As the biggest fully integrated tomato grower based in the U.S., NatureSweet tends to market itself on quality and consistency with a stable price regardless of market whims. But at a Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Fresh Summit event marked by transparency and ethics as key themes for consumer engagement, www.freshfruitportal.com was surprised to see the company was doing little to communicate its unique culture, striving to employ most workers full-time with wages that make home ownership possible.

Tracy Reeder and J. Michael Joergensen

"In a lot of ways it can be an ugly business. It's migrant workers, it's seasonal, there's no hope of a future necessarily, so the vision of NatureSweet is that everybody should have a full-time job and earn a full-time wage," J. Michael Joergensen told www.freshfruitportal.com during the event in Anaheim.

"The vision of the owner of the company is that every associate should earn enough to purchase their own home, and in agriculture, whether in Mexico, the United States or wherever, that's almost unheard of.

"When we started tracking that measure 6-8 years ago, the number of associates who could afford to buy their own home was like 1%. It was very low, and as we tracked that we've seen it climb and climb."

Even though it is a private company, NatureSweet publishes a Sustainability Report ever year, which includes employee welfare and gender equality indicators. The most recent 2013 report highlights a 6% rise in the average tenure of employees, with 4,608 full-time associates.

However, the company hired 1,810 temporary workers to cope with seasonal demands last year, but the goal is to reduce the temporary workplace percentage from 32% to 20%.

"We're very much focused on growing the best-tasting tomatoes in the world, but we’re focused on doing that through really unleashing the potential of the people who work in our organization," Joergensen said.

"That doesn't mean that our company is a charity because it is not...we believe in giving them training, giving them resources, teaching them multiple skills so that if on certain weeks we need help harvesting or pruning plants, but the next week we need help on the packing line, we have employees who can do all of that.

"That's part of the reason why we think the tomatoes taste the way they do and the quality is where it's at – we have people that have worked for us for 10-15 years, so they're experts."

When asked why the company has not advertised this policy much, and does not include certifications in its labeling, Joergensen said it was simply not the core focus.

"What consumers really care about first and foremost is, does this product taste good? That's a big part of our marketing message - just pick NatureSweet.

"If you've ever walked into the store and watched somebody, they'll pick it up, squeeze it, smell it, see whether this is a good apple or melon. What we're trying to get across is, 'hey, you don’t have to do that, just look for the package and you can trust that it's going to be good. And if it's not, we’ll send you coupons for another one'.

"My personal marketing opinion is that there are too many certifications to count, so what does a consumer really remember?"

He said while a lot of people spoke about non-GMO certification, even though his company had it there was not much interest in communicating that to shoppers.

"It's just because in the research we've done, that's the fourth or fifth most important thing a consumer cares about," he said.

"We're working on developing the messaging better and that come over time. After people absorb your first message then you can get away with another."

Vertical integration

While employee motivation is one key aspect of NatureSweet's production model, it is just one element of a fully integrated production chain that garners rapid traceability and high quality.

"Every greenhouse is open 365 days a year, and we own all of our seven facilities," he said, highlighting five of them were close to Guadalajara in central Mexico - with Nayarit to the north and Colima to the south - and two were in Arizona.

"We own and operate a total of almost 1,400 acres of greenhouses, and any of the other competitors that are at this show right now, the amount of acres that they own is less than 250...they may contract more and have more as part of their network.

"We know where every tomato comes from, so from a food safety standpoint because that’s really the most important thing."

He said if there ever were to be a food safety problem with NatureSweet tomatoes, using the code on the product packaging meant the team could have the 'information at their fingertips' within an hour.

"Everyone talks about flavor; we are to my knowledge the only tomato company in this building right now that guarantees a specification to the retailer, and what that means is it will be this size, this color and this level of brix, and if it's not you can send it back to us and not pay for it," he said.

"From a marketing standpoint people talk about flavor. From my point of view, I don’t know if they’re all putting their money where their mouth is.

"Customer to customer, our price never changes. This is the number one tomato item in the country, Cherubs, and the price has not changed in seven years."

He said even if there were a freeze in a large tomato-growing region like Florida, wiping out half the crop, NatureSweet would not raise its price.

"By the same token, when the market is flush with product, the price is the same. We view ourselves more as a consumer packaged good brand.

"For example, a consumer doesn't care if you get the Coke in February, July or November, and they don’t care that you got the Coke in Texas or Chile. It’s a Coke, it should cost the same.

"In the winter when it’s cold outside and there's not as much sunlight, growing the tomatoes is our problem. It's not the consumer's problem."

He said retailers often asked whether SunSweet would move into other greenhouse crops like peppers and onions, but the plan was to stick to tomatoes.

"But we are very interested in rapid expansion in tomatoes. We could get a lot bigger.

"We acquired two facilities in Arizona about 18 months ago [from EuroFresh] as part of our expansion...in a two to four year window it would increase our capacity. We're growing it and it won’t be long before we have that place filled up, as well as our other facilities filled up in Mexico.

"We will continue to expand. I don't know exactly whether that would be buying another facility, building another facility, or expanding the ones we're already in."

Export moves

Joergensen said that until two years ago the company was a U.S.-market oriented company, but since then it has made a push selling into Canada and Mexico.

"We have had customers primarily in three markets in Mexico, and that’s in Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey," he said.

"We are in Walmart, Sam’s Club, Costco, and we're in HEB in Monterrey which is actually a Texas retailer. We're in Superama as well, we've got Comercial Mexicana, and a couple of other customers that are very close to gaining distribution

He said the company was conducting research into consumer buying habits in Mexico.

"We have a very detailed understanding of what consumers do in the United States, and the patterns are fairly similar in Canada.

"What we don’t have a great understanding of in Mexico is are people using small tomatoes.

"The category is much smaller there, so we’re very excited about what that can bring as we partner with some of these retailers to try to grow these small tomatoes."

The next step would then be to expand into Central America, but such a decision would imply new logistical challenges that NatureSweet has not previously had to deal with.

"That’s the next step. We have had conversations actually with a couple of retailers. Walmart, Sam's Club and Costco specifically have asked us, what do you think about going to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica? That has not happened yet but those conversations are happening.

"In full disclosure, I think other companies in this building are doing that too – other U.S. and Canadian companies are seeing that opportunity.

"We have more certainty of supply into those markets, but that gets really interesting because then you're talking about maybe putting it on an airplane, on a boat, but we haven't done that."

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