Yakima, WA – In preparation for this year’s apple season, FirstFruits Farms has made it a priority to further develop their internal talent as well as onboard additional team members, to strategically improve the business and growth in the commodity.
“Promoting from within for the sales director position was an easy task due to our large pool of talented employees here at FirstFruits. Lon Hudson brings extensive experience and key skills to this role,” said Chuck Zeutenhorst, President, FirstFruits Farms.
“While accepting this position, I understand the responsibilities I am taking on. I look forward to the ambitious plans I have for the sales department as well as the whole company.” said Lon Hudson, Sales Director, FirstFruits Farms.
The company’s expansion has brought several new faces into the mix including Justin Bos – Senior Sales Account Manager; Andy Zhu – Post-Harvest Manager; and Melissa Hunter – Data Analyst. In addition to the sales director position, more internal promotion has taken place in prominent roles such as Aleisha Loveluck – Data Science Architect and Emily Autrey – Marketing Manager.
“Since joining the FirstFruits team, I look forward to working alongside industry professionals to further expand the sales department,” said Justin Bos, Senior Sales Account Manager, FirstFruits Farms. “FirstFruits has strengthened key departments such as sales, data analytics, production, and marketing by promoting hardworking employees from within as well as bringing in additional talent with extensive produce industry experience to draw insights from.”
As a company that has been in business for more than 40 years, FirstFruits understands the importance of a harmonious relationship between sales and data science. With these teams working together, they can build better strategies and maximize the farm’s success. As a newly appointed data science architect, Aleisha Loveluck will be driving the company with this as a main initiative.
“FirstFruits Farms finds it crucial to continuously invest in and prepare its teams,” said Aleisha Loveluck, Data Science Architect, FirstFruits Farms. “Through the combined experience and skills our sales, data analytics, and marketing teams bring together, we can comprehend the mass amount of data in the market and glean insights to present in an easy-to-read format for our retail partners. We pride ourselves on our ability to marry insights with solutions to grow the apple category. With that said, we are excited to have expanded our data department with the addition of Melissa Hunter to aid in accomplishing our data goals.”
FirstFruits Farms’ new company dynamic is conducive to collaboration. This season, FirstFruits Farms’ marketing department strives to address the growing apple demand through its retailer specific marketing strategies which are a product of their sales, data analytics, production, and marketing teams combined efforts.
“As a marketer and now rooted in a managerial role, I know just how important a seamless relationship across all our teams is,” said Emily Autrey, Marketing Manager at FirstFruits Farms. “We’re all trying to work as a cohesive unit to uniquely position our fruit using supporting data and quality product.”
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About FirstFruits Marketing:
FirstFruits Marketing is dedicated to growing the highest quality apples and cherries in the industry. We grow over 10 varieties of apples and cherries spread across 6,000 acres in Eastern Washington. We are unique in the industry because our fruit is grown, stored, and packed at the same location — a practice unmatched in our industry giving us greater control over the quality and safety of our products. For more information on FirstFruits Marketing visit http://www.ffm-wa.com/
