With the beginning of the USPB’s new 2012 fiscal year (FY12) July 1, it is a good time to reflect back on the success achieved with our retail outreach program during FY11 and take a look ahead to our plans for FY12. As the industry recalls, the retail outreach program is a key component in the USPB’s multi-level approach to educating and influencing retailers in order to increase their fresh potato sales. During the USPB’s most recent fiscal year, we conducted very successful face-to-face meetings with a record number of the country’s most influential food retailers: 15 chains in all, who collectively operate 11,900 stores – or nearly one-third of all US locations where fresh potatoes are sold!
During our meetings, we gain a better understanding of the retailer’s approach to selling fresh potatoes, while in turn, sharing the latest trends, innovations and best practices in the potato category. The USPB presents shopper insights and implications gleaned from the USPB’s ongoing consumer and nutrition science research and conduct a review of the retailer’s fresh potato sales where we identify opportunities and offer recommendations to increase their sales of fresh potatoes. We provide an overview of how the USPB supports their sales by elevating consumers’ perception of potatoes with national print and online advertising and powerful public relations campaigns, and we review the resources and support the USPB makes available to assist in building their fresh potato business, including point-of-sale, recipes, videos and training programs.
The new USPB fiscal year will see an expansion of this very successful program, with the objective of meeting with 20 food retailers over the next 12 months. We are targeting a number of retailers for outreach meetings in FY12 who have not had a visit from the USPB in recent years, including:
•A&P
•Ahold
•Harris Teeter
•HEB
•Hy-Vee
•Publix
•Roundy’s
•Supervalu
•Target
•Weis
•Whole Foods
•Winn Dixie
Due to their importance to the fresh potato category, the USPB is also intending to meet with several retailers again who we had called on during the past fiscal year. This list includes:
•Costco
•Food Lion
•Kroger
•Walmart
Outreach meetings often become a springboard for the USPB to work with retailers in other capacities. In this past year alone, an outreach meeting at Giant Eagle led to working together on a test and learn program that is proving the value of secondary displays in spurring impulse sales of fresh potatoes. A similar meeting with Walmart created the opportunity of participating in a Best Practice Partner program.
We welcome the participation of USPB members in our retail outreach meetings, with the lone requirement being the member must be an active supplier to that account. If you would like to get involved in an FY12 outreach meeting for one of the retailers listed above, or would like to suggest the USPB meet with an account you are currently supplying that is not presently on our list, contact USPB Retail Marketing Consultant Don Ladhoff at don.ladhoff@uspotatoes.com. Outreach meetings represent the front lines in our efforts to increase retail potato sales, and a critical element in bringing the USPB’s full resources to bear to the benefit of both retailers and industry members alike!
Source: US Potato Board
