarkets to offer tradi-tional foods for such occasions.”

Advertising the right products at the righttime of year is another way to increasesales. Frieda’s Caplan explains, “For exam-ple, during Lent, cactus pads are a tradition-al item for Mexican Catholics. If you’re miss-ing out on this type of opportunity, you’releaving money on the table.

Retailers can get help promoting for holi-days through supplier-provided materials.“We typically get 2,500 stores participatingin our annual Cinco de Mayo display event,”reveals Robert Schueller, director of publicrelations for Melissa’s World Variety Pro-duce, in Los Angeles, CA. “Our kits includeshelf strips, danglers and recipes.”

MYTH 7 : THERE ’S NOMARKET FOR VALUE -ADDED

The evolution of the Latino market hasresulted in changing value-added percep-tion. “Latinos are different than past immi-grant groups,” states Spezzano, of SpezzanoConsulting. “They have maintained the lan-guage, while becoming acculturated. Ameri-can-born Hispanics speak Spanish to eachother, yet have a lot of Americanized influ-ence. You’ll want to be more Americanizedin what you promote and carry for this sub-group. One example of this is in value-added, which you’d want to offer to this sub-group, even though it may not be as exten-sive as in a completely non-Hispanic store. “

Latino sub-segments may provide theirown interpretation of convenience trends.“Although cooking at home represents thelargest share of Latino food expenditures,the highest growth was in eating out,” sharesMGS’ Alcantara-Diaz. “As your customersbecome acculturated, you’ll find moreoptions in pre-marinated food and otherconvenience items. With many South Amer-icans, convenience factors play a higher rolethan price.”

“Traditional Latino women typically cookfrom as close to scratch as possible,” saysViva’s Kraushaar. “Savvy food companiesaddress this with products providing conve-nience, yet where the consumer can stilladd a few ingredients and her special touch.This is especially relevant to the new Latinoworking mother, who may feel guilty she isnot home all day cooking.”

Stores should not overlook the obviousfact that Latinos don’t only buy Hispanicproducts. “Stores may be surprised at therange of products the Hispanic consumerwill buy,” says Spezzano. “For example,apples may not be a traditional item forMexicans, because they don’t have inexpen-sive, quality apples in Mexico, but if they getthem at a good value here, they’ll buy them.

“On the typical staple produce itemssuch as apples and pears, emphasizing the

“Since many

immigrant parents

come to this

country with little

knowledge of

American brands,

their children

interpret marketing

messages and

counsel them on

what to buy.”

— Laura SonderupHispanidad

message on price perception will make adifference to the Latino customer,” saysFood Lion’s Herrera.

MYTH 8 : I T ’ S ALL ABOUT PR ICE

Latinos have high expectations for theirgrocery stores. “According to recent researchfrom Ipsos Loyalty, retailers hoping to courtHispanic customers had better aim todelight,” explains Hispanidad’s Sonderup.“Hispanics are 50 percent more likely tohave stopped shopping at a particular storebecause of rude treatment by store employ-ees. Also, Hispanics are 79 percent morelikely to think small, neighborhood storesoffer better treatment to customers than bigstores and 130 percent more likely to feelthat when they shop at a big store, employ-ees are not as nice as they should be.”

“In a Food Marketing Institute survey, 98percent of Hispanics stated cleanliness ofthe store as important,” reports Schueller.“Additionally, 97 percent rated fresh, high-quality fruits and vegetables as important.”

Most Latinos have a good perception of

quality and value. “Many Hispanic shoppersare value-conscious, but they still want qual-ity,” says Spezzano. “They will buy high,mature produce and maybe smaller sizes,but they won’t buy bruised produce.”

“More is not necessarily better,” saysCAIA’s Bezart. Carry the best value mangofor the season, but make sure it has flavor.Carry two different sizes of avocados andmake sure you have ripe and hard fruit tomeet the needs of all your consumers.”

Although the average Hispanic house-hold income is lower than the general mar-ket, studies show the wealth of affluent His-panics is growing faster than the generalpopulation. “It is predicted the total house-hold financial assets among Hispanics inthe United States will grow to $2.5 billion by2010,” reveals Sonderup. “The wealth of thisgroup is currently growing faster than thatof the general population.”

MYTH 9 : PROMOTION ISN ’T AS IMPOR TANT

Latino customers want a relationshipwith their store. “The customer relationship

marketing approach is the key to gainingaccess to the Hispanic shopper,” says Bezart.“This includes advertising via print and tele-vision, offering exciting promotions andprizes, doing demonstrations and havingend-cap displays.”

“Involvement in community events andschool programs is important,” states Spez-zano of Spezzano Consulting. “The moreconnected a retailer is to the neighboringcommunity, the greater understanding andloyalty it will bring.”

Target uses year-round marketing initia-tives including their weekly circular ad,Spanish language TV, radio and interactivemessages to reach its Latino audience. “Ourmarketing efforts acknowledge the Latinoguest often lives in a Spanish/English envi-ronment and are relevant to their lifestyles,”reports Jana O’Leary, spokesperson for Tar-get Corp., headquartered in Minneapolis,MN. “Our challenge with these efforts isensuring our message and Brand Promiseremain consistent.”

In May 2008, Target was awarded theHispanic Marketing Corporate Award, dur-ing the Hispanic Marketing Midwest Confer-ence held in St. Paul, MN, for its efforts inreaching Hispanic guests through variousmarketing initiatives.

The CAIA partnered with the popularLos Angeles professional soccer team,Chivas USA, for some promotional events.“Our AYSO/Chivas night was specificallygeared to reward our Latino supermarketsfor their sales participation with ChileanAvocados,” explains Bezart. “Free ticketswere given to their employees and shoppersto attend an evening at the stadium. Foodstations featured many traditional favoritesas well as the Chilean Avodog — a hot dogwith fresh Chilean Hass Avocados.” In-storedemos and visits by the Chivas Players andChivas Cheerleaders were also held through-out the season. Bezart adds, “We also sam-pled our product and featured Food Networkand Univision star, Ingrid Hoffman, at sever-al local events throughout the Southern Cali-fornia area.”

As with other factors, promotion, toomust be appropriate within the subgroupyou’re targeting. “Some Latino customersexpect instant gratification and the market-ing approach must reflect this,” says FoodLion’s Herrera. “For example, first genera-tion Latinos will better understand an adstating ‘33 cents each,’ rather than ‘3 for $1.’This second approach does not translate forthem. Continuity programs are anotherexample. For instance, a promotion asking acustomer to spend so much in groceries andget a free turkey just doesn’t mean anythingto certain Latino customers.” pb


A Sampling Of The Players InLatino Supermarkets

Publix Sabor: Lakeland, FLServes and meets the needs of Hispanic

consumers, while offering a warm and invit-ing shopping experience. Promotes Publix’straditional strengths of premier customerservice, quality, variety, value and freshness.Offers consumers a variety of Hispanic andCaribbean products, and a Cuban-style café.

Time in business: 4 yearsNumber of stores: 3Geographic focus: South & Central Florida

Superior Grocers: Santa Fe Springs, CAOne of the largest, independently owned

chain of grocery stores in Southern Califor-nia. Offers the highest quality products atthe lowest prices with exceptional customerservice.

Time in business: 26 yearsNumber of stores: 31Geographic focus: Southern California

Sedanos Supermarkets: Hialeah, FLThis supermarket claims to have “The

best variety at the best prices,” and offersvariety of products and services for thediverse marketplace.

Time in business: 46 yearsNumber of stores: 30 Geographic focus: South Florida

HEB Mi Tienda: San Antonio, TXStores are designed to provide the feel-

ing the shopper is going through differentvillages in Mexico.

Time in business: 2+ yearsNumber of stores: 1Geographic focus: Houston, TX, area

SuperKing Markets: Anaheim, CA“The finest service, selection and prices

customers will find in any supermarket.”Guarantees fresh products and lowest pricesevery day.

Time in business: 10 yearsNumber of stores: 3Geographic focus: Southern CA

Cardenas Markets: Anaheim, CAThe customer relationship is a primary

goal and the company strives to make along-lasting impression, which guaranteesthe customer’s return. Promises to deliverthe best shopping experience for all the fam-ily’s needs

Time in business: 27+ yearsNumber of stores: 12Geographic focus: Southern California

* Information taken from company releases,brochures and Web sites.

and committed to providing world class serviceto our customers.

Supporting Inline Plastics’ stock line of con-tainers is a group of packaging automationsystems tailored to handle and process thepacking of our containers. Proven solutions forproduction line automation exist, and our expe-rienced engineering staff is happy to assist ourcustomers in the integration of our automationsystems into their current processes and facili-ties. From container filling and locking to top,bottom, or wrap-around labeling, Inline Plasticsis proud to be the only company in the industryproviding in-house developed automation solu-tions that will help our customers reduce costswhile increasing throughput and operating effi-ciencies.

In response to customer demand for envi-ronmentally friendly, sustainable packaging,Inline Plastics is converting the entire line ofcontainers that were previously made from ori-ented polystyrene (OPS) to containers producedfrom polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the samerecyclable material used to make water bottles.

One of our recent innovations in packagingdesign has been the development of containersthat are resistant to in-store tampering withoutthe addition of a wrap-around label or a shrinkband. Our Safe-T-Fresh® line of clamshell con-tainers features a leak resistant seal, and theyare tamper evident and tamper resistant uponclosing. The containers incorporate a uniquetear strip hinge that we call Safe-T-Gard®, whichis easily removed by the consumer to gainaccess to the contents of the container, but dis-courages tampering in retail outlets. Safe-T-Fresh® containers are manufactured from crystalclear PET material in various sizes in both roundand rectangular shapes, with minimal ribbing toallow an unobstructed view of the contents.Safe-T-Fresh® containers are ideal for cut fruit,salads, olives, salsa, sandwiches and even bak-ery products.

The latest addition to the Safe-T-Fresh® fami-ly is the Hangables™ line. Available in 8-, 12-,and 16-oz. rectangularsizes, these containers fea-ture a molded-in hang-tabthat pops up out of theSafe-T-Gard® tear stripwhen the container isclosed. This allows thecontainers to hang on dis-play racks or end-capsthroughout the store, or in coolers around thehigh traffic store perimeter. They are ideal forfruit, nuts and snacks to go.

You can visit Inline Plastics at booth 1969 atthe IDDBA Expo in Atlanta, or check out ourwebsite at www.inlineplastics.com.


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42 Canal Street, Shelton, CT 06484

800-826-5567www.inlineplastics.com

Founded in 1968, Inline Plastics Corp. is aprivately owned plastic thermoforming compa-ny that manufactures over three hundred differ-ent clamshell and two-piece containers. All ofour containers are FDA compliant for directfood contact, and are used in the bakery, pro-duce, and foodservice markets. Inline Plasticshas manufacturing and warehousing facilities inShelton, CT, and Salt Lake City, UT, as well as adedicated Research and Development facility inMilford, CT. We are, and have always been,dedicated to developing innovative new prod-ucts directed by the voice of the marketplace,

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Tony Cadiente and Jim Scattini

800 Walker Street Watsonville, CA 95076

831-724-7581www.sambrailo.com


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Sambrailo Packaging is a third-generation family-owned company that has served the produce and floralindustries since 1923. With locations in California andMexico, we have built our reputation on innovation, ser-vice and quality. Known for “design to distribution” pack-aging solutions, Sambrailo Packaging has always focusedon “whatever is best for the produce.” This motto contin-ues to be the unifying motivation in the continuing successof Sambrailo Packaging.

Sambrailo starts by listening — listening to the needs ofthe consumer, the retailer and the grower/shipper. By stay-ing very closely tuned in to each of these three segments,we are able to develop innovative packaging solutions thatadd tremendous value to food packaging.

Sambrailo specializes in improving and designing pack-aging systems for berries, grapes, tomatoes, leafy greensand value-added produce. We then enhance our productswith our superior service — including on-site tray make-up, vendor managed inventory and warehouse-to-fielddistribution.

For example, Sambrailo was the first to develop a plas-tic clamshell for berries.

Similarly, we have continued to provide improvementsto the industry with a patented freight-saving MIXIM Sys-tem. This unique packaging matrix of clamshells, trays andpallets dramatically cuts down on cooling time and prod-uct bruising while maximizing freight cube. Each featureresults in cost savings throughout the distribution chain.

Through years of experience, Sambrailo has accumu-lated unparalleled knowledge of both our customers and

their products. When this know-how is combined withour ingenuity and ability to stay in front of trends, theresult has been a win-win for all. We anticipated theeffects the larger strawberry varieties would have on theclamshell capacity needs and have proactively come tothe market with a MIXIM LV (large volume) one-poundclamshell.

Sambrailo saw an opportunity to remove steps fromthe process of shed packing leafy greens and developedand introduced the Snap-Flap clamshell. This one piecedesign replaces the lid-and-till style container for manyretail and foodservice applications. It features a dual-hinged top with a center-snap closure and can be filled,closed and labeled in one efficient process. The labelautomatically provides a tamper–evident seal for con-sumer confidence and safety.

Because the Snap Flap was initially developed toanswer the needs of the leafy greens market, Sambrailocommissioned the construction of an automatic, custom-built packing line. This machine is currently being used topack leafy greens into the Snap-Flap for retail sales.

Sambrailo recently rolled out a family of RunRite blue-berry clamshells that denest, fill, close, stack and cool witha dependable efficiency and less machine down-timeresulting in measurable gains over other clamshells. TheRunRites are available in 4.4- and 6-oz and 1-dry pintsizes.

Learn about how Sambrailo Packaging truly does“whatever is best for the produce” by visiting our Web siteat www.sambrailo.com.

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To help retailers build on this growing demand,state agriculture departments are taking the lead bypromoting locally grown produce and ensuringhigh-quality and safe products are getting to retail-ers nationwide.

“All too often, we take for granted that the fruitsand vegetables we find in our grocery stores willalways be there, but it’s important to rememberthat the abundant and affordable food supply weare accustomed to having is a result of the unwa-vering dedication and hard work of our farmers,”explains Julie Andrews, state coordinator for mediaand advertising for the Texas Department of Agri-culture (TDA), based in Austin, TX. “Although weare currently dependent on foreign oil, it is criticalwe are never dependent on foreign food.”

At a remarkable $34 billion a year, total agribusi-ness is South Carolina’s largest economic industry,according to Martin Eubanks, director of marketingfor the South Carolina Department of Agriculture

(SCDA), in Columbia, SC. “Our goal is to make apositive economic impact in our rural communi-ties. It’s nice to do promotions, but at the end of theday, if you haven’t made a positive impact on thefarmer, what have you gained? We want to createopportunities for both mainstream and main streetagriculture.”

In Florida, locally grown and purchased producerepresents about 20 percent of production con-sumption, so a core of its initial cash sales are gen-erated to local farmers by selling to retailers,tourists, restaurants and at the state’s approximate80 community farmer’s markets, reports Dan Sleep,supervisor and senior analyst for the FloridaDepartment of Agriculture and Consumer Services(FDACS), headquartered in Tallahassee, FL. “Manyother states, perhaps most, will have a short oppor-tunity to grow local products that would otherwisebe imported into the state. In that respect, Floridais quite a bit different since we grow a vast array offresh products from October to June.”

Likewise, agriculture in Colorado continues tobe one of the top three industries in the state.Agribusinesses contribute $16 billion to the stateeconomy annually and employs more than 100,000people, reports Colorado Department of Agriculture(CDA) marketing specialist, Wendy Lee White, fromher Lakewood, CO office. In 2007, $6 billion worthof Colorado agricultural products was sold, up from$4.5 billion in 2002. “The interest in buying localproducts is present at both the national level, aswell as within Colorado,” adds White, noting nearly92 percent of Coloradoans would buy more Col-orado-grown and produced products if they wereavailable and identified as being from Colorado.

According to Tommy Irvin, comissioner at theGeorgia Department of Agriculture, The Center forAgribusiness Studies at the University of Georgia,in Athens shows the “Georgia Grown” logo has an82 percent recognition level among shoppers atGeorgia grocery stores, and 90 percent of shopperswill select Georgia Grown products over otherswhen given the opportunity.

Stocking the produce department with quali-ty produce fresh off the truck from nearbyfarms is more important than ever before asconsumer interest rises in supporting localgrowers and their efforts to keep food safe.

State Ag Departments ClearPath For Locally Grown Produce State agriculture departments highlight good agricultural practices, quality assurance methods and technological advancements to attract consumers to locally grown products.

B Y A M Y S H A N N O N

State Ag departments have developed logos and other marketing tools toremind consumers to think “local” when shopping.

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secured funding for a pilot Pride of NewYork Buy Local Cooperative Advertising Pro-gram that provides Pride of New York partic-ipants with up to $5,000 on a first-come,first-serve basis to advertise and promotespecialty crop food and agricultural productsgrown or processed in New York. In termsof production and sales, New York ranks sec-ond in apples and cabbage, third in grapesand strawberries and fifth overall in fruitsand vegetables.

This year, the Sacramento, CA-based BuyCalifornia Marketing Agreement’s (BCMA)California Grown Campaign received a spe-cialty crop block grant to promote Califor-nia-grown products in grocery retailersthroughout the state. BCMA is a joint effortof agricultural industry groups representingthe products of California’s farms, ranches,forests and fisheries that works as an adviso-ry board to the California Department ofFood and Agriculture (CDFA). BCMA over-sees the California-Grown program, which isfunded through industry members and fed-eral funds that are overseen by CDFA.

Since the beginning of the program in2001, purchases of California-grown prod-ucts have increased 7.1 percent, translatingto an economic impact of $897 million tothe state, according to Maile Shanahan Geis,BCMA executive director. Also as a result ofthe campaign, 49 percent of consumersreport they are more likely to look for andpurchase California-grown products. “Weknow that Californians want to purchaselocally grown products, and when they do, itpositively affects our state’s economy.” Geiscontinues, “Our new advertising campaignwill launch this summer and will includethe use of floor graphics, grocery cart adver-tisements as well as free-standing inserts inarea newspapers.”

In 2002, Charles Bronson, commissionerof the Florida Department of Agricultureand Consumer Services (FDACS), in Talla-hassee, FL, committed resources to empha-size Fresh From Florida (FFF) fruits andvegetables in a number of retail endeavorsthat included 5,100 stores nationally. “Ourretail campaigns continue to prosper andexpand over the next several years,” reportsSleep. “During the past six years, more than10,000 retail outlets from 40-plus retailers in15 countries have participated in the pro-gram, generating more than $100 milliondollars in cash receipts in 2008 alone.”

The program first began in 2000 with just298 stores and later evolved through a vari-ety of novel approaches, including displaycontests, vacations to Florida, POP materialsand demos. Today, the department averagesmore than 30 ads per chain. “To put that inperspective, FFF would have been seen in

Good Agriculture Practices Initiatives

S tate agriculture departments areeducating producers about goodagriculture practices (GAP), good

handling practices (GHP) and the variousservices they offer to help improve grow-ing conditions. For example, the New YorkState Department of Agriculture And Mar-kets (NYSDAM), headquartered in Albany,NY, is working to obtain a 2009 U.S.Department of Agriculture (USDA) brandprogram to support a new GAP agricultureassistance program. “With that, we willprovide funding to New York growers andproducers, reimbursing them up to $750for GAP audits,” explains Tim Pezzolesi,manager of marketing and promotions.“It’s a great incentive.”

In Georgia, the state’s department ofagriculture works extensively with theGeorgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Asso-ciation in LaGrange, implementing GAPprograms. According to Agriculture Com-missioner, Tommy Irvin, “Food safety hasbeen a leading intiative of the departmentfor the past 10 years. Third-party certifica-tion that the produce is being harvestedand handled properly sets the standard forwhat is now expected of all produce com-ing out of Georgia.”

The Colorado Department of Agricul-ture (CDA) Fruit and Vegetable Section,based in Lakewood, CO, provides certifica-tion and 15 to 20 produce companies inColorado have completed the GAP/GHPAudit Verification Program. “Food safety isan important issue to both producers andconsumers, and although we are not incor-porating the GAP message into our adver-tising, we are actively working with pro-ducers on education,” states Wendy LeeWhite, marketing specialist.

According to Julie Andrews, state coor-dinator for media and advertising, theTexas Department of Agriculture (TDA), inAustin, TX, is currently working with Col-lege Station, TX-based Texas A&M Univer-sity researchers and producers to developGAP manuals. “With the help of USDA spe-cialty crop funding, the goal is to create125 GAP manuals tailored to the individ-ual growers’ operation. Once these arecomplete and the producers become GAPcertified, we hope we can continue toexpand the program.”

The Hawaii Department of Agriculture(HDOA), Honolulu, HI, Quality AssuranceDivision is working with the University ofHawaii’s College of Tropical Agricultureand Human Resources (UH-CTAHR) to helpfarmers become food safety certified. Theprogram was one of the first to begin apilot program to use Radio FrequencyIdentification Devices (RFID) to track pro-duce from the farm to the retailer, notesJanelle Saneishi, public information officer.“The program was just cited for a Gover-nor’s Innovation award this quarter. Wehave not yet linked the GAP angle into theBuy Fresh Buy Local (BFBL) program, butthe Seals of Quality have several compa-nies that are GAP-certified and that pro-gram encourages certification becausetheir products are premium products.”

“We offer third-party audits for oursmaller commercial guys in South Caroli-na,” notes Martin Eubanks, director of mar-keting for the South Carolina Departmentof Agriculture (SCDA), based in Columbia,SC. “We look at food safety from farm tofork. We ensure they’ve gone through theproper process and have the proper proto-cols in place.” pb

INCREAS ING CONSUMPTION

The SCDA has found several positive,profitable ways to reach retailers most inter-ested in supporting its Certified SC-Grownbrand of locally grown products. In May, itrolled out a new logo used in a campaignencouraging South Carolina consumers toeat only foods grown in South Carolina. “Wewant to remind folks about all the placesthey can purchase South Carolina products,including their local markets, restaurants,etc.,” Eubank says. “It asks them to eat with-in the Palmetto State.”

In the same year, the New York StateDepartment of Agriculture And Markets

(NYSDAM), headquartered in Albany, NY,reorganized support for retailers through itsBuy Local. Pride of New York Programdeveloped to promote and support the saleof agricultural products and food productsgrown and processed within the state ofNew York. The department worked with 12retail chains across the state from Buffalo toNew York City, creating customized POS,signage and other materials to fit their goals.“This past year, we increased sales 20 to 40percent,” notes Tim Pezzolesi, manager ofmarketing and promotions for NYSDAM.“We will be working with the same storesthis year, as well as some new ones.”

This past February, the department

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perhaps 4,000 individual store ads in 2000,”states Sleep. “During 2008, that count wouldbe closer to 400,000 ISAs. A hundred-foldincrease, that’s the equivalent of Publixgoing on ad exclusively with 10 FFF freshitems each week for 40 weeks.”

Participating retailers in Florida includePublix, Winn-Dixie, Sweet Bay, Harvey’s,Albertsons and Sedano’s, notes Sleep.

Jersey Fresh, the flagship program of theTrenton, NJ-based New Jersey Departmentof Agriculture (NJDA), recently began its25th year by building brand awareness, par-ticularly for the state’s community farmer’smarkets. “Our key focus is on POS materi-als,” explains Al Murray, assistant secretaryof agriculture.

A couple of years ago, NJDA conducted astudy commissioned by Rutgers University,based in New Brunswick, NJ, that found forevery dollar spent on the Jersey Fresh pro-motional program through 2000, New Jerseyagricultural fruit and vegetable sector rev-enues increased by $31.54, along with anadditional $22.95 of sales in agricultural sup-port and other related industries. Accordingto Murray, in total, each dollar spent on Jer-sey Fresh promotion resulted in $54.49 ofincreased economic output in the state.

In 1999, CDA created the Colorado Proudprogram to identify food and agriculturalproducts that are grown, raised or processedin Colorado. “We will be celebrating our 10thanniversary this August,” notes CDA’s White.With more than 1,000 members, includingfarmers, ranchers, processors, restaurantsand retailers, the program encourages com-panies to use the Colorado Proud logo ontheir packaging. “Each year, we promote theprogram and logo through a televisionadvertising campaign,” she explains. “Theads run July through September and high-light the quality and diversity of Coloradoproduce and local products.”

CDA conducts an annual survey to track

the program’s impact on consumers. In July2008, 77 percent of consumers reported pur-chasing at least some Colorado products,versus 66 percent the previous year. “Thisawareness is affecting buying decisions andis translating into increased sales of Col-orado products,” notes White. “Consumerinterest in buying local products is a grow-ing trend within Colorado and across thenation. Colorado Proud is positioned to takeadvantage of this increased support of localagriculture by educating the public aboutthe state’s bounty.”

The Hawaii Department of Agriculture

(HDOA), headquartered in Honolulu, HI,has two marketing campaigns running atthis time. Buy Fresh, Buy Local focuses onincreasing consumer consumption and cre-ating demand for locally grown produce.“Our goal is to provide a face to agriculture,so consumers make a connection with ourfarmers,” explains Janelle Saneishi, publicinformation officer. Hawaii Seals of Qualityis an enforced branding program thatagribusinesses pay into for the use of theseal, which designates a product that iswholly grown and produced in Hawaii.

RETA ILER SUPPORTTDA works regularly with retailers and

producers to develop POP materials andconduct in-store demonstrations to encour-age consumers to purchase locally grownproduce. “Retailers supply TDA with salesnumbers to show increased sales comparedwith a comparable date,” explains Andrews.Nearly every major retail chain in Texas

works with TDA’s Go Texan program to pro-mote local produce. This list includes H-E-B,Wal-mart, United, Central Market, WholeFoods, Randall’s, Safeway, Tom Thumb,Brookshires, Brookshire Brothers, Fiesta andSun Harvest.

TDA is also developing informationalsheets that give growers and restaurant own-ers tips on how to connect with each other.“TDA’s regional staff members periodicallytake local chefs on tours to farms in theirregion to introduce them to the farmers andsee the operations first-hand,” Andrewssays. “In addition, TDA is working to initiateconversations with major statewide distribu-tors to see how we can partner to promotelocally grown produce.”

To aid in promoting locally grown pro-duce, BCMA provides retailers in Californiawith access to the California-Grown logo foruse in their weekly advertisements and POSmaterials, explains Shanahan Geis. “We haverecently launched an online download cen-ter through our Web site, which provides aconvenient place for retailers to gain accessto our program images so they may beincorporated into their in-store efforts.” Thenew campaign is set to launch this summerin Albertsons, Safeway and Vons storesthroughout the state.

Retailers in Hawaii, mainly supermar-kets, are highlighting local produce in theiradvertising and promotions. “We believethat the retailers are recognizing the valueof local produce and consumer awareness,”says Saneishi. “Part of the BFBL programencourages consumers to ask their retailersabout sourcing locally grown produce.”

CDA’s White says all of the major retail-ers and smaller specialty food stores in Col-orado participate in locally grown efforts.These include Safeway, King Soopers(Kroger), Albertson’s, Wal-Mart, SunflowerFarmers Market, Sprouts and Whole Foods.“Safeway participates in our annual televi-sion advertising campaign. King Soopersuses the logo and Colorado Proud messageextensively on billboards and radio ads, andall of the retailers use the logo in their week-ly newspaper advertising inserts or throughin-store POS materials.”

GETT ING INVOLVED WITH FOODSERV ICE

Two years ago, the SCDA launched apilot restaurant program that urged restau-rants throughout the state to sign up to usethe organization’s Fresh on the Menu logofor promotional purposes if they sourced 25percent or more items on their menuthrough South Carolina producers and grow-ers. “This includes not only fresh produceitems, but also all categories of food,”

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The Go Texan program has led toincreased sales of local produce.

“Consumer interest

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reports SCDA’s Eubanks. “It’s a very intrigu-ing program, and chefs are clamoring forSouth Carolina products of all types. It’s awin-win for farmers, foodservice distributorsand everyone in between.”

With 200 participants currently enrolled,the program has found plenty of successhighlighting South Carolina-grown productsand produce in restaurants, while also show-casing the Palmetto State as a rapidlyexpanding culinary destination in the Unit-ed States.

Texas-grown fruits, vegetables and nutsprovide an economic impact of approxi-mately $1.3 billion in Texas, ranking thestate as No. 8 in the United States for veg-etable production, according to TDA’sAndrews. TDA builds on that impact byworking directly with restaurants, TDA-cer-tified farmer’s markets, pick-your-ownfarms, schools, retail chain stores and Texasproducers to help them promote their prod-ucts, making it easier for consumers to iden-tify Texas produce. TDA’s 10-year-old GoTexan program promotes the products, cul-ture and communities of Texas.

In 2008, TDA initiated the Go TexanRestaurant Program to connect Texas pro-ducers with restaurants and increase theamount of locally produced items on menusacross the state. “Through this program,TDA encourages local restaurants to pur-chase Texas produce and in turn, TDA pro-motes these restaurants to the consumerthrough a series of marketing initiatives,”clarifies Andrews.

TDA also sends out several e-zines tosubscribers, including publications devotedto Texas food and the Texas dining scene.“The content often includes items such as alist of what’s in season and an interviewwith a chef praising local ingredients,” statesAndrews. “We can track open and click-through rates.”

In 2006, the North Carolina Departmentof Agriculture and Consumer Services

(NCDA&CS), based in Raleigh, NC,launched its Best Dish in NC restaurant con-test to bring awareness to the numerousrestaurants and chefs who feature local cui-sine on their menus, explains Matt Tunnell,foodservice marketing specialist and contestadministrator. “It catches the attention ofconsumers, highlights the importance oflocally grown produce and encourages ourlocal restaurants to use produce and otherfood items purchased from local producers.”

The annual statewide competition isopen to all North Carolina restaurants andgroups that feature dishes created withlocally grown ingredients. This year’s con-test runs from May 1 to July 27, andincludes a variety of marketing materials,such as a Best Dish In NC logo available forfinalists to use on their menus and othersignage to display around the restaurant.

“Our goal is to recognize and reward theefforts of restaurants and chefs who sourceand implement North Carolina productsregularly in their menus, along withincreasing public awareness of the qualityof food, restaurants and chefs in our state,”adds Tunnel.

G.W. Stanley, NCDA&CS’ retail market-ing specialist, says the department workswith the retail and foodservice sectors toencourage them to seek out locally grownproduce. Stanley points to the department’stwo major marketing programs gearedtoward promoting North Carolina-grownproduce. Created in 1985, the GoodnessGrows in North Carolina program isdesigned to promote top-quality fresh pro-duce, processed food items, fiber and nurs-ery products that are grown or manufac-tured in North Carolina.

In the summer of 2005, NCDA&CS’ mar-keting division premiered “It’s Got To BeNC,” a marketing campaign designed toenhance the Goodness Grows in North Car-olina program and remind buyers and con-sumers that “When you want the Best, it’s


Got to Be NC!” The campaign targets gro-cers, foodservice customers and consumers.Customized materials and promotions havebeen developed specifically for these seg-ments, as well as television and radio ads.

DIRECT D ISTR IBUT IONNYSDAM is working with small to mid-

size farms that want to get into direct distrib-ution. “New York is a very large state,” saysNYSDAM’s Pezzolesi, pointing out that NewYork is home to 34,000 farms. “We’ve got alot of smaller farmers scattered around avery large state. It drives buyers crazy, andit’s hard to ask an owner to deal with six orseven local farmers. What we’re doing ishelping those medium commercial growersthat aren’t doing direct distribution thatwant to get into the institutional New Yorkmarket. We’re also seeing an explosion offarmer’s markets throughout New York,”which has provided vehicles for farmers tosell directly to consumers. “We have close to300 farmer’s markets now.”

Colorado producers either deliver director utilize distributors to get their products toretailers, notes CDA’s White. “Our local pro-ducers are very good at getting their prod-ucts to stores, so Colorado Proud focuses onpromoting local products to consumers.”

FOOD SAFETY IN IT IAT IVESIn 2006, NJDA formed its Produce Safety

Task Force after outbreaks of E. coli in Cali-fornia spinach impacted New Jersey grow-ers. The task force helps New Jersey grow-ers enact new food-safety protocols, statesNJDA’s Murray, who currently leads theteam. The emphasis is on making small,family farms effective on food safety issuesand ensuring safe produce in the market.

HDOA, University of Hawaii’s College ofTropical Agriculture and Human Resources(UH-CTAHR) and the Hawaii Farm BureauFederation try to encourage farmers tobecome food-safety certified. “We are fortu-nate to have received funding from USDAthrough the Rural Economic TransitionAlliance Hawaii for this program,” stressesHDOA’s Saneishi. “We are seeing muchmore interest in recent months from farm-ers around the state to work on GAP, whichis a very encouraging to us.”

“In our highly competitive environmentsafe and high quality are not optional,”stresses FDACS’s Sleep. “Our farmers arenumbered amongst the best in the world,competing with literally every nation in theworld who each view the United States is ahighly profitable business region. Repeatsales only occur when you repeat quality,ensure quantity and deliver on time — ourfolks are unparalleled in their expertise.” pb

Jersey Fresh is in its 25th year of promoting New Jersey agriculture.

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East Coast and Midwestern retailers are takingadvantage of the heightened interest from con-sumers looking to fill their carts with tasty, farm-fresh vegetables. Production out of Mexico begins toslow this time of year, while production in theSouth kicks in to high gear.

“Mexican imports are generally finished andCalifornia’s big season has not yet begun,” explainsBrian Rayfield, vice president of sales and market-ing for Loxahatchee, FL-based J & J Produce Inc.“For Southern retailers, as well as those in the Mid-west, Southern produce out of Florida and Georgiais convenient and fresh, and buying it helps sup-port local growers.

“We really have the best quality produce in thenation at this time,” Rayfield adds, noting J & J’s

core products are peppers, cucumbers and greenand yellow squash this time of year. “Florida andGeorgia are supplying the entire country. There’salso a greater demand when people up North getoutside and go to picnics. We see a noticeableincrease in demand when the weather is favorable.”

Chris Grizzaffe, president and general managerat Produce Exchange of Atlanta Inc., based in ForestPark, GA, notes, “Our customers in the Southeastand Midwest have a tendency to see the value inlocally grown produce because it’s very fresh.”

Lee Anne Oxford, director of marketing forRaleigh, NC-based L & M Companies Inc., agrees,adding, “Freshness is the main reason to buy South-ern vegetables. Often, the produce was harvestedthe same day or the day before it arrives at the cus-tomer’s distribution center; this equates fresh prod-uct with a longer shelf life.” L & M markets pep-pers, cucumbers, cabbage, yellow squash, zucchini,eggplant and corn this time of year.

Retailers looking to offer consumers some oftheir favorite Southern vegetables can find plentyin South Carolina. The Palmetto State growssquash, cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes and peppersin the late spring and summer. “We’ve seen a lot ofgrowth in our ethnic or Hispanic items, such ascilantro or our mixed variety hot peppers,” reportsMartin Eubanks, director of marketing for theSouth Carolina Department of Agriculture (SCDA),based in Columbia, SC. “We’re seeing growth in ourvalue-added products,” he explains. “The South hasa lot to offer in terms of Southern vegetables,”Eubanks continues. “The eating quality and the fla-vor are very good. We are certainly diverse in ourproduct availability. Although we’re not the biggeststate, we do offer a wide variety of produce that issecond to none.”

[Editor’s Note: For more information on statedepartments of agriculture, please see page 66.]

The Southern vegetable category is made up ofcore, staple items that provide a quality eatingexperience, great health benefits and are easy on

Heat and humidity aren’t the only things syn-onymous with summers in the South. South-ern vegetables, such as peppers, cucumbers,squash, eggplant, zucchini, green beans,sweet onions, mustard, kale and collardgreens, take center stage as the days growlonger and the nights fade.

Southern Vegetables Offer Cornucopia Of ProfitRetailers in the South and Midwest are capitalizing on the plentiful supply of Southern vegetables during the late spring and summer months.

B Y A M Y S H A N N O N

The Georgia Department of Agriculture promotes the Georgia Grownbrand through a variety of promotional efforts.

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the family budget. “Even at the highest retailmargins, Southern vegetables continue to bea great buy and they are so versatile to cookwith that you could have a different prepa-ration every day for a month,” assertsDaniel Whittles, director of marketing andnew business development for Boca Raton,FL-based Rosemont Farms Corp., the exclu-sive sales agent for Lewis Taylor Farms Inc.,based in Tifton, GA.

The core of Rosemont’s business wasfounded on providing world-class Southernvegetables. This time of year, it works withbell peppers, cucumbers, squash, beans,specialty peppers and eggplant. “The bene-fits of working with Southern vegetables area result of the value proposition that occurswhen you combine great quality, fresh pro-duce with attractive pricing that supportsthe farm and provides a win-win for theretailer and consumer,” adds Whittles.“Throw in the taste and usage flexibility,along with the obvious health benefits andthe ability to regularly promote these itemsand you have a great formula for achievingcategory goals and making consumershappy, too.”

STAPLE COMMODIT IES Growers throughout the South are report-

ing slight increases in demand, as well assupply of Southern vegetables harvested inthe late spring and summer months. “Col-lard greens are a big item in the South,”notes Andrew Scott, sales and procurementmanager for Forest Park, GA-based GeneralProduce Inc., a wholesale produce houselocated at the Georgia State Farmer’s Mar-ket. “The Georgia Department of Agricul-ture [GDA, based in Atlanta, GA] has alsoconducted various marketing programs topromote Georgia-grown vegetables, andretailers are using the Georgia Grown logoin their ads.”

Produce Exchange handles predominate-ly Southern lines of vegetables, particularlythe staples, such as green beans, yellowsquash, zucchini and eggplant. It deliversprimarily to large chain grocery retailers aswell as some mom-and-pop stores.

Sweet corn is also on the rise, reportsmanager of Omega, GA-based Gibbs PatrickFarms Inc., Jaime Patrick. In the spring andsummer, the Southern grower also offersgreens, turnips, mustard, collard and kale.“The season runs September through thefollowing June,” adds Patrick.

Vidalia onions are exclusively Georgia-grown yellow Granex hybrids known fortheir sweet, mild flavor that consumers askfor by name. “They’re very unique due tothe low sulfur soil and mild climate foundonly in a handful of growing areas in South-

east Georgia,” notes Wendy Brannen, execu-tive director of the Vidalia Onion Commit-tee (VOC), headquartered in Vidalia, GA.“We definitely have a large consumerdemand; especially now, the appeal is high-er than ever.”

General Produce’s list of Southern veg-etables harvested this time of year includescucumbers, bell peppers, zucchini, yellowsquash, eggplant, cabbage and beans. “Geor-gia carrots are also a really good crop,” addsScott. “They run Jan. 1 through the end ofMay. The quality is excellent. Georgia

wholesalers have baby carrots, Cello andjumbo — just like in California, but you’renot paying that California freight to havethem shipped from 2,200 miles away. Wepick them up on our own trucks. Corn isalso doing very well, too.”

The Georgia Fruit and Vegetable GrowersAssociation, (GFVGA) headquartered inLagrange, GA, works with growers that pro-duce Southern favorites, such as tomatoes,peppers, cucumbers, squash and eggplants,all plentiful during the spring and summer.“So far, everything looks good,” reports

Technology May Help Expand Commodities

Southern vegetable growers are look-ing for new technologies that willenable them to grow crops, such as

broccoli and cauliflower, which are tradition-ally shipped from the West Coast. Thesecrops will allow retailers east of the Missis-sippi River to save on transportation andother fuel costs.

“A number of our growers are looking atvarieties that would work under the climateconditions we’ve got,” explains Charles Hall,executive director of the Georgia Fruit AndVegetable Growers Association (GFVGA), inLagrange, GA. “Up until recently, we didn’tthink we could grow quality broccoli, butsome growers are looking into it and seeingthat they can do that.”

Most of the technological advancement isoccurring with the seed varieties themselves.“They have world-class infrastructures inplace and they’ve made huge advance-ments. It’s really exciting,” notes MartinEubanks, director of marketing for the SouthCarolina Department of Agriculture (SCDA),based in Columbia, SC.

Rosemont Farms Corp., headquartered inBoca Raton, FL, is growing broccoli and cau-liflower and trialing multiple lettuces.“There’s a learning curve even when grow-ing items that have volumes of historic datain other growing areas,” explains DanielWhittles, director of marketing and new busi-ness development.

“Some of the best varieties are limited inperformance by their geography.” Interest inregionally growing what have been tradi-tionally West Coast items is on the rise, Whit-tles adds. “The primary challenge comesfrom adapting and developing seed varietiesthat yield both quality and cartons in thesometimes-more-challenging Eastern weath-er patterns and diverse soil types.”

L & M Companies Inc., headquartered inRaleigh, NC, is also growing broccoli in four

states along the East Coast, allowing it toproduce a true East Coast supply. “More andmore seed breeders are now working torefine varieties that will grow well on theEast Coast,” notes Lee Anne Oxford, directorof marketing. “In the past few years, therehave been significant advancements in theworld of vegetable breeding,” she continues.“Breeders have developed methods of track-ing different genes responsible for certainattributes that have allowed them to comeup with varieties that not only yield better,but also have a better eating experience andtaste profile.”

Eubanks has seen developments in orien-tal produce items, such as cabbages and BokChoy. He says the trend toward bringingnew commodities and varieties to the Southmakes good business sense as growers lookfor ways to save on transportation and othercosts. “Fuel costs are low now, but I expectthem to go up again. We’re looking for waysto become more efficient.”

“We’re always looking to diversify ourcrops,” adds Brian Rayfield, vice president ofsales and marketing for Loxahatchee, FL-based J & J Produce Inc. “We’re looking foritems we can grow in Georgia during thewinter, which is the off season for our coreproducts. We’ll continue to actively researchand explore our options.” J & J is constantlyconducting research and developmentthroughout each of its growing areas, whichinvolves trialing new varieties and trying toimprove existing varieties. “Flavor profiles areplaying a more active role in our business,”Rayfield adds.

According to Andrew Scott, sales and pro-curement manager at General Produce Inc.,in Forest Park, GA, Georgia growers are try-ing to grow commodities outside of whatthey’re used to, including broccoli, strawber-ries and nectarines. “It’s a way to reducefreight costs.” pb


Charles Hall, executive director for GFVGA.“If we have a good spring, we’ll have plentyof quality product.”

BUYING LOCALThe locally or regionally grown factor is

a major marketing opportunity for retailers,notes Hall. Highlighting the freshness ofGeorgia-grown products is a key sellingpoint that can be communicated to con-sumers through ads, POS and signage at thestore level.

“If you’re a retailer and you don’t have alocally grown program, you’re probablymissing out on an opportunity,” notesSCDA’s Eubanks. “Many have seen the value

in selling locally and regionally grown pro-duce and they’re partnering with us toenhance their current offerings.”

When consumers purchase locally grownproduce, they’re making a conscious effortto support their local farmers and their localeconomy. “In our research, over 90 percentof consumers say they prefer local productover product shipped from far away,”reveals Eubanks. “Another 83 percent saidthey would shop at a retailer that supportsand showcases locally grown product.”

Scott points to General Produce’s closeproximity to Interstate 75, which allows thecompany to quickly deliver produce to alarge group of retailers. “We can pick up

product on Monday and have it delivered tothem the next day. We’re big supporters ofbuying local. Georgia farmers have beenhere for many generations.”

Rosemont’s Whittles sees the value inpromoting locally grown produce at theretail level. “It plays a much larger rolewhen the buyer is in a 500-mile or 1-day-or-less distribution model from the localsource. Quality is always the first concern,along with the safety certification,” he con-tinues. “Local still has to meet or exceed theneeds of the retailer and the expectations ofthe consumer. You generally get some sortof value in the closer proximity and thelower freight miles needed to bring the

Vidalia Sweet Onions: Shippers Seek Creative Marketing Opportunites

One retailer told John Shuman, presi-dent of Shuman Produce Inc., in Rei-dsville, GA, last fall the food dollars

being spent by consumers is still there, it’sjust moving around. “We are all being chal-lenged to catch the consumer’s attentionwith creative marketing programs. The com-petition for consumers is incrementallyincreasing,” Shuman observes.

Ronny Collins, owner of PlantationSweets, based in Cobbtown, GA, adds, whilethe Vidalia sweet onions are running a littlelate this year in maturing due to some coldweather, he sees retailers having a “pro-motable crop.”

At Lyons, GA-based L.G. Herndon Jr.Farms Inc., President Bo Herndon has beenkeeping an eye on the economy ever sincehis Vidalia plantings got underway lastNovember. On one hand he wonders whowill be buying Vidalias when there may be$8 FOB storage onions on the retail shelves.

Steve Roberson, president of RobersonOnion Corp., headquartered in Hazlehurst,GA, adds, “Even if consumers are buyingmore basic produce items and purchasingthe cheaper onions, it should help the over-all onion market.”

Herndon concurs, noting, “A lot of peopleare cooking meals at home right now,instead of eating out, and that could help uswith our sweet onions, sweet corn and otheritems we grow.”

“We feel incredibly blessed to be in abusiness that might fare a little better thansome others in the produce departments,because onions are viewed as more of a sta-ple item,” notes Shuman.

Michael Hively of Glennville, GA-based

Bland Farms LLC is the chief financial officerand general manager of the 3,200-acregrowing and shipping operation. “We arefocusing on working a little closer with ourretailers in providing a 52-week-a-year pro-gram that meets their needs,” he says.

Bland Farms is also being proactive withfood safety issues. “The company is now GSIcompliant, even though the rest of the indus-try has yet to move completely in that direc-tion. We also have our certification withPrimus, Nutra-Clean and now are moving astep further to get EurepGAP approval thisyear,” explains Hively.

WHAT’S NEW IN VIDALIA?Change is inevitable from year to year in

the Vidalia sweet onion deal. What remainsconsistent is the effort of growers and ship-pers to make their operation more efficientand competitive in the marketplace, with theultimate goal of providing customers withbetter service and profits.

BBllaanndd FFaarrmmss:: In addition to his position atBland Farms, Hively is also the chairman ofthe Vidalia Onion Committee (VOC), havingserved the previous two years as vice chair-man. “I want to get better participation fromthe growers,” Hively asserts. “I want to havesome focus on research pertaining to thequality of our product.”

New at Bland Farms is additional dryingcapacity, which has increased its capacity todry sweet onions by about 80,000 bushels.

Richard Pazderski has been with BlandFarms for nearly five years and has recentlybeen promoted from sales manager to direc-tor of sales. Adam Blocker joined the salesstaff last November, bringing with him

extensive sales experience from outside theproduce industry.

LL..GG.. HHeerrnnddoonn JJrr.. FFaarrmmss:: Bo Herndonrecently completed his fourth one-year termas chairman of the VOC, which he guidedthrough difficult and challenging times. He isno longer serving on the VOC board as hedid for nearly 20 years in various capacities.Herndon was named 2008 Grower of theYear at the recent annual banquet of theVidalia Onion Committee in Vidalia, GA.

PPllaannttaattiioonn SSwweeeettss:: Tina Collins, who hasbeen with the growing/shipping operationfor the past five years, has been nameddirector of sales and marketing.

While the company may be known for itsyear around sweet onion deal, PlantationSweets is looking to expand the brand withsweet potatoes. Collins says, “PlantationSweets owns the trademark for VidaliaSweet Potatoes. No one else can market it.”

While the operation has had only about100 acres in sweet potatoes in recent years,“We are increasing the acreage consider-ably.” The crop will be sold primarily for theNovember and December holidays.“Because these Vidalia sweet potatoes aregrown in the same soil as the Vidalia onions,just like the soil here produces sweet onions,it also produces a sweeter sweet potato,” sheexplains.

SShhuummaann PPrroodduuccee:: About 40,000 boxes ofstorage have been added for the summerVidalia sweet onion deal. This will raise thetotal storage capacity to 475,000 boxes,according to president John Shuman. Thecompany works primarily with four growersand expects to ship onions from 1,800 acresthis season. pb

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quite nicely.”It’s important for retailers to make sure

they’ve got adequate product to meet thedemands of their consumers. “It’s a matterof making sure you’re fulfilling that need,despite poor weather conditions, such ashurricanes,” adds Hall.

Scott admits it’s tough to time ads withthe unpredictable weather conditions. “Youcan get some late frosts — even hail — inMarch and April that can really hurt things.”

Produce Exchange’s Grizzaffe uses theInternet to “watch the areas we know we’rebuying out of 10 days ahead,” he explains.“If the weather looks really bad, we’ll lookinto buying from somewhere else.”

J & J uses highest quality refrigerationand cooling techniques to keep producelooking fresh from field to fork. “If it’s notproperly pre-cooled, you will see a signifi-cant reduction of shelf life and an increaseof shrink,” stresses J & J’s Rayfield. “We usepost-harvest techniques, clean water in thefields, clean buckets, plus our fields are allthird-party compliance for food safety.”

Beyond weather, General Produce’s Scottsays the rising costs connected to additionalfood safety regulations are difficult to over-come. “Third-party inspections are adding tothe cost of product. These additional costsare being passed down to the consumer.

Planting product and fixed costs are highertoday than they were five years ago. Findingsteady labor has also been a challenge withimmigration laws.”

Whittles of Rosemont points out chal-lenges related to retail pricing. “Don’t getstuck in a merchandising rut,” he advises.“Promote the heck out of these items. Don’tget the regular retail price too out of whack;provide recipe ideas and cross-promote withan event mentality.” Maintaining qualitythrough the different growing areas is also achallenge for many, he adds. “That is whysticking with reliable, consistent shipper-suppliers is one of the best hedges againstbig shrink and disappointed customers.”

The biggest challenge for L & M is over-coming gaps in supplies, explains Oxford.“As we become more regionally correct,there is more dependence on smaller farmproduction and less trucks delivering fromthe larger growing areas. It is incumbent onthe suppliers to communicate with retailerseach and every day on crop updates so thattogether we can plan well. At L & M we tryto source from at least two of our farms atany give time so we can eliminate the gapsin supply.”

WORKING WITH BUYERSAdvanced planning with buyers as it

product to market.”J & J’s Rayfield agrees, noting that local-

ly grown produce is “becoming more impor-tant to the buyers. Our company has a greatadvantage. We have facilities in West PalmBeach, FL; Adele, GA; White Pine, TN; andHendersonville, NC.” Multiple growingareas allow the company to farm a varietyof commodities, while taking into considera-tion which products are most appropriate incertain geographical locations.

Oxford of L & M says promoting locallygrown produce also plays a role in attractinga growing number of consumers who wantto know where their produce originated.“Consumers prefer more local product andthey want to become more knowledgeableabout the sources of their food. They wantto keep money in the local economies. Plus,locally grown produce allows for the fresh-est product and less travel miles.”

Two years ago, Gibbs Patrick Farms pur-chased a supply chain and process monitor-ing and alerting solution from TraceGains,Inc., the Longmont, CO-based creator ofTraceGains, a supply chain and processmonitoring and alerting solution that allowsgrowers to reject non-compliant shipmentsbefore they arrive for processing. Trace-Gains is a patented delivery system thatspecializes in advanced brand protectionand promotion solutions. “It helps our cus-tomers make more money,” explains MarcSimony, TraceGains’ director of marketing.“A lot of traceability systems collect thedata, but don’t do anything with it. Trace-Gains allows our customers to analyze thatdata and take corrective steps.”

“We wanted to serve as a leader in theSoutheast,” states Patrick, of Gibbs PatrickFarms. “Our retailers are asking for it andthey’re pleased that we’re able to offer themthis assurance. They’re doubling sales insome areas.”

OVERCOMING CHALLENGESExtremely warm temperatures and the

potential for excessive rain are just a few ofthe factors Southern growers must take intoconsideration when timing production. “Theweather presents challenges for growers toget product to their retailers,” statesGFVGA’s Hall. “If we end up having a shortsupply of squash, they may have to source itfrom somewhere else in the Southeast. IfGeorgia is down, South Carolina and NorthCarolina may be up. We try to make adjust-ments when needed.”

For instance, Georgia’s Vidalia onion sea-son has been “very nerve-wracking thisyear,” states Brannen. “We’ve had a few popsof cold that have lasted longer than we like.However, the crop appears to be rebounding


relates to the actual planting schedule andnot based upon some arbitrary sales plan iskey to building profit, notes Whittles. “Wecan help guide a buyer or buying team intothe best times and strategies to maximizecategory profitability. We are strong at pro-viding metrics and data to buyers, too, inorder to substantiate any claims or recom-mendations we make.”

Rosemont typically services retailers,wholesalers and foodservice distributors.“The majority of the business is done east ofTexas and from the Midwest back to the Eastand up into Canada,” notes Whittles.

“For our Southeastern vegetables, ourmain customers include retailers, whole-salers and foodservice distributors,” reportsOxford. “We service east of the Mississippiand Texas in one to two day transit timesallowing for fresh delivery.”

J & J Produce’s buyers are primarily inthe foodservice sector. However, “Retail isthe fastest-growing segment of our busi-ness,” notes Rayfield, adding that the major-ity of J & J’s buyers are east of Interstate 55.He adds, “We found our customers have thebest bottom line when they don’t focus onthe actual price of the commodity. Thosethat measure profit at the cash register aremuch more satisfied than those measuringat the door. Plus, when we have over-sup-

ply, we’re very active in trying to give themaggressive prices.”

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Ben-tonville, AR, is a huge buyer of North Caroli-na-grown produce, especially in the pastfour years, notes G.W. Stanley of the NorthCarolina Department of Agriculture & Con-sumer Services (NCDA&CS). “It’s the largestgrocery retailer in North Carolina.” Henotes Food Lion LLC, a Salisbury, NC-basedchain, is also a good supporter. “Really, all ofour retailers do a good job of recognizingour products. They want to be good stew-ards of North Carolina agriculture.” He sug-gests retailers develop good relationshipswith their growers and take steps to contin-ually make use of the local products that arein season. “Signage is important, along withkeeping locally grown produce front andcenter at retail.”

General Produce services more than 200independent retailers and has partnershipswith retailers such as Eden Prairie, MN-based Supervalu Inc. and Nash Finch Co., inEdina, MN, with 80 stores, reports Scott. “Wework with retailers in the Atlanta area topromote Georgia-grown produce.”

GFVGA promotes the Georgia Grownbrand through a variety of promotionalefforts, such as field tours to show super-market buyers the high quality, vast volume

and undeniable appeal of Southern vegeta-bles. “We also sponsor retailer tours of ourfarms that get retailers and growers face toface,” explains GFVGA’s Hall. “They’ve beenvery successful. A lot of retail buyers maybe buying squash from one or two Georgiagrowers and they’re looking for another cat-egory, such as sweet corn. It’s a win-win sit-uation for everyone involved.”

The VOC runs multiple promotionsevery year to push the sale of Vidalia onionsin Georgia stores throughout the South, aswell as around the country. Keeping sweetonions fresh on the minds of consumers iskey, notes Brannen. “Brand recognition ishuge. We work very hard each year to edu-cate employees at the store level. AllVidalias are sweet onions, but not all sweetonions are Vidalias.” “One of our goals is totarget specific sales regions that could beimproved,” continues Brannen. We’re in theprocess of setting up an in-store promotionin New York, NY; New Orleans, LA; andNashville, TN,” explains Brannen. “We’reworking specifically with higher-end chainsand independents that go the extra mile fortheir customers.”

Cross-merchandising Southern vegeta-bles with other in-season commodities is anexcellent way to build profit and sales. ThisMay, the VOC partnered with the NY AppleAssociation (NYAA), headquartered in Fish-ers, NY, to conduct in-store demos thatoffered consumers new ways to incorporateVidalia onions and New York apples intotheir meals.

In June and July, the VOC will pair upwith the Orlando, FL-based National Water-melon Promotion Board (NWPB) and A & WRoot Beer to put neck danglers with recipebooklets on 2.5 million 2-litter A & W RootBeer bottles. “With watermelons being sucha great commodity, we thought it would be agreat idea to pair an unlikely match to showconsumers how they can think outside thebox when preparing summer meals,”explains Brannen. pb

“Promote the heck

out of these items.

Don’t get the regular

retail price too out

of whack.”

— Daniel WhittlesRosemont Farms Corp.

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http://www.generalproduceinc.com


Reader Service # 37

http://www.pma.com/freshsummit


“Summer citrus is pretty much established withsales upward of $150 million,” says Marc Solomon,president of Fisher Capespan USA LLC, in Glouces-ter City, NJ. “The category has become pretty sig-nificant over the past 10 years.”

Piet Smit, CEO of the Western Cape Citrus Pro-ducers’ Forum (CPF) in Citrusdal, Western Cape,South Africa, agrees. “Summer citrus has becomean established and recognized category among allthe major retailers and wholesalers and continuesto grow. The South African producers continue togrow their volume within the category in a con-trolled fashion by shipping only the best fruit avail-able to the United States.”

Freshly harvested South African citrus is a prof-

itable item for retailers and complementary toother summer fruits. “It’s viewed by retailers asbeing a profitable complement to the local stonefruit industry,” reports Smit. “In other words, itsgrowth has been incremental and not at theexpense of local stone fruit growers. Summer citrustastes refreshingly good and is good for the retail-er’s bottom line.”

“Our customers are looking for consistent prod-uct throughout the year,” says Dick Stiles, directorof produce and floral for Redner’s Markets Inc., inReading, PA, with 40 supermarkets and 12 conve-nience stores. “Summer citrus plays an integral partof having a year-round citrus program.”

While many retailers are already taking advan-tage of South African citrus, there are significantopportunities for increased retail sales dollars andprofits. “Many retailers have only scratched the sur-face with respect to summer citrus category sales,”notes Bill Weyland, vice president of imports forSeven Seas Fruit, a dba of Tom Lange CompanyInternational, Inc, headquartered in Woodbridge,NJ. “Those retailers who have not yet made astrong commitment to the summer citrus programneed to sit down with their suppliers and collective-ly develop a comprehensive summer citrus market-ing program.”

“It is profitable and there are sales to gain there,”concurs Dick Rissman, produce director for DesMoines, IA-based Dahl’s Food Markets, an upscale,independent chain with 12 stores. “It’s a nice cate-gory with good quality. The opportunity is high topromote it and gain incremental sales with a com-mitted program.”

KNOW YOUR C ITRUSVAR IET IES AND SEASONS

Understanding the varietal seasons will helpretailers plan better promotions. “Retailers need tobe aware how long the different seasons are and

No longer a novelty product, summer citrus isnow an integral part of any retailer’s summerfruit program.

Established SuccessWith South African CitrusThe flexibility, variety and quality of South African citrus allow retailers to build profits with this now established category.

B Y J O D E A N R O B B I N S

South African citrus is advantageous because it is contra-season to U.S.-grown citrus from California, Florida and Texas.

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Reader Service # 44

LGS Specialty Sales, Ltd.718-542-2200 • 800-796-2349 • Fax: 718-542-2354

www.lgssales.com

http://www.lgssales.com


when the peaks occur so they can make themost of promotions,” suggests Rissman.“Our suppliers let us know when the peaksare coming so we can prepare to promote atthe right time.”

Stiles explains further, “The different sea-sons in this category come and go so fast it’simportant to have the information, especial-ly when you’re advertising, so you can besure to have the lead time necessary. Some-times, by the time you know you can get it,it could be gone already. We rely on oursuppliers to keep us informed on availabili-ty, varieties and the best time to promote.”

Education of consumers and store per-sonnel is a key part of building sales. “It’simportant to educate retailers, as well asconsumers, on the year-round availability ofcitrus from all regions, especially fromSouth Africa,” says Kim Flores, marketingmanager for Seald-Sweet International inVero Beach, FL. “We were involved in afocus group study not too long ago indicat-ing the average consumer could have mis-conceptions about product from SouthAfrica, mainly because they were not famil-iar or aware of the South African citrus orproduce industry. Through increased mar-keting efforts, Seald-Sweet and many of theSouth African growers are working to

change this perception and educate Ameri-can consumers on the benefits of SouthAfrican summer citrus, enabling us to enjoycitrus year-round, especially during thedomestic off-season.”

“The window for South African summercitrus is advantageous because it is contra-season to U.S.-grown citrus from California,Florida and Texas,” says Tom Cowan, SouthAfrican sales manager for DNE World FruitSales in Ft. Pierce, FL. “The window starts

when California navels finish in late May orearly June and it closes when the new Cali-fornia navel season starts in late October orearly November. South African citrus givesretailers the opportunity to sell fresh citrusduring the summer months and provideyear-round citrus to consumers. Retailerscan now merchandise and grow their citrusprofits year-round due to the wide variety ofimported citrus.”

Principal varieties include Clementines,Navels, Minneolas, Midknights, Cara Carasand late Mandarins. “The season starts inearly May with Clementines until earlyJuly. Then, in mid-June we start with Naveloranges through September,” explainsSolomon. “In October, we have the Mid-knight orange, which is a seedless Valencia,then in August and September we have avariety called the ClemenGold — a seedless,late mandarin.”

CHECK OUT NEWCOMERSAn emerging trend is the development of

two- or three-pound bags for Clementinesinstead of the five-pound box. “This pastyear we have seen increasing success of thetwo- or three-pound bags,” explains Cowan.“Part of this is due to the weaker economyin the United States and part of it is retailerstrying to target more attractive price pointswith consumers.”

Weyland agrees, adding, “BaggedClementines are now becoming the pre-ferred package for sales during the summermonths. The Clementine bag program pro-vides a great deal of flexibility. Distributorscan now vary the packaging weights inorder to meet retailer-specific requirementsto achieve targeted retail price point levels.”

Fisher Capespan’s Solomon knows thethree-pound bag is an advantage for con-sumers as well. “Given the diversity of sum-mer fruit available, it makes more sense for

South AfricanCitrus Variety Cheat Sheet

Clementines: third week of May through September

Navels: late May/early June until late October

Minneolas: mid-July through end-September

Mandarins: September and October

Midknights: October through mid-November

*Source: Western Cape Citrus Producers Forum

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South African citrus promises prof-its if adequately displayed both insize and variety. “The profitability

the fruit represents is significant, andspace should be allocated accordingly,”states Piet Smit, CEO of the WesternCape Citrus Producers’ Forum (CPF) inCitrusdal, Western Cape, South Africa.

“A profitable display sells,” says DickRissman, produce director for DesMoines, IA-based Dahl’s Food Markets,an upscale, independent chain with 12stores. “Sometimes, one item is moreprofitable than another, but in general,the size of the display, the variety andthe price points all help sell a product.You are competing against the entire lotof summer fruits so you want to bedecently priced with a nice display ofgood quality product.”

There is a direct correlation betweenthe size and visibility of the display andthe success of sales. “The bigger andmore attractive the retail displays are thehigher the sales’ volume will be,” notesTom Cowan, South African sales manag-er for DNE World Fruit Sales in Ft.Pierce, FL. “Consumers purchase muchof their produce items based on whatlooks attractive to the eye, and they tendto believe that bigger displays of itemsmean a better price.”

Location is important, too. “You wantto make sure it’s visible,” advises DickStiles, director of produce and floral forRedner’s Markets Inc., in Reading, PA. “Ifit’s out in front, it will affect your sales.We give citrus a bigger presentation thanapples during the summertime.”

“Give the category adequate shelf

space,” concurs Marc Solomon, presidentof Fisher Capespan USA LLC, headquar-tered in Gloucester City, NJ. “Since sum-mer citrus is an established category, itis an opportunity for retailers to gainincremental sales. Consumers buy whatthey see.”

Solomon advises it’s also important todisplay a variety of items. “Consumersmay be looking for Clementines for thekids and Navels for themselves,” he con-tinues. “You must have a summer citruscategory that meets the needs of a vari-ety of consumers.”

A sufficient display must also includea mix of bagged and bulk. “A minimumof 11 feet will allow the retailers to pro-mote a variety of items in both bulk andbag form,” suggests Bill Weyland, vicepresident of imports for Seven SeasFruit, a dba of Tom Lange CompanyInternational, Inc, headquartered inWoodbridge, NJ. “Ideally, if the spacepermits, take advantage of sales opportu-nities by building waterfall displays andusing freestanding tables or end caps tomerchandise featured items.”

Cowan clarifies the allure of a varieddisplay. “Some consumers like to picktheir own fruit and feel they are gettingvalue by doing so, while convenience-oriented shoppers find bagged producemore appealing. With the weak econo-my, we think the smaller Clementinepackaging allows the retailer to targetmore attractive price points. Retailerscan feature two-pound Clementine bagsat a suggested retail of $3.99 per bag andstill make a very good gross margin ofapproximately 50 percent.” pb

Display Big And Boldconsumers to want a three-pound bag versusa five-pound box, since they may be buyingother summer fruit.”

Several newcomers are continuing toedge their way into the season. “New SouthAfrican varieties are the PMG mandarinsstarting in mid-August and running throughmid-October,” remarks Cowan. “The PMGvarieties have excellent color and are easy topeel and segment. The exterior skin has adeep orange color and the fruit has a deli-cious, sweet taste. DNE will bring in somenew, late Navel oranges, such as theAutumn Gold this season. These late Navelvarieties will start in mid-September andrun through mid-October. The Brix in thesenew varieties is very high.”

South Africa is anxiously awaiting theU.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA)approval for a new shipping area in theNorthern Cape. “When it’s cleared, they’ll beable to ship Star Ruby grapefruit in June andJuly,” reports Solomon. “This will betremendous because it’s challenging to getgrapefruit at that time of year. We are cau-tiously optimistic this will happen in timefor this season.”

“South African Star Ruby grapefruit couldpotentially be admissible into the UnitedStates by June or July of this year, but morelikely next year,” says Flores of Seald-Sweet.“The season would run early to mid-sum-mer. However, there are logistical and proto-col details still being considered at this timethat are a challenge.”

Fair Trade products are also starting tocome out of South African citrus groves.“Right now, we are working primarily withFair Trade Navels as well as Clementinesand Midknights,” discloses Solomon of Fish-er Capespan. “We’re the only source of FairTrade citrus during the summer.”

“Our South African products and growershave been Fair Trade accredited for manyyears and have developed the Emgrowmovement, which creates partnershipsbetween growers and workers,” explains Flo-res. “On these farms, people are not onlysharing ownership in the agricultural enter-prises, but their communities share in thesocial structures that have prospered aroundthe farms. Through these programs, previ-ously disadvantaged communities havebeen transformed and are now thriving. Weare proud to have played a part and feel it’sour social responsibility to support thedevelopment of these programs. We are alsoin the process of accreditation for all of ourother products.”

PROMOTE VALUEGiven the state of the economy, right

now is a perfect time for retailers to pro-

Photo courtesy of Seald Sweet


mote the excellent value of summer citrusproducts. “Consumers are looking for valuefor their money,” asserts CPF’s Smit. “Weenvision a return to basic foodstuffs, whichare easy to prepare, and believe summercitrus will give the consumer a healthyoption throughout the season.”

“It seems people are eating at homemore and cutting back on discretionaryitems,” adds Solomon. “Carrying valuelines, which is what you get out of thebagged items, is an excellent strategy.Retailers can cater to the whole market byoffering bulk and bagged. Consumers maybe looking for things to liven up the dinnertable as they eat more at home, and sum-mer citrus products are a great item to pro-mote to this end.”

“Our citrus sales have increased so farthis year,” reports Redner’s Stiles. “It’s thevalue of the product combined with thehealth benefits. Citrus is good for you andgood to eat, both of which are very pro-motable messages.”

The summer citrus category offers valueand profitability to any produce department.Smit explains why. “Summer citrus tradi-tionally has delivered strong profitability toretailers based on affordable pricing thatreflects the superior quality of the fruit, andwe expect this to continue. Production costsare up, margins are down and it is still tooearly to tell what effect the U.S. economywill have on demand. Nonetheless, webelieve we can still make it profitable foreverybody involved, and still provide bettervalue on a pound-for-pound basis than mostother fresh fruit.”

Also, don’t be afraid to promote the Minneo-las or Cara Caras. Many retailers view theseas exotic varieties in the summer months,but these fantastic eating fruits can addincremental sales to the citrus category.”

Citrus can be a great summer add-on foryour customers. “Traditionally, summertimefor American consumers means less time inthe kitchen and more time to enjoy outdoordining and family outings,” says Seald-Sweet’s Flores. “The summer citrus pro-grams bring a wide variety of fresh produceofferings, such as Clementines — a perfect,convenient and healthful snack for activesummertime lifestyles. As consumersbecome more educated and familiar withthe summer citrus program, the demandcontinues to increase.”

“The biggest thing is to get the managersbehind promoting the items at a differenttime than they’re accustomed to because ofthe variety,” says Dahl’s Rissman. “Themore we make the public aware of theseproducts being available at their particulartime, the more we sell.”

Most importers and suppliers would liketo see a comprehensive and consistent pro-motion throughout the season. “When anitem is featured, we typically get larger dis-play space. Then, we can capture more ofthe impulse purchase opportunities,” saysWeyland. “Along with print ads and in-storefeatures, a solid and consistent promotionalprogram will include the utilization of prop-er signage and demos.”

“Stores should promote citrus regularlyand create themed ads promoting the vari-ety in season,” suggests Cowan. “For exam-ple, this includes Back to School ads in Sep-tember. They should also educate con-sumers on these imported varieties by usingeffective POS material and conduct in-storesampling for each citrus variety during itspeak flavor.” pb

“When retailers

merchandise both

bulk and packaged

product they have

the ability to hit dif-

ferent price point

levels and appeal to

the vast majority of

their customers.”

— Bill WeylandSeven Seas Fruit

Pricing and margins will vary dependingon a retailer’s orientation and promotionstrategy. “Retailers tend to work on grossmargins for summer citrus items of normal-ly 50 percent or higher, but on smaller mar-gins if they are promoting the item,”explains DNE’s Cowan. “For example,Clementine features occur the week beforethe Fourth of July for two- or three-poundbags and then again later in July, whichhelps drive sales. Loose Navels featured inmultiple units, such as 3-for-$1.99 duringthe July/August period, will increase pro-duce dollars for retailers.”

“We recommend selling by the pound,but it depends on the retailer’s preference,”says Fisher Capespan’s Solomon. “We’vefound consumers are comfortable buyingproduce by the pound, and retailers havereported to us they get better sales whenthey price this way.”

Seven Sea’s Weyland adds, “You can’tmake a universal statement with regard toprice point levels, but when retailers mer-chandise both bulk and packaged productthey have the ability to hit different pricepoint levels and appeal to the vast majorityof their customers.”

PROMOTE AGGRESS IVELYPromotion is crucial to stimulating sales.

“In-store promotion is very important, andobviously, we would like to do as much aspossible,” says Smit. “This is, however, afunction of volume, availability, pricing,etc., which the importers and retailers worktogether to address.”

“Promote, promote, promote during thesummer months,” advises Seven Sea’s Wey-land. “There is a lot of competition for shelfand ad space. To maximize summer citrussales, retailers working closely with theirsuppliers must develop a merchandising-promotional program and then stick to it.

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Two or 3-lb. bags of Clementines are an emerging trend in summer citrus.

Reader Service # 38

http://www.pma.com/foodservice


Properly maintaining a ripening — also knownas pre-conditioned — program in your producedepartment ensures more consistent quality andimmediate satisfaction, guaranteeing consumerstheir guarded dollars will provide a dependablereturn. While it only takes a little extra care to letconsumers know that ripe product is available, therewards are great. Ready-to-eat fruit sells at an evenhigher premium than conventionally treated fruit.

“Ripening programs continue to gain traction inboth core and new-demand avocado markets,”explains Jan DeLyser, vice president of marketingfor the Irvine, CA-based California Avocado Com-mission (CAC). “In fact, CAC research shows thaton a nationwide average retailers can increase theirannual sales up to 11 percent by implementing aripening program. Retailers in regions of the coun-try that have implemented these programs haveexperienced increases in sales, in some cases by asmuch as 30 percent per year.”

Justin Bedwell, director of marketing for Z & S

Fresh Inc., based in Fresno, CA, recognizes thatsome retailers are hesitant to begin a pre-condi-tioned fruit program, as it requires more invest-ment up front. Agreeing with DeLyser, he notes, “When retailers who don’t participate in a ripenedfruit program see the numbers of stores that haveintegrated our Just Ripe program 100 percent, theyare amazed. The numbers are great, and you can’targue with numbers.”

Greg Akins, president and CEO of Catalytic Gen-erators, a company that manufactures ripeningtechnology, in Norfolk, VA, says, “I believe thatmore retailers understand the need to provide theircustomers with ripe fruit and have taken their abili-ties in ripening traditional fruit, such as bananas,and invested in programs to ripen non-traditionalfruit, such as pears and avocados.”

“Consumers are still showing a preference forriper fruit at retail,” points out Kevin Moffitt, presi-dent and CEO of the Milwaukie, OR-based PearBureau Northwest (PBN). “However, many retailersare not taking advantage of the popularity andpotential for increased pear sales due to their tight-ening inventory controls and concerns about over-all shrink in the produce department. Consumerresearch conducted by PBN in recent monthsshowed that over 90 percent of consumers preferethylene-ripened pears by a large margin overpears that were not put through an ethylene ripen-ing regimen. Furthermore, respondents reportedthat they would pay more for the ripened fruit,which possessed better flavor attributes.”

R IPE BENEF ITS IN A TOUGH ECONOMY

People incorrectly assume the current economymay negatively affect pre-conditioned fruit pro-grams because they cost more than conventionalfruit. However, Dr. Carlos Cristoso, one of the pio-neers of pre-conditioning technology from the Uni-versity of California at Davis, believes this isn’t thecase. “On the contrary, delivery of tasty, sound fruitwill make the sale.”

In a recession, consumers want to makeevery dollar count.

Increase Fruit Sales With Ripening ProgramsEconomic worries haven’t dropped demand for pre-conditioned fruit, so don’t drop the ball on taking advantage of ripening programs in retail.

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Retailers can increase sales by implementing a ripening program.

Reader Service # 13


A Better “Ripe” ProgramThrough Science

What has changed over the years inthe ripening process and technolo-gy? What does the future hold in

store for ripened products? In what way doesthis effect retailers? Here’s a glimpse at someof the behind-the-scenes work that continuesto affect pre-conditioned fruits.

Ethylene is the key gas that causes fruit toripen; but it also causes it to go bad. Whilefruit needs ethylene to become juicy and sup-ple, the riper it gets, the more the fruit pro-duces as it breathes, so ripe fruit will spoilsooner and cause other fruit around it tospoil. Making the most of ripe programsmeans controlling ethylene.

Greg Akins, president and CEO of Norfolk,VA-based Catalytic Generators, which manu-factures ripening machinery, says, “We aredeveloping ways to allow ripeners to betterstay on top of the ethylene applicationprocess. For example, we are creating a sys-tem called the Smart-Ripe, which incorporatesan ethylene detector and allows the ripenerto establish an ethylene setpoint. The genera-tor will then modulate its production of ethyl-ene to maintain the desired ethylene target,ensuring that ethylene levels are maintainedin the proper range for effective fruit ripening.

Akins explains the product further, “Inaddition to tracking the ethylene levels, thesystem will monitor temperature and then logthese readings for record-keeping and compli-ance reports. The system works via a networkand allows for centralized control of all gener-ators.”

Controlling ethylene during shipping andstoring is also important to fruit longevity.Maintaining the cold chain is a prioritybecause it significantly slows the ripeningprocess and production of ethylene, but does-n’t stop it entirely.

Ethylene Control, headquartered in Selma,CA, creates filters and packets that absorb eth-ylene from the air. The small packets can beplaced in boxes for shipping and the large-scale scrubbers filter the air in warehousesand storage units. Demand for these productshas increased because there has been amove toward extending shelf life due to theeconomy, explains general manager DaveBiswell. “Costs have risen, even though salesare up,” so there is more of a focus on con-serving product.

Being able to get the fruit to the shelfsooner is another advancement. Mission Pro-

duce Inc., based in Oxnard, CA, has expandedto seven ripening centers across the UnitedStates, says vice president of sales and marketing Ross Wileman. The ripening program is set for a “just-in-time” delay. Allcenters can ship to stores within a day, andsend avocados four to five times a week formost retailers.

Better ripening rooms and the ability tomeasure ripeness has also helped ensure con-sistent product with a longer shelf life. Sha-lyne Van Worth, quality coordinator of Fresh-Sense, headquartered based in Parlier, CA,explains, “In previous years, the highestadvancement was adapting banana rooms forstone fruit. It’s highly controlled in smallamounts. This way, we can control humidityand temperature, and we do it for two palletsat a time. When fruit hits the right pressure, itcools immediately and we’re not forcing airthrough so many levels of pallets.”

Santa Paula, CA-based Calavo Growers Inc.is using new, acoustic sensors to get a bettermeasurement of ripeness for its Verified Inter-nal Pressure (VIP) avocados, according to RobWedin, vice president of fresh sales. “Soundwaves are sent through the fruit and theybounce off the seed to read the pressure with-out causing any damage to the fruit.” Addi-tionally, the rooms themselves are now fittedwith remote access monitors that allow forbetter humidity and heat control.

The Pear Bureau Northwest (PBN), basedin Milwaukie, OR, tracks advances on allangles of ripening. While guidelines havebeen around for 50 years, the most rapidadvancement has been in the past six oreight years.

President and CEO Kevin Moffitt, states,“Not only has research investment beenincreased, leading to a better understandingof the ripening process, but investment byshippers has also led to breakthroughs. Forexample, a packinghouse in the Northwestinvested in the country’s first dedicated pearripening rooms.”

Moffitt continues, “Other advancements inthe field include labels that change color toindicate to consumers when a pear is ripeand ethylene-release capsules that allow forpallet-level ripening or in-transit ripening.Recent research has also allowed for a betterunderstanding of the process and fine-tuningof the ripening regimens for different varietiesat different times of the year.” pb

Bedwell has seen the reaction of con-sumers when they eat a piece of juicy fruit.“They didn’t know it could be that way —sweet and juicy. They assume that allpeaches must be hard and crunchy like theones they might have come across in thepast. That’s how you lose consumers. Any-time you can give consumers a ripe, ready-to-eat piece of fruit at store level, that willhelp sales.”

Akins reports no decrease in the sale ofhis ripening equipment. Moffitt explainswhy. “There doesn’t generally seem to beany difference in the price retailers chargefor fruit that has been pre-conditioned fromtheir supplier or at their warehouse. Theeconomy hasn’t had a negative effect fromthat standpoint.”

Gurdeep S. Billan, category manager andmerchandiser for Modesto, CA-based SaveMart Supermarkets, which boasts more than200 stores, agrees. “There’s not much costdifference between pre-ripened fruit andconventional.” Moreover, he relies on Dinu-ba, CA’s Summeripe Worldwide Inc.’s pre-ripened, ready-to-eat tree fruit. “We hangour hats on Summeripe, and on our ripenedfruit program.”

In fact, thanks to the difficult economy,ripened fruit may even offer more appeal toconsumers this year. In many cases, salesfor ripened fruit have continued to climb.On the retail level, this continued growth isoften attributed to more people cooking athome. “As more consumers trade out-of-home dining experiences for home-cookedmeals, avocado category sales at retail havecontinued to be positive,” notes DeLyser, cit-ing an IRI/Freshlook study that covered a13-week period ending on January 25, 2009.“In fact, avocados are one of the top threegrowth categories of fresh fruit with volumeincreasing 14.43 percent and sales increas-ing 10.55 percent.”

Ross Wileman, vice president of salesand marketing for Mission Produce Inc.,

“There’s not much

cost difference

between pre-

ripened fruit and

conventional.”

— Gurdeep BillanSave Mart Supermarkets

headquartered in Oxnard, CA, remarks themost significant change is the demand forfood at retail. There is still plenty ofdemand, and “the demand is attributed topeople staying home and cooking. Theywant something new, fast and healthy.”

“Offering ripened pears at retail is actual-ly a smart move in today’s economic envi-ronment, as it can set a store’s produce apartfrom the competition,” says Moffitt. “Bettertasting and juicier fruit can add the valuethat consumers are looking for today. Fur-thermore, the produce department remainsthe top attraction for consumers, so offeringtasty, ripened fruit not only increases cus-tomers, but keeps them loyal to a store.”

LESS SHR INK , MORE SALES :A CONSISTENT EXPER IENCE

Ripened fruit is more delicate thanunripened fruit, and as Cristoso says, “If themarket is slow, the cull percentage due tosoft fruit can increase.” A piece of ripe fruitmay not last as long as a piece of unripefruit if you’re simply comparing the two bysitting them on a shelf and waiting. Howev-er, ripe fruit sells more quickly than unripeproduct. If the fruit is clearly marked as ripeand ready-to-eat, there are fewer consumerssqueezing the fruit, which bruises and dam-ages the fruit before it ripens. The frequen-cy of purchase and less damaging handlingdrop the overall shrink percentage.

Z & S’s Bedwell also points out that thepre-conditioning process eliminates the pos-sibility of the fruit being exposed to kill-zonetemperatures. “When you bring the fruit upto its preferred ripening temperature, andthen cool it down once ripe and continuethat cold chain management, it is alwayswithin the optimal temperature range. Bynot being exposed to kill-zone temperatures,the fruit will last much longer,” he explains

PBN’s Moffitt reveals, “Retailers are

reporting 25 to 50 percent increases in pearsales when instituting a ripened pear pro-gram. The concerns about shrink are oftenunfounded. Offering ripened fruit willincrease sales and off-take turning theinventory more often. In addition, if con-sumers realize that a store displays ripefruit consistently, they don’t have to pickthrough a display squeezing and handlingall the fruit before selecting. Consumer han-dling of fruit can be a significant cause ofthe shrink in the produce department.”

Part of balancing out shrink comes frommore sales overall. If the fruit is ripe, people

are more likely to pick it up on impulse.Additionally, if consumers have a positiveexperience with the fruit they purchased onimpulse, they are more likely to come backfor more. “When managed properly,research demonstrates that sales increase,while shrink drops,” says CAC’s DeLyser.“Impulse sales increase and shrink dropsbecause consumers purchase with confi-dence. Retailers can motivate sales with sig-nage that specifies their avocados are ripe,reducing excessive handling by consumers.”

Rob Wedin, vice president of fresh salesfor Calavo Growers Inc., based out of Santa


“It’s really about

generating demand

and driving sales. A

dedicated ripening

program can be a

key driver of sales.”

— Rob WedinCalavo Growers Inc.

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Paula, CA, gives this example. “In one store,I saw a display of ripe avocados for 99 cents,and people were buying them. At anotherstore, they were hard and green, but only 61cents — and they weren’t selling. People arein the store to buy for that day or the nextday, so they want them ripe.”

What gives a store steady sales and lessshrink is having consistent quality inripened fruit. If a customer has a good expe-rience, then returns and has a bad eatingexperience, future sales are lost because thecustomer doesn’t see consistent quality.Wileman underlines the importance ofproduct consistency even before it arrives atthe store. “While much of the business is notconducted with consumers, it affects therelationship with them.” Mission has a highlevel of quality control to ensure the fruit isin the right condition. The company alsoeducates retailers on ripening based on thelength of time the avocados are at the distri-bution center, and how that affects ripenesslevels in the store. “A lot more goes into aripening program than one normally imag-ines,” adds Wileman.

Ripe ‘N Ready products from FreshSenseeven have a promotion based on their“Great Taste Guarantee,” explains ShalyneVan Worth, quality coordinator for the Parli-er, CA-based company. Consumers simplyneed to call the company if they are nothappy, and the company will refund theirmoney. “Ripened fruit always has a moreconsistent, ready-to-eat product with alonger shelf life.”

DIST INCT D IFFERENCESThere are a number of fruits that go

through a pre-conditioning process beforearriving on the store shelf. Bananas wereone of the earliest and the most commonlytreated products. However, current atten-tion is focused on fruits such as avocados,pears and stone fruit. Though people talkabout overall fruit ripening programs, thesespecific fruits undergo a distinctly different

ripening process. Not only does the actualripening process vary, but so does in-storehandling, as well as how to best merchan-dise these different fruits.

When it comes to avocados, the impor-tant consideration is temperature treat-ment. Wedin clarifies, “A banana room does-n’t have enough cooling capability. Avoca-dos naturally want to warm up while ripen-ing, so we need a good way to evacuate thecarbon-dioxide.” Additionally, ripe avocadoscan be held at lower temperatures thanhard avocados. “When you buy ripe avoca-dos, before they go to the shelf, they shouldbe stored at 40ºF,” Wedin advises. “They arefully ripe in about 36 hours at ambient tem-perature, or 70ºF, but you don’t want themexposed to ambient temperature until theyare on the shelf.”

“When managed

properly, research

demonstrates that

sales increase while

shrink drops.

Retailers can

motivate sales with

signage that speci-

fies their avocados

are ripe, reducing

excessive handling

by consumers.

— Jan DeLyserCalifornia Avocado

Commission

Ready-to-eat fruit sells at a higher premium than conventionally treated fruit.

When merchandising avocados, thereshould be a balance between grabbing theattention of impulse customers and cateringto the regular purchasers. “It’s really aboutgenerating demand and driving sales. A ded-icated ripening program can be a key driverof sales,” continues Wedin. Carrying a sec-ondary display of avocados enables retailersto offer a smaller avocado at an attractiveprice point and a larger avocado for aficiona-dos. In developed markets, adding a baggedavocado to the offering allows retailers tohave something for everyone.”

Pears, on the other hand, provide somedifficulty when determining ripeness, sincemany varieties do not change skin colorupon maturity. Thus, they need to be clear-ly labeled for both retail employees and con-sumers. Pre-conditioned pears need to bestacked very shallow and handled gently toprevent bruising and damage.

While some shippers have made progresswith stickers and packaging that inform con-sumers about ripeness, it is important storescontinue to encourage consumers to proper-ly check bulk pears with educational “Checkthe Neck” signage that PBN provides on itsWeb site.

When it comes to ripening programs forstone fruits, Gordon Smith, director of mar-keting for Reedley, CA-based California TreeFruit Agreement says, “California peaches,plums and nectarines don’t quite fit into thesame profile as pears and avocados, in termsof ripening programs. Each individual com-pany has their own protocol for pre-condi-tioning, and many also offer both conven-tional and tree-ripe.”

The University of California’s researchcreated the “preconditioning process as away to increase the fruit’s market life andreduce its susceptibility to chilling injury,including mealiness and flesh browning,when stored at warehouse cooler tempera-tures,” continues Smith. “However, it wasthe individual shippers that have taken it tothe next level, developing their own pre-conditioning protocols.”

Additionally, unlike pears and avocados,there are hundreds of varieties of stonefruit, especially peaches. Each variety needsto be treated individually for optimum tasteand experience for the customer, explainsSteve Kenfield, vice president of sales andmarketing for HMC Marketing Group, head-quartered in Kingsburg, CA. “Even amongthe different tree fruits and the differentvarieties of stone fruit, there is not a singleway to treat them all. We have moved away from a processed-based approach tobusiness.” Put simply, if the fruit doesn’tbenefit from being conditioned, it won’t be conditioned. pb


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The fresh herb business is either growing orholding its own during a time when many business-es are faltering due to the economic downturn.There are several reasons for the increased interestin fresh herbs.

“We believe there is a great opportunity forretailers to provide their customers with more fla-vorful meals on a ‘cook-at-home budget.’ Today’sconsumers want to provide more home-cookedmeals flavored like those offered in the restaurantsthey used to frequent. Fresh herbs can be ‘basket

builders’ when retailers offer them toadd taste and eye appeal to the sim-plest of meals,” states Chick Good-man, national sales manager forCompton, CA-based Herb ThymeFarms Inc., an organic herb growerand marketer.

Another reason for increasedherb sales is that they are enjoying amedia bonanza. Consumer exposureto fresh herb usage is high, notesCharlie Coiner, president andfounder of Rock Garden South, asupplier and distributor of freshherbs, baby greens and specialty pro-duce, based in Miami, FL. “Maga-zines, newspapers, TV and the Inter-net all provide herb recipes, tips andgeneral consumer information”

Mike Maguire, director of pro-duce operations at Market BasketProduce, a 60-store chain headquar-tered in Tewksbury, MA, reports,“Our produce sales are fantastic andfresh herbs have been an importantpart of that. Sales are up, and whilethe economy is one reason, TV cook-

ing shows have really given the category a boost.”“The benefits of cooking with fresh herbs are too

great to ignore,” says Ryan Cherry, executive vicepresident at International Herbs Ltd., marketers offresh herbs and specialty produce in Surrey, B.C.,Canada. “Average consumers have taken to cookingwith fresh herbs rather than dried, and using freshherbs in daily cooking is no longer reserved forexecutive chefs.”

Handling fresh herbs from Israel under theCarmel label, Moshe Chaver, herb manager atAgrexco (USA) Inc., headquartered in Jamaica, NY,reports their sales have not increased, due primari-ly to new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)regulations. However, although herb sales are lessin New York, they are growing in other regions ofthe country. “We’re now flying our herbs to placeslike Seattle and Texas,” he comments.

The economy doesn’t appear to be the majorfactor for increases in fresh herb purchases, accord-ing to Ciro Porricelli, owner and vice president ofJerry Porricelli Produce, a wholesale distributorheadquartered in the Bronx, NY. “We’re experienc-ing big fresh herb sales increases because peoplejust like the flavors they provide. Restaurants areusing more and ethnic groups use many herbs intheir cooking as well.”

EXOTIC AND HEALTHFULREC IPES ARE HERB -FR IENDLY

Interest in fresh herbs has increased with expo-sure through a wide variety of ethnic restaurants.“In South Florida, the rising populations from Cuba,Central and South America use many fresh herbsin their special dishes,” explains Ronald Zamora,vice president and general manager for CoosemansMiami Inc., a Miami, FL-based grower and mar-keter of herbs and other specialty produce. “Freshbasil is important for Italian customers, and now,with the popularity of the Mojito — a mint-basedalcoholic beverage, fresh mint sales have really

Retailers and suppliers of fresh herbs areoptimistic.

Maximizing Herb Sales And ProfitsConsumers continue to rely on fresh herbs to liven up their meals, especially when they are cross-merchandised in unique packaging.

B Y B A R B A R A R O B I S O N

Live, potted herbs are one of thenew and creative packaging tech-niques being used in the herb world.

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increased,” he adds.Ethnic cuisines have created a market

for things like Thai basil for Asian cookingand Epazote for Latino foods. Jim Krouse,owner and president of Los Angeles, CA-based Eureka Specialties Inc., a distributorof culinary herbs and specialty produce,expects demand for these and other ethnicfresh herbs to continue to increase. “Ourbusiness is primarily foodservice, and freshherbs are a creative tool for every chef, justas paint is for the artist,” he declares. “Likerestaurant chefs, consumers want to createnew dishes with an array of fresh herb fla-vors. Therefore, retail sales should experi-ence the foodservice trend.”

Some of the newer herbs that havegained popularity in Canada are Thai basil,lemon thyme, lemon balm and lavender,according to Boncheff Greenhouses Inc., aToronto, Ontario, Canada supplier of freshherbs year around.

There are constantly new fresh herbsbeing introduced. One place to seek infor-mation about them is the Silver Springs, PA-based Herb Growing and Marketing Net-work, a large trade association for the freshherb industry. “We help in marketing herbsand provide information about them

through a bi-weekly trade journal, saysdirector Maureen Rogers. “There has beenincreased interest in Hispanic, Asian andespecially Vietnamese herbs. We profile oneculinary herb a month. Recently it was theLo lot, a Vietnamese herb used primarily inAsian satays.”

The growth of special diets has con-tributed to greater interest in fresh herbs aswell. According to an Ohio State UniversityExtension Fact Sheet, cooking with herbshas taken on new importance with greaterawareness of reducing salt and fat in thediet. The herbs add fresh and interesting fla-vors to foods made from recipes withreduced salt and fat. The fact sheet offersmany tips for using fresh herbs, although itsays there are actually no rules when cook-ing with them. One good tip to remember isthat two teaspoons of fresh herbs are equalto 1⁄4 teaspoon of powdered herbs or 3⁄4 toone teaspoon of crumbled, dried herbs.

A Food Reflections bulletin, HealthyCooking with Fresh Herbs, published by theUniversity of Nebraska Cooperative Exten-sion, based in Lincoln, NE, reports, “Besideshelping flavor foods when cutting back onsalt, fat and sugar, herbs may offer addition-al benefits of their own. Researchers are

finding many culinary herbs (both fresh anddried) have antioxidants that may help pro-tect against diseases, such as cancer andheart disease.”

“Healthy eating is definitely at the fore-front with our produce shoppers,” saysMaguire of Market Basket.

FRESH HERB VAR IET IES EXPAND

Fresh basil is the No. 1 fresh herb accord-ing to most in the fresh herb industry. “Thebulk of our sales is focused around basil. Itwill represent approximately 60 percent ofany one order,” states Cherry of Internation-al Herbs.

Richard Stiles, produce director for Read-ing, PA-based Redner’s Markets Inc., a gro-cery chain with 39 warehouse markets and12 convenience stores, agrees basil is themost popular herb. “Fresh oregano andchives are also popular. Fresh mint doesespecially well in the spring for KentuckyDerby Mint Juleps and the Easter holiday,”he adds.

Robert Schueller, director of public rela-tions for Melissa’s/World Variety ProduceInc., a distributor of specialty produce head-quartered in Los Angeles, CA, adds, “Fresh


Merchandising Fresh Herbs

When it comes to merchandising their products, fresh herbsuppliers have a few suggestions to help build retail sales.Marina Pace, marketing spokesperson for Jacobs Farm/Del

Cabo Inc., a marketer of certified organic culinary herbs and edibleflowers, in Pescadero, CA, advises, “Basil should not be stored below45°F. This makes its placement near the typical meal companion oftomatoes a good choice. All other herbs should be kept around 36°Fand should be placed high in the display case to avoid misting thatmight be applied to other products.”

“Basil, especially, should never be misted because the leaves willturn black with the moisture,” adds Robert Schueller, director of publicrelations for Melissa’s/World Variety Produce Inc., a distributor of spe-cialty produce headquartered in Los Angeles, CA,

“The biggest issue with retailing fresh herbs is they tend to be dis-played in a small, obscure area and often go unnoticed,” explainsSimcha Weinstein, director of marketing at Bridgeport, NJ-basedAlbert’s Organics Inc. “Particularly in these poor economic times, Iwould recommend retailers focus on their four top-selling herbs. Thenmerchandise them with products that they complement, such as basilwith tomatoes, or rosemary and red potatoes. Including a few signsand tying the products together are excellent reminders to the cus-tomer.”

Chick Goodman, national sales manager for Compton, CA-basedHerb Thyme Farms Inc., suggests displaying fresh herbs with otherspecialty items, such as mushrooms and colored peppers. Ukrop’sSuper Markets displays basil with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese to

suggest a popular and easy salad. “We also display herbs over themushrooms and cut vegetables in our designated cooking area,” saysWade Carmichael, senior category manager of produce at Richmond,VA-based Ukrop’s Super Markets Inc.

“Retailers should not focus cross-merchandising ideas and con-cepts solely within the produce department. Displaying rosemary andbeef during BBQ promotions, tarragon with chicken, dill and fish, and,of course, sage and thyme for the holiday turkey can be effectivesales builders,” offers Ryan Cherry, executive vice president at Inter-national Herbs Ltd., marketers of fresh herbs in Surrey, B.C., Canada.

When it comes to the pricing of fresh herbs, Michele Henning, vicepresident of sales and marketing for Shenandoah Growers Inc., basedin Harrisonburg, VA, believes retailers don’t need to discount them.For example, if strawberries are a hot item, a tip or sauce recipe forusing fresh mint with them can move both items and provide a moreflavorful eating combination for the consumer.

Other herb items are appearing in retail produce departments. TheSpice Hunter Inc., in San Luis Obispo, CA, is offering all-natural,gourmet herbs that have been flash-frozen and vacuum-dried. “TheFresh at Hand products are excellent to display in a stand-alone rackin produce departments, providing complementary flavors for manyproduce items,” says Tania Biswas, senior brand manager.

Some market produce departments are also offering a selection ofherb pastes in tubes, produced in Australia. Goodman discloses HerbThyme Farms is launching its own line of tube herbs, made with con-ventional fresh herbs. pb


the holiday period.” “Food service is the major part of our

business and we believe chefs have a stronginfluence when it comes to learning aboutnew fresh herbs. Latino-flavored herbs, suchas cilantro, are increasingly popular, andinterest in lemon verbena has grown,”

reports Kelly Orange, manager of commu-nity affairs for San Diego Specialty Produce,in San Diego, CA.

NEW LOOKS FOR FRESHHERB PRESENTAT IONS

Just as the volume and variety of freshherbs are expanding, so too are new pack-aging and presentation options. Schuellerbelieves the most popular container hasbecome the clamshell. “Bulk herbs are cer-tainly sold a lot, but it is not the most popu-lar presentation. One reason is the higherretail labor costs. Bags are also used, butproduct shelf life does not seem to be asgreat as herbs in clamshells,” he says.

Rock Garden South is developing newpackaging that tries to address two majorconcerns. “The first is to drive down thepackaging cost and the other is to have thelowest amount of impact on landfills,”

explains Coiner.Maguire reports, “We sell herbs in bunch-

es, in clamshells and recently, we’ve beenexperimenting with herbs in small pots. Weput the potted herbs on ad and they’ve beenextremely popular with customers.”

Shenandoah Growers Inc., based in Har-risonburg, VA, a provider of fresh herbs, hasrecently built a new, state-of-the-art green-

basil sales are consistent throughout theyear, and when locally grown tomatoes arein season, basil sales increase. Mint is theNo. 2 seller, followed by thyme, rosemary,chives, dill and sage. It’s interesting that 60percent of the sage sales are in the fourthquarter. It’s a must for Thanksgiving and

Herb packagiing options are expanding as quickly as herb varieties themselves.

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house, based on European technology. Itcan provide fresh herbs year-round. “Withthis new technology, we are introducingOrganic Living Culinary Herbs, which areavailable in small pots,” says Michele Hen-ning, vice president of sales and marketing.“They are grown to be consumed upon pur-chase. There are seven flavors and we mayadd three or four more. Shenandoah Grow-ers owns the proprietary right to sell orlease the technology, which we believe is awave of the future. We are growing in 80,000square feet what would ordinarily take 100acres to grow, with a tremendous impact onour environment.”

Organic Living Culinary Herbs are not tobe refrigerated, but displayed on a compa-ny-provided rack. The oils develop intenseflavors in the leaves, and consumers canuse what they need immediately, and thenkeep the small pot in the kitchen to use asneeded. The product is not designed forlong-term use, such as the larger pots arewhen planting herbs.

Only six pots are in a case, to help pre-vent shrink. “The display racks withoutrefrigeration offer retailers more opportuni-ties for cross-merchandising, both withinand outside the produce department,” con-tinues Henning.

Richmond, VA-based Ukrop’s Super Mar-kets Inc., a 27-store chain, is experimentingwith different herb presentations as well.“We are excited about offering the smallherb pots marketed by Shenandoah Grow-ers. We think they are especially effective

promoted as fresh, locally grown herbs,because our customers like that,” reportsWade Carmichael, senior category manag-er of produce. “We also are trying a newline of smaller packaged herbs that wethink will be successful.”

Boncheff Greenhouses is offering new,single-serving herbs in bags, one-third thesize of clamshells. Vice president TomBoncheff explains, “It’s a way to offer herbsat lower price points, encouraging adven-turous consumers to try more than onetype of herb. We have seen sales numbersincrease,” he points out. ShenandoahGrowers is also experimenting with a sin-gle serve clamshell, according to Henning.

Another unique presentation of freshherbs is a line of Living Herbs, packagedwith the roots intact, marketed by NorthShore Greenhouses Inc., a marketer ofgreenhouse-grown fresh vegetables, head-quartered in Thermal, CA. “We believe Liv-ing Herbs will appeal especially to thenew, younger cooks who are using herbsfor the first time. The product denotesfreshness and the packaging is 100 percentrecyclable,” say sales manager DonaldSouther.

“Our markets carry a full selection offresh herbs, including Living Herbs — withthe roots attached — and the small, organ-ic, potted herbs. Many of our customerslike the idea that they can purchase a freshherb today and it will continue to grow intheir home for use a few days later,” saysRedner’s Stiles. pb


Organic Herbs

How organics fit into the fresh herbcategory is frequently a question.Organic fresh herb sales are steadily

increasing, according to suppliers. “We encourage retailers to carry our

organic herbs because we’ve found con-ventional herb buyers will purchase organ-ic herbs, but organic buyers will not usuallypurchase conventional herbs,” says ChickGoodman, national sales manager forCompton, CA-based Herb Thyme Farms Inc.

Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo Inc . , inPescadero, CA, a marketer of certifiedorganic culinary herbs and edible flowers,has seen increased sales in geographicareas that historically have lagged behindboth the West and Northeast markets. Thecompany has also had increased sales inexisting organic private labeling programsand development of new programs.

“Organics are very popular in our com-munities and we are looking into carryingorganic produce,” states Stephen Ho, cate-gory produce manager for T & T Supermar-ket Inc., headquartered in Richmond, B.C.,Canada, a 14-store chain marketing largelyto the Chinese population. “However, ourcustomers are price-conscious and a majorconsideration for them is the higher pricepoints of organics.”

Infinite Herbs & Specialties LLC, head-quartered in Miami, FL, a marketer of culi-nary herbs, has found a certain level ofstores in the urban areas of the countryoffer organic herbs more often. “If a marketdoes offer organics most customers appre-ciate it, but the larger segment of the pop-ulation won’t stop buying fresh herbs iforganic ones are not offered,” says compa-ny partner Camilo Peñalosa. pb


ORGANIC

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ORGANIC

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Take Advantage of Transitional Produce As the demand for organic produce grows, more retail space is becoming available for transitional produce.

B Y M E R E D I T H A U E R B A C H

Stemilt created its Artisan Naturals brand to move large crops of stone fruit as ittransitioned to a certified organic product.

Thinking in terms of black andwhite, the rules and regulationsregarding organic produce itemsare unmistakable. Fresh produceis either certified organic or not,

and it must be labeled accordingly byincluding identification information on theaccompanying sign or box. While there is aclear distinction between the end result ofthose produce items that are grown organi-cally and those that aren’t, the nature of theproduce industry often demands a goodshare of time and effort spent operating innuanced shades of gray. This is especiallytrue in the case of transitional produce, aterm that refers to product grown organical-ly during the 3-year period before the landcan be certified as organic.

Just a few years ago, consumers seekingorganic produce sometimes came up short.Supply was neither universal nor consistent,but ever-inventive retailers began to educateshoppers about the idea of transition-to-organic produce, which offers a viable wayto bridge the gap of the occasional lacklusterorganic selection, and even offset some ofthe growers’ higher costs.

THE RETA IL POS IT IONRoger Pepperl, director of marketing for

Wenatchee, WA-based Stemilt Growers Inc.,recognizes the advantages of establishing atransitional produce line. “Developing ourArtisan Naturals label was a 1-year programto help us move a substantial volume ofstone fruit as the crop transitioned to certi-fied organic,” he explains. “We completedthat transition this past year and now useour Artisan Organics label on more than amillion cartons of Washington-grown peach-es, nectarines, apricots and pluots.”

Another company that has quietly side-

lined a label used for transitional product isCF Fresh, based in Sedro Woolley, WA. Mau-reen Royal, director of sales, describes itsdecision to switch labels. “We used NatureConserve as the label for transitional prod-uct through the 2007 crop. Our label for cer-tified organic product is Viva Tierra, and itis now our primary label because ofincreased organic supply.”

Joe Hardiman, produce merchandisemanager for PCC Natural Markets, a 9-storenatural foods chain in Seattle, WA, made hiscompany’s policy very explicit. “In our view,the USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture]National Organic Standards law in 2002eliminated transitional produce as a market-ing strategy. “Because we are an organicretailer, we are compelled to follow the let-ter of the law and do not market producegrown from land in the transitional 3-yearperiod as anything but conventional.”

New Seasons Market, with seven storesin the Portland, OR, metropolitan area,focuses on organic produce, but much likePCC, also offers conventionally grown prod-uct as circumstances of supply or qualitydictate. Jeff Fairchild, director of produce,confirms, “We can typically get sufficientorganic supply for all produce products. It’smaybe less than 10 times a year where wecan’t. We will still abide by a certified organ-ic or conventionally grown label.”

SHIPPERS QUEST ION TRANS IT IONAL PRODUCE

According to Scott Owens, vice presidentof sales and marketing for Paramount CitrusAssociation, in Delano, CA, “There’s no realmarket for transitional. Most of the reason issupply, but we also think it confuses theshopper. It’s a gray area for which manymajor retailers don’t have time.”

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ly. Many growers still have land in transi-tion, some of whom may have troubleaffording the process of obtaining certifiedorganic status. Additionally, interest isincreasing in product that falls into an as yetundefined category of locally grown. Withan ever growing list of factors of differentia-tion to consider, some questions remain:How should these groups approach the mar-ket and how do consumers make decisionsabout their products?

THE BACKSTORYStemilt’s Pepperl says the real solution

has to focus on flavor. “When we used theArtisan Naturals labels, the box also promot-ed ‘Naturally Grown for Ultimate Flavor,’ hepoints out. “That same phrase is on our boxfor Artisan Organics. It is our contentionthat organic is not fully understood by mostconsumers. Through our research, we foundthat people who are better connected withthe idea of natural want naturally farmedfruit bursting with outstanding flavor. Anorganic designation may be only one step. “

Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market, a sin-gle-store retailer located in Richmond, VA,has found its niche in the local movement.For the store, local supersedes organic.Recently, the company replaced the wordnatural with local in the store’s name. The12,500 square-foot store, with 900 squarefeet devoted to produce, brings in revenueof $20 million a year.

Cyndi Watkins, local forager (i.e., localproduce buyer), discloses, “We have devel-oped our own grading system on behalf ofcustomers. ‘Good, Better, Best’ gives us defi-nition and space to allow consumers tounderstand what our produce products offer.For example, we would give a high-quality,

certified organic product grown within ahundred miles our designation of ‘Best.’ Ifthat same product was grown organically,but wasn’t certified organic it would be ‘Bet-ter,’ while a product grown on a low- or no-spray family farm may rate ‘Good.’”

“We believe in the promise of truth in

growing, and certify produce items as natu-rally grown,” Watkins continues. “Duringpeak growing season, more than 90 percentof our produce is organic and a third of it islocally grown. We also believe in providingincentives for our local farmers to improve.As suppliers move up the grading scale, wereduce our profit margin so more goes to thevendor. It’s a way we can offer consumers

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Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market usesa grading system of Good, Better, Best.Albert’s Organics promotes some tran-sitional items that are also Fair Trade.

“Through our

research, we found

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— Roger PepperlStemilt Growers Inc.

Rainier Fruit Co., in Selah, WA, has aclear approach. Suzanne Wolter, director ofmarketing, notes, “We market all product asconventional until there is sufficient certi-fied organic product to meet demand. Sincethe 2006 crop, we have used a certifiedorganic label on boxes.”

Major suppliers of certified organic pro-duce, such as Earthbound Farm, in San JuanBautista, CA, and Albert’s Organics Inc.,inBridgeport, NJ, have moved beyond transi-tional produce. Tonya Antle, vice presidentof organic sales for Earthbound Farm, says,“The company does not market anything astransitional because it focuses exclusively oncertified organic products.”

Simcha Weinstein, director of marketingfor Albert’s Organics, concurs. “Albert’s doesnot have a specific transitional program. Wefind it difficult as our customers sell andpromote certified organic food. There’s littledemand for transitional, primarily becauseit is a transition and the market for certifiedorganic is strong.”

So, is that the end of the story? Not real-

CF Fresh used Nature Conserve as its label for transitional produce through the2007 crop.

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great products — transitional and organic —and reward the farms with which we work.”

If Ellwood Thompson’s, CF Fresh andStemilt are examples of companies reachingout to promote transitional produce, othercompanies are finding additional, creativeand acceptable ways to market it. Weinsteinof Albert’s Organics has a way to support

transitional growers. “We buy transitionalproduce that is also grown under the FairTrade label and we sell it as Fair Trade prod-uct,” he explains. “It supports the transition-al movement as well as Fair Trade.”

PCC Natural Markets are well known inthe Seattle area for supporting its growers.Hardiman reveals, “We’re strict about organ-ic labeling at retail, but we also frequentlyhave familiar organic growers who are sell-ing their transitional product to us and wewill use the name of the farm as additionalinformation on the POS sign. The product isalways labeled as conventional, but it does

support the sale. Our produce managers alsohelp sell these products to customers.”

New Season’s Fairchild adds, “Our corecustomers generally understand the lan-guage of natural foods — conventional, tran-sitional, local — and trust us to find the bestbuy for them. If there’s a huge price differ-ence for organic and a high-quality, conven-tional product is available, we’ll go for it andlet customers choose what’s right for them.It’s a case-by-case review. We do see somehard decision-making going on in the mindsof customers in today’s economy and wework to respond to those needs.” pb


“Our core customers

generally understand

the language of nat-

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local — and trust us

to find the best buy

for them.”

— Jeff FairchildNew Seasons Market

What’s The Future

P roduce suppliers and retailersalike feel confident predictingorganic demand will grow,

albeit a bit more slowly over the nextyear. Sustained, organic growth offersthe best niche opportunity for effec-tive marketing of transitional produce.More retail space devoted to organicproduce may well mean some supplygaps, the key situation that opens thedoor for transitional items.

Roger Pepperl, director of market-ing for Wenatchee, WA-based StemiltGrowers Inc., considers the future oftransitional produce to be fluid, basedon supply and demand. “As a largegrower, we can use different kinds ofproducts to help differentiate our-selves. We can fulfill a wide range ofretail needs and in the end, thereward may not be a premium inprice, but an enhanced ability to pro-tect what we have and maintain ourmarket share.” pb

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MERCHANDISING

REVIEW

MERCHANDISING

REVIEW


Cheering For CherriesMaking the most of the short, much-anticipated cherry season with highly visible, properly maintained, creative displays is a surefire way to amp up sales.

B Y J O N V A N Z I L E

Rainier cherries sell best when merchandised in a mixed display with red cherries.

Fresh cherries are one of the mostprofitable and exciting fresh fruitson the market today and there aresome proven techniques to wring-ing the most from this seasonal

crop. Available only twice a year — in theheight of summer, and in the dead of winter— cherries are one of the few seasonal cropsleft. “Seasonality creates excitement,” saysJim Culbertson, executive manager of theCalifornia Cherry Advisory Board (CCAB),based in Lodi, CA. “When people see cher-ries, they want them because they knowthey won’t be there for long. Plus, they’revery popular. Go out and find the personwho doesn’t like cherries. It’s a hard personto find.”

Summer cherries in the United States aremostly grown in California and Washington,while winter cherries are air-shipped fromChile for a short season during Decemberand January.

This is a delicate fruit — cherries can’t beroughly handled or stacked too deeply —and cold chain management is essential toavoid catastrophic shrink. But ultimately,they’re well worth the extra effort.

Those in the industry agree that this isgoing to be a banner year for cherries, as faras quantity and quality, despite what willmost likely be a late start to the season.“The weather in Washington hasn’t beencooperating,” says Chuck Sink, president ofsales and marketing for Sage Fruit Co., inYakima, WA. “As a result, we may not makethe July 4th holiday, but the crop should beplentiful and high-quality.

Vice president of marketing forWenatchee, WA-based Columbia MarketingInternational Corp. (CMI), Bob Mast, con-curs, “Due to the cooler weather we experi-enced in March, the crop will be later thanusual this year, perhaps missing the Fourthof July promo altogether,” he notes. “Howev-er, we are looking at the potential of harvest-

ing the largest crop in the history of North-west cherries.

THE CHERRY SEASONSDomestic cherries are generally available

from early April until late July or August.The harvest starts in Southern Californiaand moves north into Washington as thefruit ripens and the weather warms. Chileancherries are generally available from earlyDecember to early February.

In recent years, domestic growers havefound ways to stretch the growing season onboth ends. In California, new trees are beingplanted further south, which gives growersan early season boost. Still, other growershoping to extend the season are plantingtrees at higher elevations so they’re stillpicking fruit well into the late summer. “Thehigher the elevation, the later your cherrieswill develop,” clarifies Loren Queen, mar-keting and communications manager atDomex Superfresh Growers, in Yakima, WA.“It’s a bit harder because you have morefrost control, but it’s worth it because youhave great product on the shelf longer.”

Sage Fruit is another such grower thathas begun planting at higher elevations inan effort to extend the cherry season laterinto the summer. “With this new acreage, weshould have cherries into August,” revealsSink. “Each year, we are able to elongate theseason more and more. When we first beganour efforts, we were reaching the middle ofJuly and then we were into the third orfourth week of the month. Now, we are hit-ting August, so there’s been great progresson the back end of the season.”

The majority of fresh cherries sold in theUnited States are dark red, sweet cherries,usually of the Bing variety. Other red vari-eties are available, but consumers generallydon’t discriminate between the varieties ofred cherries. The pale white and yellowRainier cherry, from Washington, comprisesa much smaller percentage of the harvest.

When buying cherries, it’s a good idea toget the largest and best produce possible,with intact stems. Cherries are sorted bysize, and growers will often custom-packorders for a certain size. “You need to buyquality,” asserts Michael Jameson, director

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of marketing for Morada Produce Co. LP,based in Linden, CA. “Most retailers withsuccessful cherry programs are those thatfocus on bigger sizes and the right packagestyle. The ones I see fall off are the onesfocused on smaller fruit.”

The seasonality of cherries is both ablessing and a challenge for retailers.Because they’re only briefly available, con-sumers are generally excited to see bags ofcherries in the produce department. Mastknows, “There’s a certain excitement fromthe consumer standpoint. They are awareit’s a short-lived season, and once they see

them in the store they know they only havetwo or three months to make that purchase.”Thus, they are a strong impulse purchase.

On the other hand, cherries don’t have apermanent home in the produce section, soit’s easier to make a mistake with their loca-tion. Ideally, cherries should be centrallylocated, in a high-visibility, high-traffic area,with adequate signage to grab shoppers’attention. Multiple displays at either end ofthe produce section are even better — any-one who enters the produce section willhave to pass a display. “You only have abouta fifth of a second to catch their eye,”

reveals Tom Tjerandson, North Americanmanaging director of the Chilean Fresh FruitAssociation (CFFA), based in Sonoma, CA.“Cherries are clearly a high impulse-buyitem.”

Sage Fruit’s Sink agrees, stating, “Theseason is so short that it’s important producedepartments aggressively merchandise cher-ries. They should be front-and-center withplenty of room to build attention-grabbingdisplays that consumers just can’t pass up.”

EXTENDING SHELF L I FECompared to many items in the produce

section, cherries don’t have an especiallylong shelf life. A week is the longest they’llsurvive under the best conditions, and twoor three days is to be expected. Shelf lifedepends on many factors — the weather atharvest, the variety and the strength of thetree, but most important is temperature.“Cold-chain management is essential,”declares Jameson.

Cherries are so sensitive to warmth thatgrowers even use refrigerated carts to trans-port cherries in the field in an effort toremove field heat as quickly as possible.Warm cherries quickly become mushy cher-ries, and they can be successfully stored atnear-freezing temperatures without affect-ing the quality of the fruit. “You can’t reallyoverstate the importance of refrigeration toreduce shrink,” states CCAB’s Culbertson.“You can improve the shelf-life by two orthree times. On display, you can get two orthree days. If they’re cold, you go for sixdays.”

For larger, non-refrigerated displays, iteven makes sense to break down the displayevery night and move the cherries back intocold storage. CMI’s Mast has seen “someretailers reduce the size of their displayovernight, or take them back to the cooleraltogether.” It is more labor intensive, butcherries are a premium fruit that can justifythe added expense. In addition to avoidingheat, cherries should never be exposed toexcess moisture. They should not be dis-played near produce exposed to overheadmisters or they will quickly begin to rot.

Some retailers, such as Sam’s Club andWal-Mart, have also experimented withrepackaging bagged and clam-shell cherries,reports Tjerandson. “It helps to extend theshelf-life and the margins are sufficient.”

Part of extending shelf life is educatingconsumers, since they need to continue coldchain management at home. Sink points outmodified atmosphere (MA) bags are key toextending shelf life. “These bags go all theway to the retailer and home with con-sumers and can greatly extend the lifespanof cherries. With the MA bags, consumers

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should pay less attention to the pack dateand more attention to the quality of thefruit,” explains Sink. Consumers who aren’taware of the important purpose of this bagmight rinse their cherries at home, placethem in Tupperware and discard the bag.

“The level of education and the facilitiesthat we have to work with right now are bet-ter than ever,” says Mast happily. “Everyonehydrocools the fruit. Retailers have becomeincredibly adept at handling the fruit in thebackroom. The cherry lines we have noware the most sophisticated we’ve ever had,and from a grower/shipper standpoint, weare sending them out in the best shapethey’ve ever been.”

PR IC ING AND PROMOTING CHERR IES

Not too long ago, cherry insiders remem-ber the great price pressure on their prod-uct. At trade meetings, growers were exhort-ed to drive prices down as far as possible.Things have changed a lot since then.Today, cherries are considered a premiumproduct — they’re even slightly inelasticwhen it comes to pricing. “Cherries are suchan impulse buy, they don’t need to be onthe super low-end,” remarks Eric Patrick,marketing director for the Grant J. HuntCo., headquartered in Oakland, CA. “Cherrysales are largely driven by the quality of thefruit. If you have thick stems, nice color andlarge fruit, it’ll bring the customers.”

Advertised retail prices vary across the

country, but for most of the season in 2008,the price per pound of fresh, sweet redsranged from about $2.50 to $4 per pound.Prices generally rise throughout the shortseason as the capacity dwindles. In 2007,the average advertised price for red cherriesfor the whole season was $2.78 per pound.In 2008, it was $3.56 per pound.

Chilean cherries are at least partlyresponsible for the recognition that con-sumers will pay a premium for cherries. In2008, Chile shipped about 9 million boxes ofcherries into the United States, according toTjerandson. “It used to be conventional wis-dom that the price point was at 99 cents,” hesays. “But Chile burst on the scene withinthe last five to seven years, selling cherriesat $3.99 a pound. Chile showed the domesticproducers they don’t need that 99-cent prod-uct to sell cherries.”

When California growers realized thatpeople were still buying the more expensivefruit, the emphasis on cost abated some-what. Conversely, however, today’s econom-ic climate represents an extraordinary chal-lenge for any premium product. SuzanneWolter, director of marketing for the RainierFruit Co., headquartered in Selah, WA, cau-tions retailers against assuming the normalrules will apply this year. “Cherries are aluxury item,” she notes. “In today’s climate,we should recognize people might pass oncherries. We have to get past the idea peoplewill pay anything.”

Promotion remains an important part of

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The Bagged Cherries

C herries aren’t so profitable justbecause of their seasonality andpric ing — packaging plays an

important role. Traditionally, cherries weresold in bulk displays so consumers couldselect the fruit and quantity they wanted.However, there were two problems withthis. Many consumers only wanted a fewcherries, and the fruit is easily bruised. Asshoppers picked through the bins, cherrieswould be damaged and shrink would rise.

Enter the 2-pound bag of red cherries.Today, most cherries are sold packaged in2-pound clear bags as the only option.There was some concern at first that con-sumers wouldn’t like being forced to buysuch a large quantity. However, it turnedout that the 2-pound bags yielded muchhigher turnover. Once again, people werewilling to pay for a fruit that’s perceived asa luxury.

“We recently completed some researchto find out what’s the best way to package

different fruits,” says Tom Tjerandson,North American managing director of theChilean Fresh Fruit Association (CFFA),based in Sonoma, CA. “One of the thingswe found with cherries is you’re better offselling them in bags or clams. A lot ofretailers were concerned about forcingconsumers to buy a minimum weight, butwe found that retailers get a higher ringand less shrink.”

Cherries are also available inclamshells, and some growers pack premi-um fruit into special clams that displayfruit individually. Both packages are superi-or to bulk fruit in reducing shrink andincreasing the ring at the register.

“Cherries have the most potential forgrowth in the Northeast,” reveals SuzanneWolter, director of marketing for theRainier Fruit Co., headquartered in Selah,WA. “The strongest markets are in theWest, in Seattle, San Francisco, Denver,Phoenix and Sacramento.” pb

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any successful cherry program, whether it’sprice-based or not. The actual price of cher-ries this season will depend on the harvestand other factors, but most retailers like toadvertise fresh cherries when they havethem. “You want to make sure you capturethe best window for promotion,” advisesRoger Pepperl, marketing director forStemilt Growers Inc., in Wenatchee, WA.“Right after the Fourth of July is a big win-dow of opportunity. That’s the biggest spikein availability, so that’s when you can doyour best promotion.”

However, growers are concerned thecherry harvest won’t be complete in timefor a Fourth of July promotion. “If that’s thecase, we need retailers to be ready to doback-to-back promotions,” notes CMI’s Mast.“Typically, a retailer will take the high-lowapproach. We need retailers to get a goodprice out there immediately and maintain it,or close to it, for the next four weeks, espe-cially to allow us to sell through the enor-mous amount of crop we’ll have. Retailersthat have taken this approach have had avery successful cherry season. They willexperience some lower FOBs that will allowthem to be more aggressive with pricing.”

Non-price promotions and in-store sig-nage increasingly focus on the health bene-fits of cherries. Recent research has shownthat cherries are loaded with flavonoids,

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Rainier Cherries

A lthough they represent a relative-ly small portion of overall cherrysales, Rainier cherries are

nonetheless an important part of a suc-cessful cherry program. “A lot of peoplehaven’t tried Rainiers,” says Roger Pep-perl, marketing director for StemiltGrowers Inc., in Wenatchee, WA. “Oncepeople try them, they’ll come back. It’sone of the sweetest pieces of fruit in thewhole produce department.”

Rainier cherries are mostly white,with a red blush. The Rainier cherry sea-son begins in mid-June and extendsthrough July and luckily, Rainiers aredistributed nationally.

Rainiers do particularly well whenthey are merchandised in a mixed dis-play with red cherries. It’s an attention-grabbing display that will bring peopleinto the produce section. However, Rain-er cherries are considerably more fragilethan their red counterparts and aretherefore more expensive.

Everything about picking, processing,

packing and shipping Rainiers is differ-ent, from the size tote in the field to thesize of the display bag at retail. Whereasdark sweets are offered in 2-pound bags,a typical Rainer bag is 1 1⁄4 pounds. Theyare also offered in clamshells. Stemiltsells a wrapped package that breathesand looks “farm fresh.”

“When you display Rainiers, you don’twant to stack them,” Suzanne Wolter,director of marketing for the RainierFruit Co., headquartered in Selah, WA.“You can crush the fruit. And you’ll buildup heat in there. Heat is the cherry’senemy.” As with red cherries, there isstill room for growth in the Rainier mar-ket, according to The difficult economymight affect consumers’ decisions tospend the extra money on Rainiers.

Chuck Sink, president of sales andmarketing for Sage Fruit Co., in Yakima,WA, notes, “Customers will look at thisvariety harder and longer to make surethe quality is there before spending theextra money.” pb

which are powerful antioxidants that havenumerous health benefits. Currently, cherryextracts are even being marketed as dietarysupplements to combat gout, arthritis andcancer. “We have a new pop-up cherry dis-play unit that holds a full case of cherries,”says Pepperl. “It informs consumers aboutthe health benefits and has pictures of darkand Rainier cherries.” is one area whereeducating consumers can impact sales.

Cherry recipes are also effective promo-tions, although most cherries are still eatenout of hand. In recent years, the CCAB haspublished recipes for cherry salads anddesserts. Along the same lines, Stemilt islaunching a Web site, which will be the firstof its kind, with cherry information andrecipes aimed at consumers.

There is considerable room for cherriesto grow as a category overall. Consumptionis strongest on the West Coast, followed bythe East Coast. “Domestically, research con-tinues to show opportunities in the South-east,” notes Patrick. “A few chains do reallywell, but there’s still opportunity. It’s the far-thest shipping point from us.”

U.S.-per-capita cherry consumption isstill rising in all markets. “From the stand-point of sales and acreage, we’re producingdouble the amount of cherries we were tenyears ago,” CCAB’s Culbertson reports. “Butall markets have potential to grow.” pb

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MERCHANDISING

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MERCHANDISING

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The Challenges And Opportunities Of Mango MerchandisingConsumer education, along with big, bright displays are the key to improving mango sales.

B Y C A R O L M . B A R E U T H E R , R D

Color. Ripeness. Education.These are the main challengesfacing retailers when it comesto selling more mangos. RaulGallegos, director of produce

and floral for Bristol Farms, a 12-store chainbased in Carson, CA, says, “Mangos aremore mainstream today, but they still havea long way to go in terms of sales potentialas a category.”

Indeed, there is great potential. Accord-ing to Perishables Group FreshFacts data asprovided by the Orlando, FL-based NationalMango Board (NMB), mangos contributed0.4 percent to total produce sales in 2008.Yet, “Mangos are the growth driver in thetropical fruit category,” asserts WendyMcManus, NMB’s director of marketing.Savvy packaging, display and pricing strate-gies can turn these challenges into lucrativesales opportunities.

DON’T JUDGE A MANGO BY ITS COLOR

Many consumers equate a red blush onthe mango’s outer skin with the fruit beingripe and ready to eat, adds Isabel Freeland,vice president of Coast Citrus DistributorsInc., headquartered in San Diego, CA, whichmarkets mangos under the Coast Tropicallabel. “In reality, color has nothing to dowith ripeness. Yellow or green-skinned man-gos can still be ripe.”

What skin color does depend on, howev-er, is how the sun hits the fruit more so thanfruit variety, reports Larry Nienkerk, gener-al manager and partner at Splendid Prod-ucts LLC, based in Burlingame, CA. “Fruit

from the outside of the tree will have moreof a blush. Growers today are pruning to geta larger percentage of fruit with blushbecause it’s what consumers, especiallyAnglo consumers, look for when purchasingmangos,” he explains.

Wade Shiba, president of GM ProduceSales LLC., in Hidalgo, TX, agrees. “Eyeappeal is buy appeal. This is why theTommy/Atkins is the best selling variety.”

Ken Nabal, vice president of sales forFrontera Produce Ltd., in Edinburg, TX,adds, “Totally green-skinned mangos tend tonot sell well.”

The challenge “is getting consumers to

try green-skinned varieties,” admits RickBurkett, sales manager at Farmer’s BestInternational LLC, based in Nogales, AZ.“The Kent variety is outstanding in taste, butit stays green even when it’s ripe.”

Unfortunately, “color often plays toolarge of a role today in mango merchandis-ing in terms of retailers’ specs,” revealsMcManus. “We have to get consumers andretailers past their desire for a red blush. Ifwe can do that, then we open the door forsome amazing mango varieties that con-sumers will really love. We are attacking thisby using the tag line, ‘Don’t Judge A MangoBy Its Color,’ on POS materials and by teach-

The mango industry is trying to get consumers and retailers beyond their desiresolely for red blush mangos.


ing consumers to judge ripeness by gentlysqueezing the fruit. We hope that in thefuture, there will be less emphasis on skincolor and more emphasis on eating quality.”

Beyond color, the hot water treatmentrequired to kill fruit flies can make the nat-ural scratches, blemishes and nicks in thefruit, especially green-skinned fruit, showup prominently. Freeland admits, “This canaffect the eye appeal and impulse purchasesof mangos. Other methods of killing thefruit fly, such as irradiation, have beenlooked at, but this alternative presents itsown challenges.”

R IPE FRU IT SELLSRipeness and flavor is number one, says

Paul Kneeland, vice president of produceand floral for Kings Super Markets Inc., a 25-store chain based in Parsippany, NJ. “This isthe biggest challenge when it comes to sell-ing mangos. We try to solve this by using sig-nage to point consumers to ripe fruit and

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sampling to let them experience the flavor,whether it’s a yellow-skinned Ataulfo, agreen-skinned Keitt, or a Tommy/Atkinsthat’s somewhere in the middle.”

Similarly, at Bristol Farms, Gallegosstates, “We like to offer fruit at optimal phas-es of ripeness and we do this with a ‘ripe’sticker on the fruit.”

Chris Ciruli, chief operating officer forCiruli Bros. LLC, headquartered in Nogales,AZ, points out a major challenge. “As anindustry, we are not putting enough matureor ripe fruit on the market. This is especial-ly a challenge with the offshore deal. Theeasiest time of year is in June and Julywhen the summer heat matures the fruit.We need to get to where avocados are interms of ripe fruit consistently available 52-weeks-a-year, but this is easier said thandone. The number one feedback we getfrom consumers is that they don’t knowhow to pick a ripe mango.”

At the same time, “Many produce buyers

Build Big Displays

A t Econo Foods, a 6-store IronMountain, MI-based chain, pro-duce supervisor, Jim Weber, says,

“When mangos are in promotable vol-ume and the price is low, we park fullpallets with 50 to 100 cases right in thefront of the produce department andsell the fruit for 59 to 69 cents each or 2-for-$1. It flies out the door.”

Wade Shiba, president of GM Pro-duce Sales LLC., headquartered inHidalgo, TX, explains, “If you just wantto say you carry mangos, rather thansell them, then a small display of high-priced fruit is the way to go. If you real-ly want to sell mangos, then build a bigdisplay of fruit at various stages ofripeness and offer a lower retail price.”

Big displays “are the most success-ful,” notes Isabel Freeland, vice presi-dent of Coast Citrus Distributors Inc., inSan Diego, CA. “Part of the appeal is thearoma that emanates from a large dis-play of ripe mangos.”

Mango displays are still too oftenfound in a dark corner of the producedepartment, with only a handful ofmangos making up a sad little display,reveals Wendy McManus, director ofmarketing for the National MangoBoard, (NMB) in Orlando, FL. “So manyretailers have just never paid muchattention to how they could improvetheir mango sales. Once they commit tobuilding a mango display that will

attract shoppers’ attention and supportit with education and promotion, theirmango sales will gain traction andgrow.”

Displaying a greater variety andoffering more than one size of mangoscan effectively enlarge a display andincrease sales. “We did a test with aretailer who started carrying both theAtaulfo and Tommy/Atkins varieties atthe same time,” details Rod Diaz, vicepresident of sales and marketing forDiazteca Co, in Rio Rico, AZ. “It worked.It increased their overall mango catego-ry sales.”

At Carson, CA-based Bristol Farms,director of produce and floral, Raul Gal-legos, says, “We carry Ataulfos andTommy/Atkins, as well as Kents andHadens. The Keitts do well for us in theoff-season.”

Likewise, Paul Kneeland, vice presi-dent of produce and floral at KingsSuper Markets, headquartered in Parsip-pany, NJ, reveals, “Two varieties is usu-ally what we’ll carry, Ataulfos and eitherTommy/Atkins or Kents. We’ll add theKeitt when the large sizes are available.We typically display mangos with othertropical fruit,” he adds. “However, whenwe put citrus on sale, such as oranges orgrapefruit, we’ll build a big display andput a basket of mangos in the middle.The color contrast offers great eye andbuy appeal.” pb

want delivery of hard, red balls to preventshrink at store level,” discloses Barry Lon-don, president of Pharr, TX-based LondonFruit Inc.

Splendid’s Nienkerk agrees, and adds, “Asa result, the public isn’t getting the best eat-ing fruit.”

Pre-conditioning or pre-ripening hasn’tcome to the mango industry yet in a big wayin terms of fresh product, says Frontera’sNabal. “But, it is being done with fruit des-tined for the processed market.”

Concurrent with this, Rod Diaz, vicepresident of sales and marketing forDiazteca Co., headquartered in Rio Rico, AZ,notes, “Most chains do not have a ripenessstandard for mangos.”

Beyond buying specs, another shrinkprevention technique is storing mangos in afrigid backroom, with temperatures below50°F. However, this practice seriously dam-ages the fruit. According to Ciruli, “Fruitkept in the 40s will die from the inside out.It won’t come back after a hard chill andcustomers will get a bad eating experience.”

Don’t refrigerate mangos, advises Nabal.“They are like stone fruit in this respect.Give them a chance to respire and ripen.”

At store level, “We encourage retailers togroup the fruit first by variety and then byripeness level,” explains NMB’s McManus.“This process can be managed through rota-tion of the fruit and ongoing maintenance ofthe display. We believe it will help con-sumers understand mango ripening if theycan find mangos ready to eat today in onegrouping and mangos ready to eat later thisweek in another grouping.”

Bill Vogel, president of Tavilla Sales Co.of Los Angeles, in Los Angeles, CA, says,“Produce clerks who manage ripe fruit prop-erly could see double the consumption.”

THE VALUE OF A GOOD EDUCAT ION

Mangos are a mainstream item for about85 percent of customers who shop at KingsSuper Markets, says Kneeland. “The other15 percent don’t yet know about mangos —how to pick them, how to prepare them orhow to eat them.”

The challenge “lies in getting consumersunfamiliar with mangos to change their buy-ing patterns and see mangos as everydayfruit, rather than something exotic,” saysGM’s Shiba.

McManus concurs. “Consumers needbasic information to help them becomefamiliar and comfortable with purchasingmangos. This includes how to choose, howto ripen, how to cut and how to use thefruit. We offer POS materials and we provideretailers all the tools they need to include

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these messages in their ads, Web sites,newsletters, etc. We also use media opportu-nities, such as TV, newspapers, magazinesand the Web, to constantly educate con-sumers and help keep mangos at the top oftheir lists.”

As for the education of produce buyers,category managers and store-level associ-ates, “The level of knowledge varies widely,so we start with the basics,” admitsMcManus. “We teach about varieties andgrowing regions, best handling and mer-chandising practices, sales trends and con-sumer insights.”

This past March, the NMB sponsored aMango Handling Best Practices Webinarhosted by the University of California atDavis. The online version of the Webinar isavailable on the NMB website for use asassociate training. In addition, the NMBoffers retailers a weekly Mango Crop Fore-cast, which is accessible on the organiza-tions Web site or via e-mail.

MOVE MORE VOLUMEOne of the biggest challenges, “is to fig-

ure out how to get consumers to buy moremangos,” says Ciruli Bros.’ Ciruli. “One waywe’ve found is via packaging. We had a goodresponse to our 6-pack clamshell. It includes

recipes, and every sixth box offers a newrecipe, which include everything fromappetizers to entrées and beverages. If youwant to get people to buy more, you have togive them a reason.”

Similarly, Farmer’s Best has “introduceda 4-pack clamshell of the Ataulfo mango,”reports Burkett. “In addition, we’re in talksabout a small or 1⁄2-carton box for Kentswhen volume peaks in July and August.”

More retailers today are asking for boxeswith brighter colors and higher finish, notesDiazteca’s Diaz. “The appealing packaginghelps sell and market mangos.”

According to Coast’s Freeland, baggedmangos “are something we’ve done in 3-and 5-pound sizes for certain retailers.”

Likewise, GM’s Shiba says, “We’ve donesome bagged mangos for the 99-cent storesand they’ve run 2-for-99-cent promotions. Ithasn’t been a huge part of the business.”

Bulk remains the preferred way to sellmangos, and even though packaging canhelp move volume and protect fruit on botha food safety front and from being bruisedor damaged in transit, it adds to the cost,explains Splendid’s Nienkerk.

“Packaged mangos may not be some-thing we’ll see more of, especially in thiseconomy,” Nienkerk adds.

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Mango Selection

Tips To ShareWith Customers

— Color is not the best indicator ofripeness in all varieties, and thered blush on some varieties hasnothing to do with quality, matu-rity or ripeness.

— Squeeze gently to judge ripeness.

— A ripe mango will “give” slightlyand is a good choice to eat today.

— A firmer mango is a good choiceto be eaten in several days.

— Ripen firm mangos on thecounter at room temperature.

— Move ripe mangos into the refrig-erator to slow down ripening.

Courtesy of the National Mango Board

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OFFER MORE THAN ONE VAR IETY

McManus explains the advantages of car-rying multiple varieties of mangos. “When aretailer chooses to carry a yellow or greenmango variety alongside the red mango dis-play, the bright, sunny color combination isjust a treat for the eyes. Consumers will bedrawn to this colorful display. Also, we findthat many retailers display mangos as partof a tropical fruit set, which might includeitems such as coconuts and pineapple. Sincethese items are large and rather dull incolor, the bright colors of the mangos reallyhelp the tropical fruit display pop.”

Tavilla’s Vogel recognizes other benefits,as well. “Most ethnic customers like man-gos, but not the same variety, size or color.”

Diazteca’s Diaz agrees, “Asians, Indiansand Filipinos tend to like large, firm man-gos. They also prefer the green-skinnedKent variety; they know this kind offersmore taste. Latin customers, on the otherhand, prefer smaller-sized ripe mangos.”

As for size, “Higher-end stores in the Eastand West look for big fruit, such as Ataulfosin the 12 to 16 range and Tommy/Atkinsthat are between 7 and 9,” explains CarlosZaragoza, sales manager at Rio Rico, AZ-based RCF Produce Inc.

Jim Burnette, director of sales for J&CEnterprises Inc., headquartered in Miami,FL, reports, “Some retailers do a two-sizeprogram. For example, they may carry aTommy/Atkins in a 12 and then also in an 8or 9. Some chains will carry both sizes with-in the same store, while others will offer dif-ferent sizes in different stores based on con-sumer demand.”

While big displays are best, the saggingeconomy poses difficulties, notes Diaz. “Ourbiggest challenge this year is getting shelfspace. Instead of moving volume, someretailers are willing to sell less, but at a high-er price and margin and not run the risk oflosing product to shrink. The result is lessshelf space.”

THE PR ICE I S R IGHTIn this economy, Splendid’s Nienkerk’s

knows “the biggest challenge is competingwith everything else for the family’s pre-cious food dollars. To do that, we need toprovide quality fruit and let consumersknow about that quality.”

Jim Weber, produce supervisor for the 6-store, Iron Mountain, MI-based chain EconoFood, admits, “High prices can be a chal-lenge. When that happens, and mangos are99 cents each or more, you have to demothem so customers know what they’re buy-ing.”

Multiples and tropical promotions work

well at Bristol Farms. “We’ll sell mangos at 2-fors or 3-fors,” says Gallegos. “We’ll alsomarry them with other tropicals and includea number of items in an ad.”

At Kings Super Markets, Kneeland pro-motes several mango products at the sametime. “We’ll bundle fresh mangos with fresh-cut and juices as a tie-in,” he explains. “It’sinteresting; the No. 1 flavor in our two best-selling premium juices is mango. By puttingthese items together we hope that cus-tomers who buy the processed productsmay want to try whole, fresh mangos andvice versa. This increases the total ring.”

In general, “Most buyers are concernedwith variety, size and price to plan their pro-motion or retail price,” notes Vogel. “Thereare times when freight can be sold by thepound, rather than by the ‘each.’ Also, retail-ers can offer a smaller-size mango with oneprice point along with a larger-size fruit witha different price — one aimed at thegourmet buyer — if they are willing to be alittle adventurous.”

Summertime presents both challengesand opportunities on the pricing front.RCF’s Zaragoza says, “Mangos peak in vol-ume out of Mexico during the summerwhen all the domestic summer fruit is inthe market. If you don’t get aggressive withpricing and promote with many ads, saleswill slow down.”

On the other hand, Farmer’s Best’s Bur-kett states, “In July and August, Kents are attheir peak and can easily be sold for 2- or 3-for-$1. When the price is right, you movemore mangos.”

Manny Hevia, president and chief execu-tive officer at M & M Farms Inc., in Miami,FL, advises, “Retail buyers need to workwith grower/shippers to keep the fruit mov-ing when heavy volumes are available. Ifnot, quality suffers from low pricing.” pb

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“High prices can

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they’re buying.”

— Jim WeberEcono Foods

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MERCHANDISING

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MERCHANDISING

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Ten Top Ways To Sell Stone Fruit Year-RoundHigh-quality, fresh stone fruit with proper signage and big, bright display continues to move fast, especially when it’s locally grown.

B Y C A R O L M . B A R E U T H E R , R D

Peaches and nectarines make up 78percent of stone fruit category sales ona year-round basis.

round basis, according to data provided bythe CFFA, and 82 percent during the sum-mer months according to statistics suppliedby the CTFA. Yellow flesh represents thebulk of the peach crop grown domesticallyand imported.

Martin Eubanks, director of marketingfor the South Carolina Department of Agri-culture (SCDA), in Columbia, SC, notes,“When you think ‘Southern Peach’ you thinkyellow flesh and freestone. There are a fewwhite-fleshed varieties grown, but these aremostly sold at roadside stands.”

Sunny Valley International Inc., in Glass-boro, NJ, expanded its operations five yearsago to market fruit grown in South Carolina,as well as New Jersey. Phil Neary, directorof operations and grower relations, reveals,“This has enabled us to market an ‘EasternPeach’ from mid- to late-May to the end ofSeptember and more effectively competewith California.” New Jersey grows somewhite-fleshed peaches and nectarines,Neary adds. “It’s a small quantity, but Iwouldn’t call it a niche. California’s crept upto 20 to 25 percent of its crop as white fleshand it’s weakened our market here on theEast coast.”

2 . PROFFER PLUMS,PLUOTS AND MORE

Pluots, especially different varieties ofpluots, are something Raul Gallegos, direc-tor of produce and floral at Bristol Farms, a12-store chain based in Carson, CA, seeksout. “Our customers are always looking forthat ‘something different’,” he says.

Likewise, at Econo Foods, Weber carries“four to five varieties of pluots at a time. Ithelps to offer variety, but sales in generalhave been slow to take off. Pluots can be

twice as expensive as regular plums.”As for plums, Steve Kenfield, vice presi-

dent of sales and marketing for Kingsburg,CA-based The HMC Marketing Group. Inc,says, “In the past five to six years there’sbeen a move to develop newer varieties ofplums — better external color, better inter-nal color, and better eating experience —and phasing out the old. This has re-invent-ed the plum category.”

According to Rick Eastes, vice presidentof sales and marketing for Fruit Patch SalesLLC, headquartered in Dinuba, CA, “Withthe exception of mottled color varieties of

New flavorful varieties.Enhanced selection. Seamlessyear-round supply. These areamong the top-selling qualitiesof the stone fruit category.

Paul Kneeland, vice president of produceand floral for Kings Super Markets Inc., a 25-store chain based in Parsippany, NJ, knows,“Stone fruit is a significant category for usand we try to promote it often.”

Peaches, plums and nectarines collec-tively contribute 2.8 percent of total producesales, according to 52-week data endingDecember 28, 2008, supplied by the Sono-ma, CA-based Chilean Fresh Fruit Associa-tion (CFFA) as provided by Encore Associ-ates, in San Ramon, CA.

Stone fruit sales nearly double their con-tribution to produce department revenuesduring the domestic summer season.According to statistics provided by the Cali-fornia Tree Fruit Agreement (CTFA), basedin Reedley, CA, for the period from May 5,2008 through October 26, 2008 and includ-ing Eastern fruit, peaches, plums and nec-tarines represented 4.9 percent of total pro-duce dollars.

Here’s how to harvest even more profitsfrom this category.

1 . BU ILD SALES AROUNDPEACHES AND NECTAR INES

Yellow- and white-fleshed peaches andnectarines are staples at Econo Foods, a 6-store chain based in Iron Mountain, MI.“The white-fleshed fruit sells well, especial-ly when we sample it out on the floor andlet customers taste it,” says produce supervi-sor, Jim Weber.

Peaches and nectarines make up 78 per-cent of stone fruit category sales on a year-

pluots, the red, black and green varieties ofpluots are increasingly being sold as plumssimply because there is insufficient retailshelf space to display or distinguish plumsfrom pluots.”

Dan Spain, vice president of sales andmarketing for Kingsburg Orchards, in Kings-burg, CA, hopes this will soon change andhis company is actively working toward thisthrough creative advertising and displaytechniques. “With the addition of threemore PLU’s for pluots, four total now — onefor red, black, green and mottled — we sug-gest retailers run ads with all four colors andline price to encourage trial.”

Reedley, CA-based Family Tree FarmsMarketing LLC will introduce its plumo-granate this year. “This is a really sweetpiece of fruit that has a Brix level in theupper 20s. We have a small volume that willstart in early June, and plan to have greatervolume in 2010,” notes director of market-ing, Don Goforth.

Like plums, new varieties of apricots arereplacing older varieties, remarks TomTjerandsen, manager for the CaliforniaFresh Apricot Council, based in San Francis-co, CA, and North American managingdirector of the CFFA. In addition, “Chile hada big increase in volume this past seasonand California will nearly double its volume.Instead of being a perfect bell-shaped curvein supply with a peak mid-June out of Cali-fornia, we’re now looking at more steadysupplies starting the last week of April rightthrough the end of June.”

3 . REACH ORGANIC ANDSUSTA INABLE SHOPPERS

Organic production makes up approxi-mately 3 percent of California’s fresh pro-duction, reports Gordon Smith, director ofmarketing for the CTFA. “Production hasbeen stable over the past few seasons assupply has caught up to demand. The con-sensus is that organic production of peach-es, plums, and nectarines will remain stableto match this niche market, despite chang-ing consumption patterns during this eco-nomic downturn.”

Jason Chavez, sales manager for LosAngeles, CA-based Giumarra Bros Fruit Co.Inc., says, “In general, this category hasexperienced incremental growth, but interms of real volume, it is still in many waysa specialty category.”

Fruit Patch’s Eastes adds, Virtually all thegrowth in organic “is with a few verticallyintegrated grower/packer/ shippers whocan achieve the economies of scale to havea packing line and cold storage facilities thatcan be separated from traditionally grownand packed fruit. Programmed sales are crit-


Plums: “The Next SuperFood”

P lums may soon be bestowed ‘superfood’ status. According to researchfunded by the Vegetable and Fruit

Improvement Center at Texas A&M Univer-sity, based in College Station, TX andReedley, CA-based California Tree FruitAgreement, one plum contains as much ormore disease-preventing antioxidants andphytonutients as a handful of blueberries.Taking these findings into the lab, theresearchers also discovered that the phy-tonutrients in plums stopped the growth ofbreast cancer cells without adverselyaffecting the growth of normal cells.

On the heels of this ground-breakingresearch, Sabrina Mak, director of trademarketing for the Ballantine Produce Co.,based in Sanger, CA, notes, “We are sup-porting retailers to promote the healthbenefits of plums and other stone fruit viahealth messaging.”

The plumogranate may be next in linefor super-food status. Don Goforth, directorof marketing for Family Tree Farms Mar-keting LLC, headquartered in Reedley, CA,says, “Preliminary research on the plumo-granate shows it has four times the antiox-idant levels of pomegranates.” pb

fleshed variety.”Eastes concurs, adding, “Typically, high-

ly-blushed peaches and nectarines with astrong yellow or white background color arepreferred. The same color attraction goes forplums and pluots, regardless if they are red,black, green or mottled in color. With plumsand pluots, there does seem to be anincreasing preference for red and orangeflesh varieties, so displaying cut fruit, ortaste-testing these varieties, is a major plusto increasing consumption.”

Educating consumers about individualvariety names could help boost sales, espe-cially in the future, suggest Goforth. “TheGen X and Millennial generations want todiscover something new, so using varietalnames could be a very powerful sales tool.”

However, trying to get consumers toidentify and seek out specific varieties couldbe difficult, claims CFTA’s Smith. “Over 600varieties of tree fruit are grown in Califor-nia, and each variety is harvested forapproximately 10 days.”

Jeff Simonian, sales and marketing direc-tor at Simonian Fruit Company, in Fowler,CA, agrees. “We are trying to move retailersaway from buying by variety and trying tosell them ‘peaches’, ‘plums’ and ‘nectarines’.Of course, some varieties are better thanothers, but it is to our benefit if they canleave the growing up to us and that we willgrow the best varieties possible.”

5 . GET THE R IGHT MIX AND NUMBER OF VAR IET IES

At Bristol Farms, “We carry everythingfrom peaches, plums and nectarines to plu-ots and apriums,” says Gallegos. Customersreally look forward to seeing what’s new inthe category.”

At its most basic, Family Tree’s Goforth

ical because organic fruit typically has sig-nificantly less shelf life.”

The retailers that have merchandisedaggressively with a pro-active and informa-tive signing program have seen the bestgrowth, says Pat Steider, president of Sum-meripe Worldwide Inc, headquartered inDinuba, CA. “Organic commodities mustportray a value, while being prominentlydisplayed and well maintained.”

Sustainably grown fruit is a key goal forthe Ballantine Produce Co. Inc, in Sanger,CA. “Our sustainable stone fruit is certifiedby Protected Harvest, a third-party organiza-tion that audits and monitors all aspects ofour growing practices that impact the envi-ronment,” says Sabrina Mak, director oftrade marketing. “Our Zeal programanswers the consumers’ calling for environ-mentally friendly stone fruit without pinch-ing their wallets, and provides retailers asupply option that addresses all the environ-mental issues that organic produce targetsand more.”

4 . SELL BY TYPE ANDCOLOR , NOT NECESSAR ILYVAR IETAL NAMES

There are unique peaches, plums andnectarines, “but it’s slow to get the varietynames in consumers’ minds,” admits KingsSuper Market’s Kneeland.

The stone fruit category hasn’t evolvedto where the apple category is today,explains Justin Bedwell, director of market-ing at Z & S Fresh Inc., headquartered inFresno, CA. “Consumers see a peach as justa peach.”

However, Family Tree Farm’s Goforthbelieves, “Some consumers are getting toknow the difference between a white-fleshed peach or nectarine and the yellow-


explains, “Retailers tend to carry either alarge yellow flesh peach and nectarine orboth a large and small. The white flesh cate-gory is growing, so it’s advantageous to carryat least one or both peaches and nectarines.Also, a black and a red plum. Many retailersalso add a pluot of the week.”

Beyond this, Summeripe’s Steider notes,“Retailers that provide an extended varietyof fruit have experienced increased sales.Consumers will select multiple commoditiesand varieties based on different and/orunique characteristics. If the retailer has awell merchandised display that includesmultiple varieties that are properly rotatedand signed, the opportunity for increasedsales is very good.”

Consumer demographics are crucial todetermining the appropiate mix of stonefruit to carry. Ballantine’s Mak says, “Forinstance, peaches and plums are favoritesfor the seniors, while nectarines cross allage groups. White-fleshed fruit are popularamong the Asian and African-Americancommunities.”

Retailers should also cater to individualtaste preferences, advises CTFA’s Smith.“Consumer research indicates that for treefruit, what tastes good to one consumer doesnot necessarily hold true for another con-sumer. Some like their fruit soft and juicy,

while others even in the same family like itfirm and crunchy. White flesh appeals tothose consumers who want an extra sweetpiece of fruit. Plums, while slightly smallerthan peaches and nectarines, are often wellsuited to children’s smaller hands. One sizecertainly does not fit all, which is why it’scritical for retailers to offer the full portfolioof stone fruit.”

6 . STOCK FLAVORFUL FRU ITFlavor is everything, says Kings Super

Market’s Kneeland. “If the fruit won’t selltwice, customers don’t come back.”

‘Elbow fruit’ is the big seller at EconoFoods, report Weber. “We carry big, beauti-fully ripe peaches, the kind that when youbite into them the juice runs all the way toyour elbow. Consumers would rather pay$1.69 to $1.99 per pound for this, ratherthan 99-cents per pound for somethingsmall and rock hard that may never ripenthat they’ll have to eventually throw out.”

The ripeness factor is huge, says BristolFarm’s Gallegos. “During the summer, whenthe harvest is right in our backyard, the win-dow of time from when the fruit is picked towhen it’s on display in our stores is quick,but the offshore deal is still challenging.”

Fruit Patch’s Eastes professes ‘ripeness’ isa complex term to define. “Often times, fully

ripe fruit with high Brix levels may havefirm pressures at the time of shipment oreven upon arrival. Ideally, the fruit shouldbe ready to eat and enjoyable within two tothree days, at most, of arrival to the con-sumer. Allowing fruit to ripen at room tem-perature first, then refrigerating is best. Typ-ical refrigerator temperatures can be debili-tating to the ripening process until it is com-plete. Then, refrigeration is acceptable tohold the fruit with good flavor for additionalshelf life.”

Eastes points out that for many retailers,knowing the Brix level of each shipment ismandatory. This is because “Brix measuresone aspect of flavor for tree fruit, but it’s thesugar-to-acid ratio that is more critical,”Smith explains. As an example, the key dif-ference between yellow- and white-fleshedfruit is the amount of acidity present. Whiteflesh has less acid, which makes the fruittaste sweeter. In general, both pieces of fruitwill have a similar brix level at harvest, butthe white flesh will still taste sweeter to theconsumer.”

7 . HANDLE WITH CAREFor best fruit quality, properly managing

maturity and temperature are critical, saysGeorge Nikolich, vice president of technicaloperations for Gerawan Farming Inc., based

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in Sanger, CA. “If the distribution center(DC) receives a consistent product from theproducer and the store receives a consistentproduct from the DC, managing maturity ismade much easier. Store-level produce staffshould evaluate condition and flavor as treefruit is received and monitor it frequentlyenough to know how long it should remainon the shelf. Fruit that is too soft should beremoved and that which is too green andwill never ripen properly should not beoffered at all. Fruit should be rotated in away that places the most mature fruit in theeasiest to access position so that consumerswill select that fruit naturally.”

It is important to handle tree fruit verygently, recommends Summeripe’s Steider.“Any dropping and/or rough handling of thebox of fruit will result in bruising of theproduct, thus reflecting on a shorter shelflife with increased shrink. At times, the fruitthat has been bruised by improper handlingmay be sold to a consumer prior to thebruise actually showing up. This damagecan become apparent to the consumer laterthat day or the next day. This will frustratethe consumer which could result in a lostcustomer and future sales potential.”

Eastes reveals many retailers are movingto single layer trays “that can be put straightout on display with no extra labor requiredto stack fruit displays,” thus eliminatingexcessive and sometimes, rough handling.

Nikolich advises, “Produce departmentsshould not try to extend the life of tree fruitby storing it at ‘killing zone’ temperaturesbetween 36°and 50°F. Either store fruit at32°F to hold it or above 50°F to ripen it.Fruit that has completed most of the ripen-ing process will tolerate killing zone temper-atures better than immature fruit. This iswhy the proper pre-conditioning of maturefruit can extend shelf life and preserve eat-ing quality, but it is best to avoid thosekilling zone temperatures to the greatestdegree possible.”

8 . BU ILD LARGE AND SMART DISPLAYS

Stone fruit receives prominent position-ing at Econo Foods. “We display 16 feet ofyellow flesh peaches on one side and 16-feetof yellow flesh nectarines on the other onthree to four Euro tables. White-fleshed nec-tarines and peaches are on one end cap,another end cap holds plums and a thirddisplay is dedicated to pluots and apricots.Everything is on unrefrigerated shelving.So, when you walk into the department, yousee the big colorful display and smell thearoma of the fruit.”

From the grower/shipper viewpoint,Eastes likes to see “prominent entry end dis-

plays, perhaps in the original single layerbox, with strong graphics with the shipper’sbrand on the fruit. I like to see the fruit‘rainbowed’ with the featured commodities,and the boxes tilted toward the consumer topromote the feeling of abundance andshows off the most fruit using the leastamount of horizontal space.”

The reality of today’s retail environmentis that going to a larger display is not alwayspossible, so it’s imperative to get smarter,explains CTFA’s Gordon. “Our 2007 BestPractices study revealed that while a biggerdisplay size did increase sales of tree fruit,placement of tree fruit next to three com-plementary fruits, such as melons, berriesand grapes, had the greatest sales increase,in particular for peaches and nectarines.Plums exhibited the largest sales increasewhen the retailer used optimal POS, whichprovided selection tips for plums, as sur-veyed consumers indicated that they arethe least comfortable when selecting thisitem.”

9 . OFFER A PACKAGED OPT ION

Packaging of peaches, plums, nectarinesand pluots, “has decreased over the last sev-eral years,” reports Steider. Consumersenjoy seeing, touching, smelling and select-ing each piece of fruit. This is a bit differentin regard to apricots, in which we have seena trend to increased packaging, generallydue to increased merchandising optionscentered on this delicate commodity.”

Simonian of Simonain Fruit Co. knowsthe decision to merchandise packaged fruitis left to the retailer. “Some are asking for

more packaging and some don’t seem tocare about it. Those who do want packagingseem to be moving toward clamshells.”

Fruit Patch’s Eastes says, “Clamshellstend to add an additional layer of cost, butthey can be effective if the price point iswell calculated.”

Eubanks of the SCDA divulges, “SomeSouth Carolina shippers are packing a 4- or6-pack clamshell of large, high-color, ripe,ready-to-eat fruit and selling it for a premi-um. The clamshell sets the premium fruitapart in a display.”

“Warehouse or club store formats havemoved to selling 8-to 10-count single layerconsumer-friendly boxes that allow stores tomove volume while holding down the perpound markup,” explains Eastes.

In a unique move, “conventional retailershave started to ask for something different,such as totes and 4-pound consumer boxes,”reveals Neary of Sunny Valley International.

10 . TAKE ADVANTAGE OF LOCALLY GROWN

States that grow their own stone fruitshould use the locally grown angle as aneffective promotional theme. Ballantine’sMak discloses, “California produces 93 per-cent of the U.S. nectarines and plums and76 percent of the U.S. peaches during thesummer season. Since the majority of U.S.stone fruit is grown in the heart of Califor-nia’s Central San Joaquin Valley, we feelretailers and consumers would appreciateknowing this fact.”

South Carolina- and New Jersey-grownstone fruit is promoted seasonally at KingsSuper Markets. “Eastern peaches have a dif-ferent flavor profile that customers look for,”says Kneeland.

Eubanks notes the SCDA “works withretailers on in-store promotions, as well aschain-wide display contests. We back this upwith a full media campaign - TV, radio andbillboards. This summer will be the thirdyear of our Certified South Carolina-Grownprogram that encompasses peaches andother state-grown fruits and vegetables.”

Beyond locally grown promotions, Smithof CTFA recommends, “Promote early andlate in the season. Category volume and dol-lar lift can be as much as five times greaterthan the season average when a retailerdoes this.”

This same strategy works for the Chileanfruit season, according to 2008 research byEncore Associates, sponsored by the CFFA.Another profitable tactic is promoting multi-ple items, adds Smith. “For example, run-ning a plum promotion along with a peachad can quadruple sales dollars when com-pared to the peach ad alone.” pb


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Dried Fruit & Nuts To-Go: Tips For Healthy SalesDried fruit and nuts keep up with today’s busy lifestyle and health-consciousness consumers.

B Y T R I S H A J . W O O L D R I D G E

With summer just aroundthe corner, more andmore people are on thego and want healthyenergy to support their

busy lifestyle. Dried fruit and nuts are alow-maintenance way for produce depart-ments to drive sales by catering to con-sumers’ needs.

Despite a troubled economy, StephanieBlackwell, owner of Stratford, CT-basedAurora Products, notes, “I continue to see anincrease in demand for nuts and driedfruits, due to consumers’ awareness ofhealthy snacks.”

GRAB & GOMany dried fruits and nuts are packaged

ready-to-go upon purchase. Easy-open pack-aging, such as zippered tops, allow con-sumers to open a bag of dried fruit or nutseasily and eat them en route to their nextstop of the day, providing instant gratifica-tion and satisfaction.

Frank Phelan, store manager for LivingEarth based in Worcester, MA, a single-store,family owned and operated natural foods’store, reports, “We have seen a dramaticincrease in the sales of our pre-packageddried fruit and nuts in 8-ounce plastic con-tainers — perhaps because they are easygrab-and-go items.”

Packaging helps create the portabilityfactor for dried fruit and nuts, agrees BrentTackett, national sales manager for TraverseCity, MI-based Cherry Central CooperativeInc. The cooperative offers a wide array ofpackaging, including 3-ounce zip-lock bagsor deli cups. Additionally, larger packagesmay not be immediately portable — but pro-vide value to families who want to create

their own portable snacks at home.Betsy Owens, executive-director for Vir-

ginia-Carolina Peanut Promotions, head-quartered in Nashville, NC, points out howeven bulk, in-shell peanuts are ready to trav-el. “You don’t need a special container. Theycan fit right into your pocket or backpack.

QUICK AND HEALTHY Today’s consumers not only want their

food to move with them, they also want it tosupport their healthy and active lifestyles.Joe Tamble, vice president of sales forKingsburg, CA-based Sun-Maid Growers ofCalifornia, states, “More families want morenutritional snacks, and dried fruit is nutri-tional.” Furthermore, the portable packag-ing is built-in portion control. Sun-Maid’ssmall six-packs measure out a healthy doseof the dried fruit per box.

“It is important to convey the fact thatthese are nutrient-dense foods that providea lot of nutrition for the money,” explainsPhelan. These items are also a great addi-tion to school lunches, instead of the ubiqui-tous chocolate-chip cookie. Dried fruit canassuage a sugar craving, and nuts provide afeeling of fullness, which can mitigate theurge to snack on junk food.”

Tackett concurs, adding, “Consumers arebuying these items for their health benefits.Cherries, especially, are being hailed as asuper-fruit: high in vitamins and antioxi-dants, which help with heart problems, dia-betes, arthritis, cancer and even sleep prob-lems. “Tart Montmorency cherries are theonly fruit with melatonin, a chemical thataids in sleep regulation.”

VERSAT IL ITY COUNTSThe versatility of dried fruits and nuts

easily lends itself to cross-merchandising.Trail mix is a great on-the-go snack. Whilethere are plenty of already-packaged trailmixes to merchandise, grouping differentpackages of fruit and nuts in displays forhomemade trail mix is another profitableoption. Including bottled water or sportsdrinks completes the picture for a healthy,

Packaging is key to the portability ofdried fruit and nuts.

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outdoor workout. These items can also becross-merchandised with children’s drinkboxes for school lunches, or in a displaywith party snacks. Phelan offers, “Placingdried fruit and nuts near the pre-made grab-and-go sandwiches and salads might beanother way of merchandising them.”

Owens of Virginia-Carolina Peanut Pro-motions adds, “Sometimes stores repack in-shell peanuts into cute bags or packagethem like a fruit basket. If you use a pack-age, place roasted, salted and several otherkinds of nuts into a basket with a beverage.”

EDUCATE CONSUMERSSometimes consumers need a little push

to realize how certain products can be easilyintegrated into their life. Educating them onthe health benefits or usages of variousdried fruits and nuts can go a long way toinspire sales, especially with the more exot-ic offerings. “For a specialty item like blackwalnuts, I found it helpful to merchandisethem with a cook book dedicated to blackwalnuts that I ordered from the supplier,”details Phelan.

“Letting consumers know when driedfruits and nuts are domestically grown canmake a big difference. Cherry Central’sTackett suggests stores demo the product orhave a special feature demonstrating howthe product can be used, such as in a salad.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF INVENTORY

In many cases, stores don’t need to domuch to bring attention to the dried fruitand nut category. Produce employees canoften work with what they already have in

the store or what they have received fromtheir shippers. Sun-Maid’s Tamble believes,“Dried fruit is an impulse category. Whenit’s displayed, sales are off the charts.”

Tackett agrees, “Consumers really needto see the product.” More than just a front-and-center display, shoppers should be ableto literally see the dried fruit. For example,all of the cherry packages Tackett workswith have windows so consumers can seeinside. This way, they know exactly whatthey are getting.

Additionally, Tamble points out there arecertain times of the year where dried fruitsales naturally increase, so plan merchan-dising to make the most of these distincttimes. A lesser known time where there isincreased demand, for example, is in Janu-ary, for the second “back-to-school” pushafter winter break. This time also happensto coincide with a renewed focus on diet andhealthier lifestyles that come along withNew Year’s resolutions.

Many groups or companies even providestores with promotional shippers or othermerchandising material. Aurora’s Blackwelladvises, “Retailers should push the productswith shippers and Display-Ready Cases,which we offer.”

Even mass-marketing can be handled inan efficient manner. Tamble reveals Sun-Maid has created a full range of advertisingfor years, down to a tie-in with PBS andCurious George. “Dried fruit is an importantcategory when merchandised and displayed,especially when it’s an iconic, recognizedbrand. Brand loyalty and quality are corner-stones in how consumers purchase; thedecision is made in a nanosecond.” pb


Family-Friendly

W ith the buzz of a bad econo-my, people are choosing whatthey spend their money on

carefully. Both the portability andhealth aspects give value to the hand-fuls of dried fruits and nuts — especial-ly when consumers are eating morefrom home and organizing less expen-sive family fun, such as picnics, hikingand other outdoor activities.

“Now is the time to think strategical-ly,” suggests Stephanie Blackwell,owner of Stratford, CT-based AuroraProducts. “Have large plan-o-grams ofdiverse offerings of nuts and driedfruits. Consumers want that.”

Frank Phelan, store manager for theLiving Earth in Worcester, MA, a single-

store, family owned and operated nat-ural foods’ store, agrees, “People arespending more time eating and enter-taining at home and bringing morelunches to work. This provides moreopportunities to promote healthy, easi-ly portable snacks.”

Joe Tamble, vice president of salesfor Kingsburg, CA-based Sun-MaidGrowers of California, adds, “Duringthe summer, people are participating inactivities away from home, such ascamping and road trips. While going onthese activities, people tend to grazeand snack. People often make theirown trail mixes with various nuts anddried fruit. It’s a fun way to make some-thing the whole family can enjoy.” pb

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Booth 302Baero North America Inc.St. Louis, MOThere are few things as breathtaking as a bou-quet of roses or as eye-catching as a displayof lilies. Now, imagine a lighting system thatfinally unlocks the true beauty of your floraldesigns and draws customer after customerinto your department.

Super Floral Show June 10 — 12, 2009Georgia World Congress Center Atlanta, Georgia

Floral Watch is a regular feature of PRODUCE BUSINESS. Please send information on new products, personnel changes, industry, corporate and personal milestones and available literature, along with acolor photo, slide or transparency to: Managing Editor, PRODUCE BUSINESS, P.O. Box 810425, Boca Raton, FL 33481-0425, or e-mail us at [email protected]

AISLE-BY-AISLE BOOTH REVIEWBooth 408Eve’s Garden Inc.Land O’ Lakes, FLEve’s Garden Inc.,established in 1979, isa family-owned, Bon-sai Tree and Lucky Bamboo Nursery locatedjust north of Tampa, FL. We offer uniqueproducts designed, produced and sold by usdirectly to you. Our mission is to provide ourcustomers with the best quality, pricing andcustomer service possible.

Booth 335Arko Associates Inc.Spring, TXLive Green with our GreenExpressions line of living home decor: ceram-ics, baskets, metal and wood containers,empty or potted with fresh foliage. Stylesrange from classic to contemporary, seasonalto year-round, and are shipped nationwide.From the newest fashion trends to classicdecor styles, we have something for everycustomer!

Booth 435Avery ImportsBatavia, NYWhether you are a garden center, florist,greenhouse, nursery, designer or gift store,Avery Imports offers a variety of over 1,000different items to choose from, with over 400

being new itemsfor 2009.

Booth 525Chrysal USAMiami, FLChrysal Americas is an international compa-ny offering a multitude of products for thecomplete nutrition and care of fresh cut flow-ers for growers, wholesalers, florists andsupermarkets in the United States, Canadaand Latin America.

Booth 540C.H. RobinsonTampa, FLWith over 100years experience in perishable products, C.H.Robinson understands that every day is alogistical race against time in the retail floralworld. That’s why we offer a comprehensivesuite of services designed to optimize the effi-ciency of your floral supply chain.

Booth 629MEI Refrigeration and Specialty & FixturesLa Grange Park, ILMEI’s new 5n1 is the portable, flexible displayfixture that always looks full and lush. Bucketshelves slide out-of sight when empty. Needsonly 17” x 17” closed, 48” x 48” fully opened.A four-sided quadrant allows for an addition-al four buckets on the floor for a total of ninebucket displays.

Booth 635FTDDowners Grove, ILFTD provides floral prod-ucts and services to quality member floristsand supermarkets in the United States andCanada. From marketing tools to technologyto new FTD branded bouquets, FTD offerssupermarkets everything they need to build asuccessful floral and gift business.

Booth 644Teufel Holly FarmsPortland, ORIn business since 1890, we are a wholesalegrower of English holly and producer of themost diverse line of fresh wreaths, garlands,swags, centerpieces, bouquets and specialtyproducts made from Evergreens harvested in

the PacificNorthwest.

Booth 837World Class FlowersEgg Harbor City, NJIf you agree that spot-ting and utilizing trends are vital to sales, thenvisit our booth! This year, we are focusing onwhat’s new, what’s marketable and what’sgoing to sizzle for the next year. Our boothhas everything your customers need.

Booth 849Harster Greenhouses Inc.Dundas, Ontario, CanadaHarster Greenhouses Inc. is your earth friend-ly choice for flowering plants. All of our prod-ucts are 100 percent pesticide-free. We pro-duce high quality African violets, Stephanotis,mini orchids and various specialty crops.

Booth 1037Micky’s Minis Flora ExpressMillstadt, ILMicky’s Minis grows fun, profitable, miniatureplants for all occasions. We blend our uniquesize plants with simple, yet tasteful, acces-sories. We are constantly creating new items,such as the “All Dressed Up” minis, the recentwinner of PMA’s prestigious Impact award forpackaging excellence.

Booth 1209burton + BURTONBogart, GAVisit burton + BURTON tosee what’s new for Spring2010. For over 25 years, bur-ton + BURTON has been a leading supplier ofballoons, coordinating gift accessories, con-tainers and florists’ supplies to floral profes-sionals worldwide. Low minimum orders.Shipping within 24 hours on most items.

Booth 1225Structural Concepts Corp.Muskegon, MI We are a manufacturer of floral display casesoffering refrigerated and non-refrigeratedunits. Our newest floral series, Wave, offersenticing curves with mix and match modularshapes and styles. When shoppers look at ourcases, they see what you want them to see —fresh flowers.

Booth 1252White’s Nursery & Greenhouses Inc.Chesapeake, VAWhite’s has beengrowing quality potted plants and outdoorannuals, delivering throughout the UnitedStates for over 52 years. Customers includesupermarkets, wholesalers, other growers andmass marketers. Contact us to find out what’snew and exciting.

Booth 1435Potter Inc.Bryan, OHSpruce up your floral department withupgrades from Potter Inc. From our hand-tiedbows made in the United States to our sea-sonal enhancement kits to our time-saving,trendy corsage backings, Potter Inc. is yourone-stop shop for everything floral and more.

Booth 1450Alpha Botanical Inc.Homestead, FLYou won’t find a finer mix ofGrade A interior foliage!With spacing guidelines 11⁄2 times the industrystandard, our finished product is exceptional.Add together the mix of quality plants weoffer and outstanding customer service to seewhy we are capable of satisfying any discern-ing promotional buyer.

Booth 1403Kerry’s Nursery Inc. Homestead, FLWe create demand withthe most fashion-forward products featuringthe highest quality orchids, Bromeliads andeye catching pottery from around the world.Visit our booth and discover how our com-pelling, value minded living arrangements canbe the solution you have been looking for togrow your floral department.

Booth 803Scientific Certification SystemsEmeryville, CAThe “VeriFlora Certified Sustainably Grown”label is your guarantee that flowers and pot-ted plants have been produced in an environ-mentally and socially responsible manner andmeet the highest standards for freshness andquality. Scientific Certification Systems (SCS), aleading third-party certifier, administers theprogram.

Booth 1107Nurserymen’s Exchange Inc.Half Moon Bay, CAWith over 65 years of experience, Nursery-men’s Exchange is one of the largest whole-salers of indoor plants, tropical foliage anddecorative accessories in the nation. Offeringa broad range of innovative products yearround to retailers nationwide, we pride our-selves on our horticultural excellence andinspired design.

FLORALWATCH



AISLE-BY-AISLE BOOTH REVIEW

Booth 1729Galleria FarmsMiami, FLGalleria Farms is a solution and serviceprovider of premium floral products to massretailers and supermarkets nationwide. Weare one of the largest growers of chrysanthe-mums and specialty flowers in the world, withover 100 hectares in production.

Booth 1807TransFair USAOakland, CATransFair USA is the third-party certifier ofFair Trade products in the United States. TheFair Trade Certified label on flowers guaran-

tees growers meet strict socialand environmental standardsand that workers receive a pre-mium to invest in communitydevelopment.

Booth 1821SuperMoss ProductsSanta Barbara, CAWe offer outanding selec-tion of soil dressings,orchid potting mixes, bark and mossweaveplanters. Our moss comes beautifully retailpackaged in seasonal hues. Top-selling retailand wholesale products. SuperMoss — serv-ing supermarkets, craft ad party, garden cen-ters, orchid growers and floral supply indus-tries nationwide for 20 years.

Booth 1915Floral Sense LLCMiami, FLOur core business has been distributing liliessince inception directly from Costa Rica. Ourcompany has grown from a small distributingcompany to one of the largest lily producersand distributors in the Western Hemisphere.We are also distributors of Gerbera daisies,tropicals and hydrangeas.

Booth 2017DecoWrapsMiami, FLSince 1999, Decowraps has become a leadingsupplier of distinctive packaging options forall levels of fresh flowers and potted plants.We offer prompt service, simplified logistics,and competitive pricing. Our custom-madeorders are attended to with the highest levelof integrity.

Booth 2038Hawaiian Sunshine NurseryHilo, HIEntice your customers with tropical and spe-cialty plants from the islands of Hawaii. Youwill appreciate the easy care and high appealof our full line of plants. Home of the Hawai-ian Volcano Plant and Small Business Associa-tion Region IX Exporter of the Year for 2008.

Booth 2421Driftwood Gardens Inc.Apopka, FLDriftwood Gardens blends aunique style of natural woodpieces with beautiful nursery-grown Tillandsiaand Bromeliads. Our creative display ofBromeliad wreaths and dish gardens, as wellas driftwood and novelty planters, will inspireyou to offer your customers thoughtful andoften whimsical treasures of nature they willwant to collect.

Booth 1335Temkin International Inc.Temkin Style SolutionsPayson, UT Liven up your floral sales with Temkin’s freshdesigns for sleeves, sheets and more. Newmerchandising kits and the addition ofTemkin Style Solutions make it easier thanever to create eye-catching, coordinated dis-plays. For enhanced branding, custom wrapscan be printed in up to eight colors.

Booth 2960ASB GreenworldValdosta, GAFor more than 30 years, ASB Greenworld hasbeen a supplier to the floral industry. We areproducers of peat and related mixes, includ-ing potting soils, mulch and bark items. Ourown peat bog is situated in New Brunswick,Canada, with locations in Mt. Elgin, Ontario;Valdosta, Georgia; and Virginia.

Booth 1049Sunshine Growers Inc.Lakeland, FLPassionately in businesssince August 1986, Sun-shine Growers is a wholesale contract growerof unique, high-quality, blooming pottedplants, foliage and outdoor landscape materi-al. See us for bedding plants, dish gardens,hanging baskets, herbs and vegetables, peren-nials and poinsettias.

Booth 1627Sherwood Farms Groveland, FLNow offering customersa new “Fresh Direct”orchid program requiringno minimum purchase and convenient deliv-ery to your door. One case per order, nomore trucking minimums and no ethyleneproblems! Let us show you how we can helpincrease your orchid sales and profits.

Booth 509Aldershot Greenhouses Ltd.Burlington, Ontario CanadaOne of North America’s pre-mier potted blooming produc-ers — Aldershot Greenhouses Ltd.’s unsur-passed commitment to quality has made us atop producer of potted, blooming plants inNorth America. Long lasting blooms forhome and office, Aldershot Greenhouses Ltd.potted plants continue to perform with excel-lence.

Booth 2035Bottomley Evergreens& FarmsEnnice, NC Bottomley Evergreens will help you meet allyour live Christmas decor needs, includinggarland, wreaths, bouquets and centerpieces.We pride ourselves in providing the highestquality and service available to our valuablecustomers.

Booth 1003Sunshine Bouquet CompanyMiami, FLOur quality, hand-crafted bouquets are alwaysthoughtfully designed with your customers inmind.

Booth 1607The Elite Bouquet Miami, FLLocated in the heart ofMiami, Elite also has four other U.S. locationscovering the surrounding regions of New Jer-sey, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. Elite’sprimary imports are roses, spray roses, Ger-beras and Alstromeria. See Elite for bouquets,consumer bunches, cut greens, fresh arrange-ments, grower bunches, fresh-cut and special-ty cut flowers.

Booth 409Wald ImportsKirkland, WAWald Imports has served the floral industryfor over 35 years with trend-setting decora-tive containers and accessories. We offer a fullrange of classy, every-day containers, seasonalcontainers, bio pots and flexible programs tomeet your needs. We also offer a robust cus-tom production program for customers seek-ing proprietary designs.

Booth 1707The Sun Valley GroupArcata, CAWe create the best floral experience throughquality, consistency and reliability. Visit ourexciting booth where you’ll find a wide arrayof farm-fresh cut-flowers from California.

Booth 1722Bougainvillea GrowersInternational (BGI)Boynton Beach, FLBougainvillea GrowersInternational (BGI) offerstropical bougainvilleas in a variety of colorsand products that can be shipped across thecountry without dropping its color or foliage.Vibrant bush, trellis, braided standards, hang-ing baskets and bonsai arrive retail-ready forimmediate sale.

Booth 1613B and H Flowers Inc.Carpinteria, CAB and H Flowers producesa variety of commercial,VeriFlora-certified andorganic flower crops for both mass marketretail and wholesale distribution, providingcustomers nationwide with sustainablygrown, vibrant and long-lasting beautiful Cali-fornia flowers.

Booth1634A-ROO Company LLCStrongsville, OHFor more than 40 years A-ROO has createdmarketing, merchandising and packagingsolutions for the floral industry. We have con-tainers, decorative pack-aging, display fixturesand accessories, films,sleeves and wraps, potcovers, ribbons, bowsand picks.

Super Floral ShowJune 10 - 12, 2009Atlanta, Georgia


http://www.superfloralshow.com


FLORAL

&

FOLIAGE

MARKETING

FLORAL

&

FOLIAGE

MARKETING

Knowing YourFloral CustomersGetting to know your consumer base, whether by a simple conversation or a more involved and detailed research method, can help retailers fulfill consumers’ needs and maintain sales volume.

B Y J O N V A N Z I L E

Chains such as Wal-Mart andWinn-Dixie are increasinglydesigning stores that cater tospecific demographics. In Wal-Mart’s case, the retailing giant is

opening three supermarkets in the South-west that specifically target Hispanic cus-tomers, while Winn-Dixie is opening storesaimed at Spanish-speaking populationsresiding in South Florida.

Focusing on demographics has been cen-tral to success since the era of the corner-store grocer, but the idea of studying yourcustomer base has taken dramatic steps for-ward in our information-driven world.Today’s retailers can drill deeply down intotheir customer base and truly understandtheir needs in order to better serve them. Inthe floral department, this practice oftenbegins at the front desk.

DISCOVER ING YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC

There are many ways to determine yourdemographic, ranging from expensive data-capture services that target individualhouseholds to simply surveying your cus-tomers. In the end, Ali Moezzi, director ofproduce at Northgate Markets, in Anaheim,CA, believes the best way is probably theold-fashioned way.

In Moezzi’s stores, which feature a mix offull- and self-service floral departments, hefigures out who his customers are and whatthey want by asking them. “We have cus-tomer-response surveys and we ask themwhat we can do and what they’d like to see,”Moezzi says. “We assess their responsesweekly and take it to management.”

The results of Northgate’s surveys helpguide the product mix at 30 individualstores. In Northgate’s case, even though thestores are predominantly Hispanic sincethey are frequently located within Spanish-speaking neighborhoods, they can be fur-ther divided along income lines. Some ofthe stores are located in more affluent areas,while others are in more basic markets.“We’ll try different arrangements,” notesMoezzi. “The more affluent stores can sellmore arrangements at $29.99 than the lessaffluent areas.”

Bill Bishop, chairman of Willard BishopConsulting, a customer analytics firm in

Barrington, IL, agrees that sometimes sim-ply asking your existing customer base isthe best way to see who is shopping in yourstore and what they want. “There are cer-tainly more sophisticated ways, but manyretailers just use keen observation and asktheir customers,” he remarks.

Consumer investigation isn’t limited totalking to people only in the floral depart-ment. Other departments can be a wealth ofinformation on the local population as well,especially the produce and meat depart-ments, where ethnic specialties can providevaluable information. For example, Mexican-Americans buy more skirt steak than Ang-

Winn-Dixie is designing stores that cater to specific demographics.

los, and according to Moezzi, his customersfrequently buy roses. Thus, if your meatdepartment moves an above-averageamount of skirt steak, it might be worthstocking some roses to see if you canincrease sales in the category.

Communicating with other departmentsalso opens up the opportunity for cross-mer-chandising. On St. Patrick’s Day, forinstance, while the meat department isoffering corned beef and the producedepartment is selling cabbage, floral depart-ments can sell green carnations. A simplecross-promotion featuring corned beef, cab-bage and green carnations might bring meatshoppers into floral, thus raising yourdepartment’s revenue.

ONE STEP FURTHERAmong larger chains with budgets big

enough to accommodate in-depth demo-graphic research, there are many moresophisticated options that aid retailers incustomer research.

At Northgate, Moezzi’s team also hires acompany that specializes in mystery shop-ping. This group sends disguised shoppersinto Northgate stores on a regular basis towalk the floors, observe customers and casu-ally talk to people in the aisles. The idea isto collect their unvarnished, spontaneousopinions. The results of these visits are thenanalyzed and sent to senior managementfor recommendations.

Other services can drill down into neigh-borhoods or ZIP codes to find out exactlywho lives there, residents’ income levels,ethnicities and much more information.These services are more expensive, but theycan yield a breathtaking level of informa-tion. “There are organizations that use geo-graphic-specific databases to characterizedemographics and generate a list of names,”Bishop reveals, citing Buxton Co., a FortWorth, TX-based company that specializesin customer demographics.

“They have models to define a store’strading area, then they populate the tradingarea with a rich set of data from the census

and elsewhere,” Bishop continues. In practi-cal application, this means a supermarketcan very specifically target — on a house-hold level — likely customers, then marketprecisely to those customers through directadvertising and promotions such as fre-quent-buyer clubs.

Bishop knows targeted marketing makessense, because of the 80/20 rule in retail.According to this rule, about 80 percent ofsales in any given department come fromthe most motivated 20 percent of shoppers.In floral, Bishop maintains this might actu-ally be closer to 10 percent of clients yield-ing 80 percent of sales. “With targeting, youcan make sure your offer is relevant,” Bish-op continues. “Imagine the power of know-ing your 1,000 best potential customers andgetting half of them.”

WORKING WITH SUPPL IERSOnce a retailer has identified its poten-

tial demographics, the next step is to offerproducts that are specifically of interest tothem. If those products aren’t available, seeif you can work with your suppliers todesign them.

Many floral suppliers will work with cus-tom orders to the extent it’s possible, includ-ing designing specific product mixes at spe-cific price points. For example, if you have ademographic that is heavily interested inHanukkah flowers or Kwanzaa-themed bou-quets, you can help design the product atthe price point that will work best.

Amy Mather, assistant sales manager atFresca Farms, in Miami, FL, remembers onesuch highly targeted promotion that workedwell. In this case, the retailer was locatednear a large college campus and home-team

enthusiasm ran high. “They were lookingfor things to bring in the school colors,” sheexplains. “We can tint or paint a lot of ourproducts. So we did hydrangeas or roses thatwere tinted in various school colors. It’s agreat way to increase sales, because you’llget repeat business and the students, par-ents and relatives will come in.”

Such custom-applications are moreexpensive than off-the-rack arrangements,but if volume justifies the added expense, itwill add to your bottom line. With such tar-geted applications — just like the manage-ment report at Northgate — the key is to getpermission for local flexibility. It’s no secretin most retail settings, including floraldepartments, that the front-line employeeknows the local market better than distantmanagement. But as stores consolidateorders to save money, it can be more diffi-cult to get exactly what you need.

“If you’re running a floral departmentand you know your customers have a $6price point and like bright colors, but you’repart of a large chain and you have $6 colors,but you also have a lot of other stuff, how doyou get permission to change the mix?”Bishop of Willard Bishop remarks. “You canrebuild arrangements so they’re a better fitfor your store.”

If possible, employees at the local levelshould fight for control over their productmix so they can stay attuned to their cus-tomer mix. “The people on the ground areoften the ones who know what’s needed,”Bishop states. “But too often, we don’t listento them.”

Interestingly, some products can breakout of their demographics. Lucky bamboo isexactly such a product. When it was firstintroduced, lucky bamboo was marketed asa key element in Feng Shui. It was said tobring good fortune and positive energy, anddesigners featured it in many home anddécor magazine articles. However, peoplewho are interested in Feng Shui are a fairlyspecific demographic: they are interested indesign and New Age concepts.

It soon became apparent that lucky bam-boo had another great characteristic, accord-ing to Manson Johnson, co-owner of Eve’sGarden Inc., in Land O’Lakes, FL. “Luckybamboo is very easy to maintain,” assertsJohnson. “All it wants is water and gravel,and it doesn’t like to be in direct sunlight. Itprefers to be in a darker space. We don’tpush the Feng Shui aspect. Some peoplehave the idea that Feng Shui is a religion,and you don’t want to push religion on any-one.” Today, the plant is rarely marketed asa component in Feng Shui and instead, soldsimply as a great gift plant and one of theeasiest houseplants in the world. pb


“With targeting, you

can make sure your

offer is relevant.

Imagine the power

of knowing your

1,000 best potential

customers and get-

ting half of them.”

— Bill BishopWillard Bishop LLC

Photo courtesy of Eve’s Garden Inc.


Competitive Or Contentious?

Next to a root canal, the most unpopular activity is buy-ing a car, when the salesperson does everything he orshe knows how to in order to achieve the highest possi-ble price, while the buyer does the opposite. To say theprocess is contentious is putting it mildly.

Some believe the relationships between grower/shippers andbuyers are equally as contentious and have been for as long as onecan remember, regardless of the economy. Product perishability,the range of product quality characteristics, unexpected productionlevels and the fragmentation within each group enhance these dif-ferences.

Analyze the last half-century and there is lit-tle overall change in the mindset of how pro-duce buyers and sellers approach their respon-sibilities. Each has the objective of being com-petitive within their industry, achieving satis-factory financial returns for their organizationand themselves.

Currently, a primary industry challenge isdeveloping a framework for traceability andsustainability. These will find solutions just aspalletization and cooling, PLU labeling andCountry of Origin Labeling (COOL) issues,among others, were previously resolved.

There has always been bargaining leveragefrom being able to buy from anyone, along withthe leverage to sell to anyone. There is alwaysthe possibility of being undercut by a competi-tor's retail price just like there is the possibilityone grower/shipper will to undercut another.

Buyers do not force grower/shippers tocompete on an uneven playing field. It is thegrower/shippers themselves who tolerate theuneven playing field. Too often shipping organizations will financeso-called marginal producers so they can benefit from the incomederived from additional tonnage, which often contributes to down-ward pricing pressure. This is no different than mortgage lendersonly interested in income instead of the quality of the generatedfinancial instrument.

It is this product sold to a strictly retail, low-price buyer that cre-ates the question from upper management of a quality retail chain,“Why can the competitor sell so cheaply?” If the produce directortruly has the knowledge and managerial expertise one expects, hewill easily be able to explain the dilemma to intelligent upper man-agement. While the recipients may be unaware of some of the pro-duce technical details, they will understand how any significant dif-ferences fit within their own overall marketing strategy.

Rather than producers and retailers each trying to one-up theother, they must recognize the order of priorities to keep consumerswilling to purchase the product. Grower/shippers must implementstandards for all in the particular group before politicians decide todo it for them. The problem is not so much a buyer trying to get abetter deal as it is a grower/shipper offering a better opportunity togain market share.

Likewise, the retail industry needs to decide what its prioritiesare regarding traceability and overall food safety. In the process,both the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the National Restau-rant Association (NRA) must set strong standards for their respec-

tive industry members. Any long-term suc-cess will depend on grower/shippers andretail produce management having an activevoice in their discussions.

One could question if the pressure retailbuyers force on producers has been a resultof the astounding growth of Wal-Mart. Take acloser look at the retail produce price differ-ences during recent years between Wal-Martand conventional chains. During this time,most observations might conclude the over-all quality composite at Wal-Mart oftenreflected a substantial portion of the differ-ence. Arguably, the effect of this super-center on other retailers has been both posi-tive and negative. Certainly, Wal-Mart sells alot of product and has helped improve somegrower/shipper operating efficiencies. Butthe question will always be: “How much didthey help on balance?” Or was Wal-Mart thecatalyst for competitors to improve theiroffering to consumers?

Much of the ongoing contentious differences may be reduced tothe broad term of ethics. Cornell University's undergraduate busi-ness program, Applied Economics and Management, includes anoptional ethics course in the curriculum. When is the last time anapplied ethics seminar was presented at an industry convention?

Consultant Don Seidman writes a firm is “sustainable when itsemployees are propelled by values and principles to do the rightthings, no matter how difficult the mission.... It's not what you do,it's how you engage your customers, collaborate with partners.”

Regardless, the problem is not about retailers makinggrower/shippers suffer. Rather, it is about reacting to the overallbusiness environment in a competitive manner. This understandingwill reduce the contentiousness, facilitate solutions and encourageconsumers in the retail marketplace. pb

By Dave DiverRETAILPERSPECTIVE

Rather than producers andretailers eachtrying to one-up the other,

each must rec-ognize the orderof priorities tokeep consumers

willing to purchasee tthhee

pprroodduucctt..

Reader Service # 11

http://www.pmafit.com/internships


EUROPEANMARKET

Beware Of Bribery Beyond Our Borders

Although the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA),an anti-bribery statute, has been law since 1977, it hasonly been vigorously enforced in recent years. TheDepartment of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities andExchange Commission (SEC) have stepped up their

investigations and prosecutions of domestic companies' activitiesoverseas and have signaled that they have no intention of slowingdown. Settlement amounts have skyrocketed as high as hundreds ofmillions of dollars.

The FCPA makes it unlawful to give anything of value to foreignofficials, including foreign political parties — party officials or can-didates — to obtain or retain business. The FCPA applies to anyfirm, individual, officer, director, employee or agent of the firm,including consultants. U.S. parent companieshave even been held liable for the acts of theirforeign subsidiaries. In addition, the FCPArequires U.S. public companies to satisfy cer-tain recordkeeping and accounting provisions.

Produce and other food companies are notimmune from the risks associated with anti-bribery enforcement. In fact, Chiquita Interna-tional Brands is currently defending againstshareholder derivative lawsuits stemmingfrom illegal protection payments the companymade to a Colombian terrorist organization.Chiquita pled guilty to making these pay-ments and has already paid a $25 million fineto the DOJ. In addition, in 2001, the companypaid a $100,000 civil penalty to the SEC andagreed to an SEC cease-and-desist order alleg-ing that it violated the FCPA by paying bribesthrough a Chiquita subsidiary to Colombiancustoms officials.

Last year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convic-tions of two executives of American Rice Inc. for violating the FCPAthrough a Haitian subsidiary by making payments to reduce certaintaxes and duties.

Enforcement Actions And Settlement Amounts On The RiseThe DOJ and SEC have increased their FCPA investigations and

prosecutions. In a 2009 report highlighting the DOJ's accomplish-ments, the agency noted that from 2001-07, it brought more FCPAprosecutions than it had in the previous 24 years combined. Simi-larly, the SEC brought more FCPA cases from January 2006 to Octo-ber 2008 than it had in the previous 29 years combined.

“FCPA violations have been and will continue to be dealt withseverely by the SEC and other law enforcement agencies,” SECchairman, Mary L. Schapiro, said in an SEC press release. "Anycompany that seeks to put greed ahead of the law by making illegal

payments to win business should beware that we are working vigor-ously across borders to detect and punish such illicit conduct."

As the number and scope of enforcement actions have grown, sohave the costs associated with settling an action. Last month, Hal-liburton and KBR Inc. agreed to pay $177 million in disgorgementto settle the SEC's charges that KBR subsidiary Kellogg Brown &Root bribed Nigerian government officials over a decade-long peri-od in violation of the FCPA. Kellogg Brown & Root also agreed topay a $402 million fine to settle parallel criminal charges broughtby the DOJ.

In December, Siemens AG and three of its subsidiaries pled guiltyto violating the FCPA and agreed to pay at least $800 million infines and disgorgement to settle the charges brought by the DOJ

and SEC.

More Cross-border Enforcement Actions Expected

Beyond stepping up their enforcementefforts, the SEC and the DOJ are collaboratingwith various international authorities to prose-cute FCPA violations. For example, the SECand the DOJ last year announced that theyhad partnered with authorities in the UnitedKingdom, Germany, and Hong Kong to securea $1.6 billion settlement from Siemens — thelargest amount any company has ever paid toresolve corruption-related charges — for brib-ing government officials around the world toobtain business.

If you do business with growers, shippers,wholesalers or retailers overseas, here aresome steps to minimize your company's risk

of FCPA violations:• Develop a compliance program. Make sure the program gives

clear guidance to employees and that every employee in theorganization is educated on the FCPA.

• Try to identify potential risk areas. • Ask your employees for help. Create an FCPA hotline so that

employees in the field can report suspected FCPA violations. • Don't sit back and wait for problems. If you have a compliance

program in place, conduct regular FCPA audits with the help ofoutside counsel experienced in FCPA issues.

• Don't assume that certain industries are safe. There is an erro-neous assumption that corruption issues are more pervasive inthe defense and energy industries.

• Cooperation is often the best policy. Consider prompt, volun-tary disclosure of FCPA violations to the DOJ and SEC, and aninternal investigation of the underlying facts lead by an appro-priate board committee and experienced outside counsel. pb

By Harold Gordon, Esq.Harold Gordon, Esq., is a partner in the worldwide law firm, Jones Day.

The article was co-written by Bill Hine, Esq. and Jennifer Del Medico, Esq.

Here aresome steps tominimize your

company’s risk of FCPA violations.

INFORMATIONSHOWCASE

Receive supplier information fast using the Produce Business Information Showcase. Here’s How:1) Please go to www.PRODUCEBUSINESS.com and click on The Electronic Rapid Response Card and enter the Reader

Service numbers that correspond to the ad and the information showcase.2) Contact the advertiser directly via the Web site, e-mail, phone or fax listed in the ad.

COMPANY PAGE # RS# PHONE FAX COMPANY PAGE # RS# PHONE FAXMAY 2009

Agrexco USA, Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 ..........63 ........718-481-8700 ......718-481-8710

Albert’s Organics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 ............1 ........800-996-0004 ......610-444-0316

Apache Produce Co./Plain Jane produce . 47 ..........28 ........520-281-2282 ......520-281-4626

Maurice A. Auerbach, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 ..........57........888-AUERPAK......201-807-9596

Maurice A. Auerbach, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 ..........58 ........201-807-9292 ......201-807-9596

Babe Farms, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 ..........17 ........800-648-6772 ......805-922-3950

Battle Produce Exchange. . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 ..........64 ........231-946-9696 ......231-946-1420

Bland Farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 ..........23 ........800-440-9543 ......912-654-3532

Bland Farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 ..........65 ..........800-VIDALIA ......912-654-3532

Blue Book Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 ..........50 ........630-668-3500 ......630-668-0303

California Leafy Greens Marketing. . . . . . . 27 ..........25 ........916-441-1240

California Tomato Farmers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 ..........66 ........559-261-2630 ......559-261-2630

Califresh of California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 ..........67 ........559-875-1602 ......559-875-1608

Capital City Fruit Co., Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 ..........21 ..........515-981-5111 ......515-981-4564

Christopher Ranch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 ..........55..........408-847-1100 ......408-847-0581

Ciruli Brothers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 ..........29 ........520-281-9696 ......520-281-1473

Classic Salads, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 ............7 ........831-763-4520 ......831-763-1542

Classic Vidalia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 ..........68 ........800-984-3254 ......252-291-6791

Columbia Marketing International. . . . . . . 101 ..........20 ........509-663-1955 ......509-663-2231

Connecticut Currant LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 ..........81 ........860-889-3766 ......860-887-3087

Corona Marketing Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 ..........69..........805-346-2114 ......805-346-8138

Curry & Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 ..........36 ........800-929-1073 ......503-393-6085

DeBruyn Produce Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 ..........70 ........800-733-9177 ......616-772-4242

Del Monte Fresh Produce. . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 ..........35 ........800-950-3683 ......305-520-8495

Dole Fresh Fruit Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 ..........53 ........818-879-6600 ......818-879-6628

dProduce Man Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 ..........54 ......888-PRODMAN......650-712-9973

Duda Farm Fresh Foods, Inc. . . . . . . . . . 107 ..........41 ........800-936-9363 ......561-978-5705

Duda Farm Fresh Foods, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . 18 ........100 ........561-978-5714 ......561-978-5705

East Coast Brokers & Packers, Inc. . . . . . 131 ..........27 ........800-557-7751 ......863-869-9850

Embassy of Mexico Agricultural

Office of Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 ..........97 ........613-563-0733 ......613-563-0933

Family Tree Farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 ..........12 ......866-FLAVOR-1 ......559-595-7795

Fisher Capespan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 ..........39 ........856-742-5446 ......856-742-5778

Florida Department of Agriculture. . . . . . . . 67 ..........42 ........850-488-4303 ......850-922-0374

The Florida Tomato Committee . . . . . . . . . 51 ..........71 ........407-894-3071 ......407-898-4296

Four Corners Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 ..........72 ........912-852-5098 ......912-852-5097

Fresh Partners AB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 ..........48 ........46-8-742-1215 ....46-8-742-6201

Fresh Sense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 ..........73 ........866-747-3673 ......559-646-3662

General Produce, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 ............6 ........800-782-5833 ......404-361-1841

The Giumarra Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 ............8 ........559-897-5060 ......559-897-8363

Global Organic Specialty Source, Inc. . . . . 32 ..........74..........877-952-1198 ......941-358-6551

Gourmet Specialty Imports LLC . . . . . . . . 115 ..........31 ..........610-345-1113 ......610-345-1116

David E. Grimes Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 ..........75 ........831-637-1499 ......831-636-4660

Hendrix Produce, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 ..........76 ........800-752-1551 ......912-685-4420

Herb Thyme Farms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 ..........77 ........831-476-9733 ......831-476-3710

Grant J. Hunt Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 ..........78 ........509-575-8770 ......509-452-1769

Inline Plastics Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 ............4 ........800-826-5567 ......203-924-0370

Interex Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 ..........62 ........888-441-8676

Ippolito Produce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 ..........33 ........416-252-8809 ......416-252-0710

JBJ Distributing, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 ..........98 ........714-992-4920 ......714-992-0433

Jersey Fresh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 ..........30 ........609-292-8853 ......609-292-2508

Just Ripe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 ..........14 ........559-432-1777 ......559-432-2888

Keystone Fruit Marketing, Inc. . . . . . . . . . 107 ..........79..........717-597-2112 ......717-597-4096

L&M Companies, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 ............9 ........509-698-3881 ......509-698-3922

LGS Specialty Sales, Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 ..........44 ........800-796-2349 ......718-542-2354

M&M Farms, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 ..........18 ........800-634-7898 ......305-233-0813

Mackay & Hughes (1973), Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . 49 ..........80 ........416-251-2271 ......416-251-2497

Mann Packing Company, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . 9 ..........61 ........800-884-6266 ......831-422-5171

J. Marchini & Son / LeGrand . . . . . . . . . . . 90 ..........82 ........559-665-9710 ......559-665-9714

Miatech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 ..........16 ........800-339-5234 ......503-659-2204

MIXTEC Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 ..........43 ........626-440-7077 ......626-440-1557

National Mango Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 ..........83 ....877-MANGOS-1 ......407-629-7593

New Jersey Department of Agriculture. . . . 69 ..........30 ........609-292-8853 ......609-292-2508

Nonpareil Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 ..........22 ........800-522-2223 ......208-785-3656

P.E.I. Potato Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 ..........19 ........902-892-6551 ......902-566-4914

Plain Jane Produce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 ..........28 ........520-281-2282 ......520-281-4626

PMA Foundation for Industry Talent . . . . . 127 ..........11 ........302-738-7100 ......302-731-2409

Produce Business .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52..........................561-994-1118 ......561-994-1610

Produce Exchange Co. of Atlanta, Inc.. . . . 75 ..........60 ........800-480-4463 ......404-608-0401

Produce for Better Health Foundation . . . . . 5 ..........49 ........302-235-2329 ......302-235-5555

The Produce Marketing Association. . . . . . 77 ..........37 ........302-738-7100 ......302-731-2409

The Produce Marketing Association. . . . . . 83 ..........38 ........302-738-7100 ......302-731-2409

Red Blossom Farms, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 ..........32 ........805-981-1839 ......805-693-0032

Roberson Onion Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 ..........84 ........912-375-5760 ......912-375-3610

Sage Fruit Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 ............2 ........913-239-0060 ......913-239-0055

Sambrailo Packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 ..........10 ........831-724-7581 ......831-724-1403

Shuman Produce, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 ..........99 ........912-557-4477 ......912-557-4478

Silver Creek Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 ..........85 ........208-388-4555 ......208-322-3510

Spice World, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 ..........59 ........800-433-4979 ......407-857-7171

Stemilt Growers, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 ..........86 ........509-662-9667 ......509-663-2914

Sun World International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 ..........87 ........760-398-9430 ......760-398-9613

Sweet Onion Trading Company . . . . . . . . 108 ..........88 ........800-699-3727 ......321-674-2003

Sweet Onion Trading Company . . . . . . . . . 33 ..........47 ........800-699-3727 ......321-674-2003

Tanimura & Antle, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 ..........56 ........800-772-4542 ......831-455-3915

Thermal Technologies, Incorporated . . . . . 85 ..........13 ........803-691-8000 ......803-691-8010

Trinity Fruit Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 ..........89 ........559-433-3777 ......559-433-3790

Uncle Matt’s Organic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 ..........91 ........352-304-8737 ......352-394-1003

Van Solkema Farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 ..........92 ........912-852-5800 ......912-852-5858

Veg-Pak Produce, Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 ..........93 ........416-259-4686 ......416-259-4677

Virginia-Carolina Peanut Promotions . . . . 121 ..........46 ........252-459-9977 ......252-459-7396

Walla Walla Gardeners’ Association, Inc.. 108 ..........94 ........509-525-7071 ......509-529-4170

Walla Walla Sweet Onion Commission . . 108 ..........95 ........509-525-1031 ......509-522-2038

Well-Pict Berries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 ............5 ........831-722-3871 ......831-722-6340

West Coast Tomato, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 ..........15 ........941-722-4537 ......941-729-6778

West Lake Fresh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 ..........34 ........831-724-0644 ......831-724-0117

Yakima Fresh LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 ..........45 ........800-541-0394 ......847-685-0474

Z & S Fresh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 ..........14 ........559-432-1777 ......559-432-2888

Kurt Zuhlke & Association. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 ..........96 ........800-644-8729 ......610-588-6245


http://www.PRODUCEBUSINESS.com

Blastfrom the

Past


W hile Albert B. Delmasso’s passion forproduce dates back to his teenage yearsworking as a box boy at the Old SixthStreet Market, in Oakland, CA, thesedays, he’s fallen for collecting old pro-

duce labels — some more than 100 years old.Today, Delmasso is president of Bay Cities Produce

Co. Inc., a San Leandro, CA-based restaurant purveyorthat has been in business for more than 60 years, servic-ing restaurants and institutions by carrying a full line offresh, frozen and prepared fruits and vegetables. In 1960,the company moved into a building that repaired oldwooden boxes. There, he acquired thousands of originalartwork labels, some seen here, from all across the Unit-ed States.

With the advent of the waxed paper produce cartonsin the late ‘50s and ‘60s, the labels became obsolete andfell out of use. For years, Delmasso has given the beauti-ful labels to his customers, friends and even strangers.“We, at Bay Cities, have the fondest memories from theseoriginal artwork labels and we wish to share them exclu-sively with our friends and customers.”

Delmasso is pictured, above and in the middle of thephoto at lower right, taken about 18 years ago, with hisson, Steve Delmasso, vice president of Bay Cities, on theleft, and Joe Saso, owner of Saso Co., based in San Lean-dro, CA, on the right. pb

The Blas t f rom the Pas t i s a regu la r f ea ture o f PRODUCE BUSINESS . Wewelcome submiss ions o f your o ld photos , l abe l s o r adver t i sementsa long wi th sugges ted cap t ions. P lease send mater ia l s to : Ed i to r, P RO -D U C E B U S I N E S S , P.O. Box 810425 , Boca Ra ton , FL 33481 -0425 , o r e -ma i lin fo@producebus iness . com


Reader Service # 27

With the proper blend of the best of tradition and state-of-the-art technology, we take great pride in providing our customers with the very best tomatoes.

Year-round—from Pallet to Plate, the choice is clear.

Batista Madonia Jr. Sales Manager

Batista Madonia Sr. President & CEOEvelyn M. Madonia, Executive Vice President/Secretary-Treasurer

Stephen Madonia All Growing Operations

GROWERS • PACKERS • BROKERS • SHIPPERS

800-557-7751 or 863-425-3500Fax: 863-869-9850

Rosemary Madonia, Comptroller

Reader Service # 35

http://www.freshdelmonte.com

http://www.fruits.com

Publix Super Markets - Produce Business › wp-content › uploads › 2016 › 09 › ... · Change Service requested: POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PRODUCE BUSINESS, P.O.

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