CORNERING THE MARKET
the charge. With all the applications for almonds, our portfolio has incredible reach and potential!
We don’t move product in club anywhere like we move it in Canada. When you mention Blue Diamond in Canada, people list the flavors they’ve tried from the club channel because they love them and that’s how they’re discovering them.
AF Yes, absolutely. I like that you’re talking about being innovative, not just with the product itself, but in how our existing and new customers access it. So, other than our delicious product that’s loved around the world, what else drew you to join Blue Diamond ? CB Blue Diamond is privileged to market a product that is good for you and comes from good people. Our amazing grower families truly appealed to me. Serving them is something I can feel proud of. It’s purposeful work. Our farmers grow these first-class almonds as their livelihood, and they need Blue Diamond to be the intermediary that gets them the best possible demand and financial return for that product. Part of that is understanding what consumers, retailers and food service customers need. We’re ensuring that people develop a preference for Blue Diamond almonds because of their top quality, great nutrition, and the fantastic people who grow them. It’s a wonderful responsibility. It’s an honor. The commercial function is that connecting point from moving the product off the farm and into the hands of consumers and customers around the world. It’s our job to maximize those returns. It’s not easy work, but it’s worthwhile. AF I know we’ve been discussing our wins lately. Some were mentioned in the growers’ webinar with Kai and Mel back in April, but could you share more of Blue Diamond ’s wins that have been secured along with those coming up ? CB We’ve accomplished a lot over the past few months. We’ve had wins with some of the biggest retailers in the U.S. We’re also breaking into channels, like natural foods, in a bigger way. Not every consumer in the grocery store will head down the snack nut aisle and they don’t all visit the plant-based milk section or the cracker section, so we’re working to interrupt them and delight them throughout the
store with features, displays and promotions. Consumer awareness takes time, so we are making sure we stand behind new products we launch. New products like Thin Dipped Almonds keep growing. This summer we launched them across the Albertson’s chain of stores. As I’m traveling around for
work, I’m always excited to pick up Thin Dipped Almonds in the airport. Several major convenience retailers have recently added Thin Dipped Almonds in smaller grab-and- go sizes. This fall you’ll see us expanding our ecommerce with the Amazon platform and continuing to bring new, exciting things to the club channel as well. We have many more flavors and formats for consumers to discover. There’s also great work happening on the ingredients and international side. Our new partner in Japan is working with us on Almond Breeze ® and they have aggressive growth plans, too. We’re working on snack nuts expansion for Europe, and we’ve added a new team member to help us with expansion in the Middle East. We also have new folks working with us on commodities and ingredients. Some of
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ALMOND FACTS
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