almondmilk under our Blue Diamond brand with just three ingredients: almonds, water and sea salt. Having a “clean label” helps differentiate ourselves from what’s out there, and we have the brand equity because everybody knows Blue Diamond . Q. What is the co-op doing to stir consumer excitement? Shoppers tend to make their purchase decisions at the shelf within just a few seconds. We need to attract their attention. So we’re doing a total brand refresh because we haven’t changed our packaging or logo for over 20 years. We need to bring excitement back to the category, and it’s already resonating with consumers and key retail decision-makers. We’re seeing increased turns of our products, whether it’s Mike’s Hot Honey-flavored almonds or getting into mixed nuts with Almonds and More, something we haven’t done historically. It’s bringing a whole new generation of consumers to Blue Diamond . Forty percent of consumers who buy Almonds and More have never had a Blue Diamond product. So we’re excited about the brand relaunch, which has a whole new look and feel.
With it comes all the marketing, and not just the traditional outlets like TV and social media, but also in- store sampling. When we get people to try our product, they’re like, “Wow, this is pretty awesome.” The good news is we’re getting increased household penetration. This year alone, we’ve added 250,000 new households to our snack nuts business. We’re also getting into the produce department, which is a different part of the store that people haven’t seen us in before. We’ll continue to expand our portfolio to different parts of the store because we want to have an increasing share of the stomach. Q. How have decreased domestic almond shipments weighed on the co-op? Having a large domestic presence is a strength but also can be a detriment when consumers in that market have to tighten their belts financially. You have to have a diversified business so you’re not over reliant on any one outlet. If you look at grower returns for the 2023 crop, which was also a challenging year, our diversified business helped us outperform our industry peers.
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NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2025
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