July-August 2024

CORNERING THE MARKET

A Conversation with Carmen Bourgaize, Chief Commercial Officer for Blue Diamond

Almond Facts was pleased to spend some time with Carmen Bourgaize, Chief Commercial Officer for Blue Diamond. Bourgaize shared how Blue Diamond‘s commercial reach is expanding and what the cooperative is doing to ensure Blue Diamond‘s continued success around the world.

Almond Facts (AF) Thank you for joining us here at Almond Facts, Carmen! We’re looking forward to learning the latest in commercial and

team of talented individuals to implement the plan. This was vital because it doesn’t matter if you have the largest marketing budget and the best products; it’s not going anywhere without a clear plan and a strong team. Together we had tremendous success through brand development and expansion, innovation and sales growth. AF That’s amazing! What a wonderful career you’ve had so far. I know that we can really lean on your experience for more growth for Blue Diamond . How do you see your experience aiding in Blue Diamond ’s success ?

the great successes you and your team have been working hard to achieve. But first, let’s take a moment to get to know you better. Could you share about yourself and some highlights from your amazing career in food service, sales, and strategic business development ? Carmen Bourgaize (CB) I’ve been working in sales and marketing in the food/CPG sector for over 20 years. I started out in confectionary sales and then moved over to one of the largest dairy companies in the world where I led account teams on the food service side of the business. I’ve always had a passion for sales, and I was in my element creating winning partnerships with customers, strategizing to outperform the competition and creating high-performance teams. Over time, my role expanded, and I eventually shifted from sales to marketing and business development. I was most recently the senior vice president of Strategic Business Development, where I was leading the team responsible for a large portfolio of major retail and food service dairy brands. My team was responsible for consumer and market insights, commercial strategy, innovation, revenue management, product management, marketing and ecommerce sales. Together we leveraged data and company expertise to create a winning strategy, and we assembled an incredible

CB Blue Diamond already has two leading brands that are beloved by consumers. Almond Breeze ® is the number one brand in almondmilk and we’re also the number one brand in snack almonds. We’re well established and leading by a large margin, which is a fantastic place to begin. In the U.S., it’s difficult to find a retailer that doesn’t carry our products. To drive growth, we must expand our reach and bring more products and innovation to retailers and give consumers more reasons to pick up our products.

I’m excited about our strong strategic growth plan and we’re ensuring we find additional new markets to grow in whether it’s food service, ecommerce or international

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