Bako Sweet’s Susan Noritake Talks Merchandising, Convenience, and More

BAKERSFIELD, CA - Bako Sweet would like a piece of your onion set. Not all of it, and not forever, but the company is walking into retail partners with a specific and faintly impertinent ask: take a little space from onions and regular potatoes, hand it to sweet potato convenience packs, and watch what the department does. Their bet is that the staples never feel it.

"We see a big opportunity to revamp shelf space, giving sweet potatoes—especially convenience packs like bags, trays, and microwavable singles—a larger share of the table in alignment with the growth trajectory," Susan Noritake, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Bako Sweet, shares. "We are inviting our retail partners to try this idea with some small reduction to onions and regular potatoes to make room. Our hypothesis is this minor shift wouldn't impact sales of those staples and would bring net new sales to the department."

The trade has spent this stretch calling what is happening in sweet potatoes consolidation, which is our industry's polite word for fewer phone numbers in the book. Susan does not accept the adversity framing that usually rides along with it.

"Like anything, companies have to evolve to stay relevant," she notes. "The world is changing at an ever-increasing rate of speed, and it's up to all companies, whether in produce or other industries, to make the right investments, have the right offerings, and be willing to make the hard decision to change when necessary."

Her actual thesis is a two-part test, and it arrives refreshingly free of the word solutions. To move a new item—and she argues a sweet potato eaten in April by a shopper under forty qualifies as new—you have to meet a need and get noticed.

"Consumers are interested in nutritious whole foods that taste great and are easy to shop and prepare. Check, check, check," Susan shares. "Now that we've met the need, it's time to get noticed. This is where our retail partners come in."

Getting noticed is the harder half, because outside of the holidays the sweet potato is on nobody's list. It gets one great week a year, and it falls in November. The other fifty-one run on eye contact: a display that catches a shopper mid-aisle, a bag that goes home on impulse, a good dinner that puts the item on the list for the next trip. Bako Sweet runs a year-round promotional calendar and partners with merchandisers to keep product stocked and rotated, which is less glamorous than a campaign and matters more.

The program leads with orange on purpose. "We lead with our orange varieties because they are the most versatile and can easily go from sweet to savory," Susan explains. "They are creamy and delicious with the best availability." Whites and purples keep expanding as boutique offerings — flavor-specific, harder to grow, and sitting at a premium price point accordingly.

As for who moves first on the shelf set, she is not predicting. An early believer turns out to be a trusted partner or an innovator; the wins get measured; the best practices travel. In the meantime: "Keeping shelves full is a big part of a winning strategy."

Which is another way of saying somebody has to go put the bags back.

Keep checking in with ANUK for more insights shaping the fresh produce industry.