April - July 1998
MARKETING & SALES UPDATE
New Domestic Marketing Focus
Into the produce aisles and the shopping carts of a new generation. It's all part of Sunsweet's new domestic marketing strategy, according to Howard Nager, vice president of domestic marketing.
"We're redirecting our marketing efforts toward a younger audience, a target demographic of 35-55 years old, rather than 50 and over," he explained. Conventional wisdom has it that as the huge ranks of Baby Boomers age, they'll be a ready-made market for prunes. Unfortunately, research shows otherwise: prunes are not exactly at the top of Boomers' minds. To counter prunes' less-than-glamorous image, Nager said, Sunsweet will position them as a healthy, natural, sweet fruit snack made from plums-- just like the fresh fruits Baby Boomers load their carts with in the produce section.
To accomplish this, Sunsweet recently embarked upon a number of new marketing projects. A brief description of each follows, with details to come in future issues of the Sunsweet Link.
"Everything we're doing is part of the overall strategy to increase sales of prunes and improve what has been a declining category, and to increase brand awareness, which in turn helps set the stage for the introduction of new products," Nager added.
Package Design
Image isn't everything-- but it counts for a lot. Late last year, Sunsweet conducted consumer research to determine the current package design's "equity," specifically, what consumers like or dislike about it, and their overall perception of the brand.
"We found that one way to reach younger consumers will be through new, more contemporary packaging," Nager said. A new look will reinforce existing perceptions pointed up by the research: that if consumers were to attribute a "personality" to the brand, it would be fresh, natural, wholesome and sweet. "So we're already starting from a strong position," he noted. At the same time, strong new packaging graphics will help Sunsweet "break through the
clutter and compete with all the natural colors and textures in the produce department."
Joint Promotion
In the spring of 1999, Sunsweet will launch its first-ever joint promotion with sister co-ops Diamond Walnut Growers and Sun-Maid Growers of California, taking advantage of the natural synergy produced by three top players in the dried fruit and nut category.
"It is extremely important that we approach retailers as the dried fruit and nut category. We all then have a much better chance of creating change and improving sales if we can leverage our category leadership position," said Nager.
Advertising and Consumer Promotions
Sunsweet is also testing new concepts in advertising and consumer promotions. "We're shifting away from national TV advertising to more focused regional advertising and consumer promotions-- reallocating resources to make the most effective use of available funds.
Sunsweet is now crafting creative concepts for consumer promotions, which will be approached on a market-by-market, account-by-account basis, supported by regional TV advertising where necessary. "This way, we can communicate a much more focused, hard-hitting and efficient consumer message," he said.
Prune Board Activities
Sunsweet also will be directing the California Prune Board's efforts in 1998 to be similarly focused. "We want the Prune Board to put more emphasis on public relations and in-store activities, such as aggressive sampling, "Catalina Coupons" (generated at checkout), and instant coupons," noted Nager. Public relations includes the CPB's increasing involvement in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
Like Sunsweet's own activities, "we'll be working with the Prune Board to redirect spending toward a more localized, regional effort," Nager said. "This way, we can gain more efficiencies with limited funds and generate more immediate results."
Important Policy Changes Announced
Contingent Crop Assignments
At its February 19 meeting, the Sunsweet Growers Board of Directors approved the following policy change:
Contingent Crop Assignments' (formerly known as Contingent Crop Orders) shall be executed by Sunsweet Growers members only for the purposes of harvesting fresh fruit, the transportation of fresh fruit, or the dehydration of fresh fruit. Sunsweet will not accept or process Contingent Crop Assignments for any other purposes. Each grower is entitled to one Contingent Crop Assignment (to one individual or entity) as part of their membership services. Each additional Contingent Crop Assignment will carry an administrative fee of $100.00 per Contingent Crop Assignment. A new Contingent Crop Assignment form is being developed to reflect these changes. Contingent Crop Assignments are assignments of prune proceeds, normally paid
to a member, to another party for payment of services rendered.
Split-Members Tonnage Verification
Any members of Sunsweet Growers Inc. who are split-members (those having acreage both in Sunsweet and outside of Sunsweet) will be required to show documented proof of the tonnage delivered to any outside handler before they will be paid for their Sunsweet tonnage.
Policy for Non-French
Effective immediately, all non-French variety prunes will no longer be accepted into the membership of Sunsweet Growers Inc. Current non-French acreage already under a Supplemental Marketing Agreement as of March 19, 1998, will continue to be accepted by Sunsweet Growers Inc. until such time as that acreage is removed from production.
If you have questions about any of these policies, please call your field representative or the Member Services Department.
CULTURAL CHECKLIST
Spring's Here...Are You Ready?
-- Tips from Mark Dalrymple, Vice President of Member Services
MEET OUR MEMBERS
All in the Family
Trading the high-tech world of the Silicon Valley for a ranch in the San Joaquin Valley, Sunsweet Director Hans Smith has always put family first.
In an age when high-power careers and fat paychecks define success, Hans Smith put family first and never looked back. It was family ties that brought him to his Raisin City-area ranch to begin with, and that guarantee the land will be farmed for at least another generation, perhaps more.
But this Sunsweet director-- a "city boy who married the farmer's daughter'"-took a circuitous route to get there. A native of Sacramento, he grew up just 20 blocks from the capitol dome. His early involvement in agriculture was minimal; an uncle farmed in the San Joaquin Valley "so I had some exposure, but not to any great degree," Smith recalled. He went on to graduate from Fresno State and in 1967, fresh out of school, took a job as an industrial engineer with IBM in San Jose.
The Silicon Valley was just starting to take off, and Smith could see the shape of things to come. Although the Los Gatos home he shared with his new wife, Janet (whom he met in college), was just seven miles from work, the commute took an hour. But children were the deciding factor. "We didn't want to raise our kids there,"Smith said of his two sons. Eight years later the family decided to leave the high-tech world behind.
Another valley, the San Joaquin, beckoned. Most weekends were spent visiting Janet's parents, Norman and Alice Fries, at their Raisin City farm. "I told my father-in-law I wanted to go into farming, and he looked at me like I had two heads," Smith laughed. But months later, they went to examine a prune orchard for sale near Caruthers. Smith's uncle, who grew almonds, was called in for his opinion, as was a prune-grower friend-- Smith's introduction to Earl Giacolini, Sunsweet's chairman emeritus.
All systems were go. "We saw the property that Saturday, signed the papers on Monday, swallowed hard and took off," remembered Smith. One of his first acts was to sign on with former fieldman Ray Evora. The orchard was already in Sunsweet, and the thought of a guaranteed home for his product appealed to the new farmer. He delivered his first crop in 1975 and a decade later was seated on the board.
Smith eventually sold the Caruthers property and today farms on 125 contiguous acres just a stone's throw from his back door-- and the homes of his two sons, who returned to the ranch after graduating from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. Esben (a name that harks back to the family's Danish roots) graduated in 1993 with a degree in fruit science, while Chris, a recipient of Sunsweet's Charles Yerxa Scholarship, earned his in agricultural engineering the following year.
"They're my "dirt guy" and my "machine guy"-- a great combination," their proud father stated. "Both knew in high school they were going to come back and farm. Everyone else was like, "you what?!'' The brothers formed a partnership, S&S Farms, and produce winegrapes and almonds.
"Between my father-in-law, brother-in-law, sons and myself, we farm over 700 acres," Smith estimated. "We all "do our own thing" but help each other out. We're very close." Close in proximity, too, to his in-laws, who live just a couple of miles away. Even though he's pushing 80, you'll still find Norm Fries out in the orchard on a spray rig. With family members pitching in to help, little work has to be hired out. Like Janet's farmer grandparents, who immigrated from Denmark in the early 1900s, the Smiths aim at close-knit self-sufficiency.
Proof in the Pudding
About 10 years ago, Smith proved to himself that mechanical thinning was definitely worthwhile. "I thinned 10 acres, left 30 alone, and dried them separately. It proved I should have thinned the entire lot," he reflected ruefully. He utilizes a slightly modified version of fellow director Ken Kaplan's formula, presented at a series of grower meetings last year. "He recommends subtracting 40 percent for June drop, but down here it's more like 15-20 percent," Smith explained.
He has also field sized from the beginning and while he says it might not work for everyone, has found a 11/16 screen to be optimum. The practice is widespread among San Joaquin Valley prune growers, and given the state of the industry will become a staple, he predicted. The proof, if you will, is in the plum pudding. Last season his crew picked 240 bins per eight-hour shift without being slowed down by the sizing equipment, and the end product was 68-count prunes, 4 dry tons to the acre.
While this late-March day his orchard floor was bare, come summer it will be verdant with natural cover, thanks to the shredded prunings Smith disked in last winter. "People ask me what I plant, but it's just natural," he said. "Since I've started doing this three years ago, the natural predators have taken over and I haven't had to spray for mites. I just spray the borders with Roundup to keep them clean and mow a couple of times."
Dormant spray is the spray for Smith: "I have experienced lacy scab, and it's not something you want in your orchard. Fungicide is my insurance policy, especially in wet times like these." While El Niņo slowed things down a bit, the area's sandy soils drain so well standing water hasn't been a problem. "It can rain one day, then three days later you can get out in the orchard. From a water standpoint, we're in good shape this year," he said of his 125 acres, all of which are now on microsprinklers.
This grower-member also became a firm believer in owl boxes the year he lost 270 trees to gophers. Using a design developed by a Sun-Maid grower, he and his sons built eight and scattered them throughout the orchards. One box is situated near the house so he and Janet can watch the owl family's antics from the family room.
"Part of the Normal Cycle"
Smith is sanguine about the current oversupply situation in the world prune market. "When I started in the business I made $250 a ton," he observed. "Then the market peaked a few years ago at more than $1,200, and you saw everyone planting prunes. We're just feeling the tip of that iceberg now; the real push will come in a couple of years, as more and more of those new trees come into bearing."
"On the other hand, we'll see the "old snags," the less-productive orchards, removed. There will be a shakeout in the industry-- of those who don't make the quality tonnage. It's part of the normal cycle of agriculture," he predicted.
He places his confidence in the abilities of Sunsweet's new management team, lauding President Bill Haase for his rapport with growers and energy. "It's a different management style, but the right one for these times-just what the doctor ordered," Smith pronounced. The situation won't turn around immediately-- it will be a slow process, he warned. But results will come when the new focus on younger consumers bears fruit.
Being part of the process as a member of the board is "a great experience and a challenge. There's always something new happening," said Smith. In the past he also served on the boards of the Raisin City School District, Caruthers High School and the Raisin City Water District, but now concentrates solely on Sunsweet.
Things are coming full-circle for Smith, too. He is chair of Sunsweet's Operations Committee-- an ideal fit given his formal education and IBM experience in short- and long-range facilities planning, product-line layout, manpower planning and the like. "The beautiful thing about our board is that all the directors bring such varied backgrounds," he concluded, "so we can utilize the talents and expertise of many individuals."
EMPLOYEE FOCUS
The Benefits of Sunsweet:
Meet Marie Bradley
She's "the glue that holds the field staff together, the one growers call" when they need answers. She's Marie Bradley, Sunsweet's longtime Member Services administrative assistant-- definitely no newcomer to the organization.
"I'm a real job-hopper," she joked about her 21-year tenure with Sunsweet. Bradley began her career here as a secretary in the Engineering/Maintenance Department in 1977, and in past years has also worked in Quality Control and Accounting ("See? I'm a job-hopper!" she laughed.) Just this March she celebrated 11 years in Member Services.
Bradley came to Sunsweet from Beale Air Force Base's credit union, where she'd worked nine years, but as the only non-Air Force dependent was ineligible for health coverage. Sunsweet offered the medical benefits she sought, but once she joined the co-op she found much more-- benefits of many kinds. "I really like the opportunity Sunsweet has given me for me, it's been a really good place to work all these years," she said.
"When I left the credit union, I didn't think of myself as being service-oriented," Bradley reflected. "But my favorite part of Member Services is working with the growers. It's a continuous learning experience and challenge, staying abreast of changing policies and conditions and keeping members informed. It's a constant process of on-the-job training." She estimated she spends as much as 70 percent of each day working directly with grower-members, either on the phone or on a walk-in basis. It's a legacy of personal service left by a former field manager, the legendary Rich Azevedo, with whom she worked: "It's what we're here for."
A Sacramento Valley native, the farthest Bradley has lived from Sunsweet's Yuba City headquarters is just down the road, in Wheatland. And as the daughter of a Caltrans employee and a stay-at-home mom, the closest her immediate family ever came to farming was a time her father worked for a well-drilling company-- although her grandparents came from an agricultural background. "I went through local schools and attended Yuba JC for a while, but I had a car with a monthly payment, and when it came down to choosing' well, you know how 18-year-olds are!" she said.
Bradley is the mother of two: a daughter, Brooke, who's 19, and a son, Hale, who turns 16 in April. When she isn't answering grower questions and working with new Member Services VP Mark Dalrymple and the rest of the field staff, she lists among her hobbies reading ("spy stories, family sagas") and playing tennis, a sport she waited till her 30s to take up. Her sister owns a cabin near Shasta so she enjoys spending time relaxing with family in the mountains, and having joined a new church recently looks forward to becoming involved in its activities.
"Sunsweet has been very good to me," she concluded. "I feel I've found my niche here."
Gary Winfrey Retires
Best wishes to veteral Dryers manager Gary Winfrey, who retired at the end of March. His first "real" job out of Yuba College was with Sunsweet Dryers, when he came on board in 1962 as a mechanic at the Gridley Dryer. Winfrey worked maintenance there for five years, then spent the next five in the Maintenance Shop. In 1973 he became manager of the Live Oak Dryer and the following year moved to the Yuba City Dryer, which he managed until October 1987, when he was named operations manager for the Sunsweet Dryers system. Four months ago he became manager of special projects and Gridley operations.
Winfrey grew up in the "big city" of Biggs and has lived with his wife, Patty, in the same Gridley home for 30 years. The Winfreys are the parents of three grown children and have four grandchildren. Now that he's retired, they plan to "buy a pickup and fifth-wheel, do some traveling and fishing-- and spend more time with the children and grandchildren," Winfrey said.
New Positions for Dalrymple, Sandage
Longtime field rep/dryer manager Mark Dalrymple has been appointed vice president of Member Services, while Ron Sandage has assumed the position of vice president of operations for Sunsweet Growers. The changes took place in late February.
A familiar face to grower-members, particularly in the north end of the state, Dalrymple brings to his job 17 years of Sunsweet experience. "I've worked virtually everywhere-- Gridley, Madera, Hamilton City, and managed both the Live Oak and Gridley dryers at one point," he noted.
Dalrymple pledged to continue to "focus on doing the best job we can to dry members' fruit, and to continue pushing for more efficiency in the drying operation."
Sandage, who headed up Member Services for the past two years, has been with Sunsweet 13, serving the co-op in a variety of different capacities. He began his career here as operations supervisor, then provided vacation relief for supervisors in different departments, "an extremely valuable experience, because I got to learn the whole operation," he said. He also worked in evaluation, engineering and at the Fleetwood facility when it opened in 1990.
While his new position represents "new opportunities and exciting challenges," Sandage observed: "The two things I miss most from Member Services are the people I worked with and the direct contact with the growers."
BPS Workshop Looks at Nitrogen Efficiency
Despite the good weather, many prune growers and cultants turned out for a Nitrogen Efficiency Workshop conducted by the Biological Prune Systems (BPS) project on March 12. Attendees at the Yuba City workshop viewed "The Fruits of Their Labor," a CDFA-produced video that outlined problems associated with too much N in stone fruit: inability to color fruit, susceptibility to pests, excessive growth, inability to reach a high sugar level and depression or dilution of potassium uptake. It then went through a budgeting exercise worksheet to help growers determine how much N should be applied to meet trees' needs with different efficiencies of application. The budget serves as a rough guide to compare the actual appearance of trees with leaf analyses trends over several years.
BPS Coordinator Fred Thomas of Cerus Consulting spoke on soil biology basics, explaining how by following agronomic practices that increase soil biology (soil animals, primarily bacteria), nitrogen efficiency is increased and leaching is decreased.
Soil biota and nematode baselines on all orchards enrolled in the BPS program are currently being analyzed by UC microbiologist Dr. Kate Scow and nematologist Dr. Howard Ferris. An earlier long-term replicated experiment (this one with row crop rotations) found that after eight years of applying compost and planting cover crops, the beneficial nematode population doubled and there was an increase in the active soil organic fraction.
Carl Spiva, a well-known agronomist, pointed out that with highly efficient irrigation delivery systems such as drip and microsprinkler, it is possible to "spoon-feed" N to prunes during the year, rather than applying half in the spring and half before harvest. He also addressed potassium uptake-- a concern to Sacramento Valley growers-- and said that his best experience in application comes from putting potassium into solution and applying 30 lb. at each irrigation. The element then moves with the irrigation water, bathing the roots, and is readily absorbed. The method, he said, works fine with flood irrigation as well as with micros and drip. Spiva's talk was followed by the nitrogen budgeting exercise outlined in the video, where growers looked at all sources of available nitrogen, including what they receive "for free"-- from groundwater. According to BPS Consultant Thomas, many prune production areas receive 20-40 units of N applied during the year through their irrigation systems.
While the worksheet budget exercise showed participants that the hypothetical prune orchard needed less than 30 units of applied nitrogen for the season because of a moderate crop, 5 ppm nitrates in the water and a rich soil, most participants agreed they would apply more and rely on leaf tissue analysis to keep leaf levels close to 2.5 percent. Spiva then went on to point out just how inefficient current fertilizer application methods and systems are at getting the nitrogen from the fertilizer to the tree.
DRYERS NOTES
Sunsweet Dryers Posts Safety Milestone
The Sunsweet Dryers dehydrator system recently achieved another big leap in its hourly employees' safety program: From October 1, 1997, through March 27, 1998, the Dryers system has been accident-free. The employees in our Dryers have worked 27,988 hours during this period without a reportable accident.
Congratulations to all Dryer managers and their employees for an incredible achievement. Keep that record going!
El Niņo: Nothing Like '97'or '95
While California's coastline was battered and substantial rains could still be headed our way, the dreaded El Niņo left the prune crop relatively unscathed.
"El Niņo has been nothing compared to "El 1997"-- thank goodness!" said Dennis
Pooler, Yuba County ag commissioner. He was referring, of course, to the devastating New Years Flood of January '97, which brought his county the worst damage in the state-- more than $80 million worth.
In contrast, CDFA estimates in March pegged statewide agricultural damage attributable to El Niņo at $65 million total (compared to $245 million in 1997-- and $651.6 million lost to the spring storms of 1995), with Yuba County's share of damage under $100,000 and prune loss estimates statewide at zero. The flood-control system was better prepared this time, but there simply wasn't the sheer volume of water moving through river channels as last year.
Still, Pooler warned of possible long-term damage to trees' root systems, the subtle toll of back-to-back soggy springs and a continuing high water table. "Prunes are really quite tolerant, but if this happens again next year, I'd begin worrying," he said.
But as prune trees leave dormancy behind, Pooler concluded, "we're not seeing anything out of the ordinary and are very hopeful their health hasn't been impacted."
CO-OP CORNER
Here's a quick look at what's happening at the other cooperatives:
Sun-Maid Growers of California
Diamond Walnut Growers
Valley Fig Growers
Hazelnut Growers of Oregon
