Page 46 - December2018

“When I go in stores ... the stores with the small displays and the picked-over displays are the ones not selling much volume. e stores that build larger displays tend to do much better and are realizing higher sales and higher margin dollars.”
— Mike Blume, Keystone Fruit
sales.” Besides providing signage and POS materials, Bland also has recipes for meal solutions, a variety of packaging options and high-graphic bins available.
Mike Blume, director of sales and marketing for Greencastle, PA-based Keystone Fruit, re ects on category manage- ment. “Originally category management was a grocery plan”. According to Blume, retailers don’t stock displays the same way, with product moved around based on season- ality and supply. “Our biggest obstacle to increasing sales is under-allocation of shelf space,” he says. “When I go in stores ... the stores with the small displays and the picked- over displays are the ones not selling much volume. e stores that build larger displays tend to do much better and are realizing higher sales and higher margin dollars.”
Ralph Schwartz, vice president of sales and category management for Potandan Produce, Idaho Falls, ID, says, “Potatoes are a solid, high-destination category ... not an impulse item; they’re an ingredient. However, many retailers are mismanaging the category because of the wrong amount of space allocation.”
According to a 2012 consumer survey conducted for Bland Farms by the Chica- go-based Nielsen Perishables Group, two-thirds of shoppers rely on good in-store signage and packaging to identify sweet onions.
Keystone Fruit’s Blume recommends retailers allocate enough space to sell through their sweet onions in approximately two days. Simplistically speaking, Blume says, “If you put out 3-5 cartons in a 3-foot-wide space, you’ll open up the category and you’ll make more money.” Although Blume, tongue in cheek, admits that an onion display in the front of the store ‘isn’t particularly sexy,’ and perhaps not even necessary for increasing sales, he does add, “secondary displays and
46 / DECEMBER 2018 / PRODUCE BUSINESS