BURLINGTON, WA - Pumpkins and animals. While the two may not immediately strike you as a great combination, it is one that Sakata Seed proved is great for making the jungle kingdom a happy one and delivering some fun footage for you to scroll through on the morning of Friday’s Eve.
Employees for the seed company were up to their elbows delivering about 10,000 pounds of the holiday gourds to the Woodland Park Zoo, where they made the animals and their keepers very happy.
According to a press release, the pumpkins were hand-delivered on Friday Oct. 16th for the weekend-long Annual Pumpkin Bash event that was held on Saturday and Sunday, October 24-25th.
“The Woodland Park Zoo is a highly anticipated event by both human and animals that includes a range of family-friendly activities such as trick-or-treating, pumpkin feedings for the zoo animals, puppet shows, face painting and other games,” Sakata said in the release.
In appreciation of Sakata’s donation, Woodland Park Zoo generously offered its employees 25+ free zoo tickets for the team and families.
The donated pumpkins weren’t just for making great pictures- the donation had several uses, including:
- Animal feedings
- Toys for the animals
- Pumpkin carving
- Fall displays
- Activities for children attending the celebration
Sakata added that it believes this event has been the start to an exciting partnership and that it plans to not only continue the tradition with Woodland Park Zoo next year, but also provide unused produce to animals and support the community.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Target has released its Q3 2015 financial results, and with it, news of expanding its rapidly improving fresh food programs. In a conference call with investors Wednesday, CEO and Chairman Brian Cornell announced that Target will be expanding its fresh food tests to 25 Los Angeles area stores.
“While we’re encouraged with the recent acceleration in food sales, we are still in a very early stages of our work to provide a unique assortment of fresh, local and healthy items to our guests,” Cornell explains. “I do think one of our highlights in Q3 was the improved performance in food…We’ve been very focused on assortment changes and bringing more natural, organic local items into many of our categories, and we’re seeing the guest react very favorably.”
Cornell went on to explain that Target has been making steady progress in its food sectors, and the company is planning to learn a lot more after doing several fresh-focused remodels within the 25 Los Angeles stores. Target has already been doing similar tests within several stores in the Chicago area with even more on the horizon.
“We’re going to take the learnings from Chicago and apply it in the 25 stores we’re remodeling in Los Angeles and make sure over time we can scale those learnings to multiple markets around the country,” Cornell added.
Other highlights from Target’s Q3 2015 financial report include:
- Third quarter 2015 sales increased 2.1 percent to $17.6 billion from $17.3 billion last year, reflecting a 1.9 percent increase in comparable sales combined with sales from new stores.
- Third quarter EBITDA and EBIT margin rates were 8.6 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively, compared with 8.4 percent and 5.3 percent in 2014.
- Third quarter comparable sales growth was 1.9 percent, driven by traffic growth of 1.4 percent.
- Third quarter Adjusted EPS of $0.86 was above the midpoint of the company’s guidance of $0.79 to $0.89.
- The company now expects full-year 2015 Adjusted EPS of $4.65 to $4.75, compared with prior guidance of $4.60 to $4.75.
- Target returned $1.3 billion to shareholders in the third quarter through dividends and share repurchases.
For more on Target’s fresh food trials as the information is released, check back in with AndNowUKnow.
BAKERSFIELD, CA - Sun World International, LLC has just welcomed Juliana Escobar as its new Director of Export Sales.
Escobar brings more than ten years experience in the produce international industry. Most recently, she served as the International Business Developer for C.H. Robinson Worldwide, where she worked for over six years. Prior to that position she was the Director of International Sales for Produce Connection, a full-service wholesale distributor.
In her new role, Escobar will be responsible for Sun World’s export go-to market strategy as part of its efforts to expand the worldwide availability and distribution of Sun World branded grapes. She will also oversee export sales planning, pricing, and prioritization.
“Juliana has a strong track record in gaining entry into new international markets and developing strategic roadmaps for new sales channels, as well as a tremendous passion and drive for international business that makes her perfect for this role,” Gordon Robertson, Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Sun World, said of the company’s decision, according to a press release.
She has dual executive global master’s degrees from UCLA Anderson School of Management and National University of Singapore and speaks three languages.
IMMOKALEE, FL – Lipman is donating $10,000 to keep healthy eating top of mind for young students in Collier County.
The open-field tomato grower announced on Wednesday that it would be partnering with Naples Botanical Garden’s Collier Greens program to give 20 schools in the county $500 grants for the 2016-17 school year. The grants will be used to fund the placement of gardens at schools to educate children about the benefits of fruits and vegetables, as well as farming in general.
This donation will go a long way in helping to inspire this generation of students, and as Lipman’s Community Relations Director, Jaime Weisinger, said in a press release, it’s a big part of who Lipman is as a company.
“At Lipman, we’re proud to support a number of initiatives that educate children about the important of things like healthy eating, farming, and gardening,” Weisinger said. “When schools plant their own gardens, kids gain a valuable understanding of where their food comes from.”
Another benefit of this donation is that it helps relieve the teachers of the stress that comes with having to fund the gardens out of their own pocket.
Naples Botanical Garden’s Collier Greens program was founded four years ago. The program offers free workshops to educators, encourages best practices, and recognizes outstanding garden practices. Schools affiliated with the program receive certification and have access to a variety of expert resources.
“We operate on a ‘teach the teacher’ model,” said Britt Patterson-Weber, Youth Programs Manager at Naples Botanical Garden. “We empower teachers to go back to their schools and run their programs.”
Applications are being accepted through the spring, and recipients will be selected by Naples Botanical Garden.
This is just one more way Lipman has been able to serve the community at hand, as well as encourage education among children.
YAKIMA, WA – Domex Superfresh Growers® is kicking off its Autumn Glory® season with several digital and in-store marketing support programs to drive sales of this unique, exclusively grown apple variety.
These tools include in-store demos and merchandising, in-store radio, social media content and digital promotions, and consumer sweepstakes and blogger outreach. All are designed to build off of last year’s momentum and introduce the new apple crop to consumers.
Grown both organically and conventionally in the Yakima and Wenatchee regions of Washington State, Autumn Glory apples are known for their subtle sweet, cinnamon flavor profile, according to a press release.
“Consumer response to the flavor of the Autumn Glory has been tremendous,” said Howard Nager, Vice President of Marketing. “With its sweet, firm flesh and subtle cinnamon notes, the Autumn Glory has an intense apple flavor that embodies the essence of a crisp, fall harvest, thus the name.”
As we previously reported, volumes have doubled every year for the Autumn Glory. The company projects harvesting approximately 50,000 cartons of Autumn Glory apples in 2015 and up to 800,000 cartons in 2020.
Domex Superfresh Growers is launching a consumer sweepstakes that will be promoted via the company’s social media pages. Domex will also be launching a consumer food blogger outreach initiative to help drive awareness for the new variety.
“These activities paired with our suite of retail support programs are designed to build a loyal fan base for Autumn Glory apples as we increase volumes over the next five years,” Nager concluded.
Autumn Glory will be ready-to-ship in early November with availability through March of 2016. Organic Autumn Glory apples will be available beginning in January.
BRAMPTON, CANADA - Loblaw announced its Q3 2015 financial results this morning, delighting shareholders with a 17 percent increase in earnings over the same quarter last year. Net earnings reached a high of $166 million, and adjusted net earnings hit an impressive $408 million.
“In the third quarter, our business remained focused on delivering the best in food experience, best in health and beauty, operational excellence, and growth,” explained Galen G. Weston, President and Executive Chairman of Loblaw Companies Limited. “While the grocery industry remained competitive, and the regulatory environment in healthcare challenging, we maintained a stable trading platform, achieved incremental efficiencies and delivered planned synergies.”
Weston continued by saying that after reaching its debt alleviation target during Q3, Loblaw is now beginning to increase its focus on returning capital to shareholders.
While the increase in food sales were the most notable part of Loblaw’s financial report, other highlights included:
- Retail segment sales were $13.7 billion, an increase of 2.5% compared to the third quarter of 2014.
- Food retail same-store sales growth was 3.1%.
- Adjusted EBITDA was $1.02 billion, an increase of 2.1% compared to the third quarter of 2014.
- Net earnings were $166 million, an increase of 16.9% compared to the third quarter of 2014.
- Adjusted net earnings were $408 million, an increase of 10.0% compared to the third quarter of 2014.
- Basic net earnings per common share were $0.40, an increase of 17.6% compared to the third quarter of 2014.
- Adjusted basic net earnings per common share(2) were $0.99, an increase of 10.0%.
Loblaw beat analysts' expectations, according to the Financial Times, and the stocks responded accordingly. According to Google Finance, stocks were up 2 percent and nearly 1 and a half points.
For more industry financial news, keep checking back with AndNowUKnow.
BAKERSFIELD, CA - Produce veteran Alex Sanchez has been promoted to General Manager of Organic Harvesting for Grimmway Farms.
"We are pleased to have Alex assume the role of General Manager of Organic Harvesting. His years of experience as a Ranch Manager, growing each of the items we harvest, are invaluable,” Jeff Huckaby, Executive Vice President of Grimmway, said, according to a press release.
A family-style farming company, Grimmway Farms is rooted into Bakersfield agriculture. To learn more, watch the short video below:
Sanchez brings much to his newest position with the family-oriented company, including 21 years of experience in the vegetable industry and a Bachelor of Science in Crop Production from the University of Arizona.
“We feel that with his strong farming knowledge he will be able to take us to a new level as we continue to grow our business," Huckaby added.
Nine of those 21 years have been spent with Grimmway, working key roles as its Organic Ranch Manager in both the Coachella and Imperial alleys, overseeing more than 6,500 organic acres. According to the company, this responsibility included being responsible for growing each and every vegetable of the 60+ Cal- Organic line-up.
Sanchez is also an active Director with the Riverside County Farm Bureau, and has previously worked for Ocean Mist Farms’ sister company Desert Mist Farms, in the role of Farming Manager.
With a wealth of knowledge and experience to bring to this position, the company expressed great confidence for this new chapter in Sanchez’ career with the Grimmway team.
REDMOND, WA - You may have heard of virtual reality before in one of our previous stories, but augmented reality takes that technology one step further. With augmented reality, virtual objects are projected right in front of you, allowing you to interact with them as you would with any physical object. Microsoft’s HoloLens is helping to make this possible. Keep reading to see how this technology can help your business.
Check out the full article in The Snack magazine by clicking here, or continue reading the full piece below.
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Holographic Computing is Here
Is that greenhouse in your living room just a figment of your imagination? Not quite. With Microsoft’s HoloLens, seeing is truly believing.
A new era of holographic computing is upon us. With some analysts projecting the augmented reality market to hit $120 billion in revenue by 2020, this new vision of the future is capturing the hearts and minds of tech giants from Google to Facebook to usher in a wave of groundbreaking technology. Who would have thought that we’d be wearing headsets that could allow us to walk and interact freely with three-dimensional, holographic objects in a virtual world, or even a virtual greenhouse, from the comfort of our own La-Z-Boy or office chair? Microsoft’s newest tech gadget, HoloLens, is making it all possible. Whether you’re a farmer planning his or her next crop, a real estate developer or retailer experimenting with architectural possibilities, or a marketer looking to sell in an innovative way to a mass audience, look no further than augmented reality.
What is Augmented Reality?
My first experience with augmented reality, or AR, was bizarre to say the least. In front of me, standing in my living room, was a virtual, miniature 3D cartoon character interacting with real-life objects like a chair or my sofa. The character, which was projected on the screen of my smartphone, would sit down on the couch or walk around the room avoiding objects in its path as if it were actually there with me. What appeared to be some form of clever witchcraft was actually the latest innovation in virtual reality.
AR is a type of technology that combines the real world with the virtual, or rather, attempts to make the virtual world indistinguishable from the real. A computer generated image is superimposed onto a real-life scene so you can interact with it. Microsoft’s HoloLens takes this concept a step further. Here’s how it works:
Meet Microsoft’s HoloLens
At first glance, you might think it would be silly to strap a bulky, Robocop-like headset onto your face. While most examples of augmented reality don’t require futuristic goggles, HoloLens comes equipped with advanced sensors and hardware that captures information about what you’re doing and the environment that you’re in to project a computer-generated image of anything that you could possibly imagine, depending on the software.
Using state-of-the-art gyroscopes and accelerometers, the device tracks and captures information about every subtle movement you make. It understands your physical whereabouts in the environment such as your position and movement in space, your head and hand gestures, and even your gaze. Like other AR technology, HoloLens also tracks objects in the environment to project images inside or on top of them. Say you want to look at a plot of land on a farm in the comfort of your office. You could project that image onto a desk or coffee table and mold it to your specifications like you would a piece of clay or sand in a sandbox. You can even fully immerse yourself in the field right in your office, but these examples barely scratch the surface.
Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality
When you first slip on HoloLens, you’re not going to see a virtual world like you would if you were to use an Oculus Rift or Samsung’s Gear VR. Instead, you would only see the world around you as if you weren’t wearing the headset at all. In fact, there’s actually a big difference between augmented and virtual reality.
The goal of virtual reality is to immerse users inside a virtual world that’s been created by a software developer, hence the name. It’s more akin to a video game, but there are commercial uses for the technology that are available, like videoconferencing for example. Augmented reality, however, seeks to help users better interact with the real world using high-definition holograms.
For better insight into augmented reality technology, check out some of these examples to see how your business could benefit from Microsoft’s HoloLens.
Agriculture:
Out on a business trip, but you need to get a closer look at what’s happening on the field in real-time? Whether you’re across the globe or just feet away, HoloLens allows you and a colleague to see the world from each other’s perspective. Additionally, if either of you have a tablet on-hand or a PC nearby, you can also draw instructions that would appear as holograms in the real world.
Have ideas for expansion? HoloLens allows you to create holograms to visualize how something will look in the real world, whether it’s new desks in the office, a new greenhouse, packing facility, or more.
Retail/Foodservice:
Want to re-design your store layout? You can pin a blueprint of your store on a table and use your finger to trace your ideal arrangement. Once you’re finished, you can project that environment as a hologram and explore it to your liking in the real world.
Have new POS material, but not sure where to place it? Create full-scale holograms and share them with your colleagues.
Want to plan a new distribution center? HoloLens is an architect’s dream come true. By using full-scale holograms, you can better communicate your vision to construction industry professionals.
The Future of Augmented Reality
According to a report from Digi-Capital, augmented reality will hit the mainstream by 2020, meaning it could be a major revenue source for enterprise, advertising, TV/film, and consumer apps such as Facebook. With forecasted revenue of $120 billion by 2020, there is a huge opportunity for businesses to bring their brand to a whole new dimension.
Tim Merel, Managing Director of Digi-Capital, said that augmented reality could “fundamentally disrupt mobile” and that the next Apple might come out of AR.
“AR could disrupt the mobile market, and Microsoft’s HoloLens could be the start of regaining the glory lost to Apple in the last decade,” said Merel, who believes that augmented reality’s addressable market is similar to the smartphone/tablet market.
What was once only thought possible in science fiction is now a reality. With AR technology like Microsoft’s HoloLens, we can now communicate on a level never seen before. Businesses across the produce and retail industries can work more effectively with holograms and collaborate in an entirely new dimension. Indeed, holographic computing is here.
ST. LOUIS, MI - Monsanto hosted a series of investor presentations in which both consolidation and future acquisitions were put on the table, though who the seed company is eyeing is still up in the air, according to President Brett Begemann.
“We’re discussing every possible possibility, just like every other company is discussing,” Begemann said, according to Reuters, when speaking to reporters ahead of an investor event yesterday. “Talking about and doing are two different things.”
On the table, along with other prospects, is the resurrection of the company's endeavors to acquire pesticide company Syngenta after having walked away from the bidding war in August.
As we previously reported, Monsanto had pitched almost $47 billion for the European rival before walking away to focus more on its research and development. Those costs, according to reports, have also led to a need for consolidation.
Begemann added that when it comes to that aspect, it is discussing all options.
"Everybody is talking now," Begemann said. "We are going to deliver our plans regardless of whether or not there is consolidation. If there is, we would be interested in participating where it makes sense."
Whether or not Monsanto will come full circle and rekindle its pursuit of Syngenta, or who else the company is shopping for, remains to be seen.
AndNowUKnow will continue to follow this story, and all other possible acquisitions that could influence the industry, as more information comes to light.
MISSION VIEJO, CA - When it comes to maximizing avocado retail sales, understanding shopper priorities is essential, according to the Hass Avocado Board (HAB). HAB’s new study, Shopper Purchase Decisions and Influences – Driving Hass Avocado Sales at Retail and its companion piece, Path-to-Purchase Action Guide help marketers and retailers meet the needs of avocado shoppers by detailing what matters most to shoppers when purchasing avocados at retail. The study also looks at how shopper priorities differ between heavier and lighter buyers.
According to HAB's study, retailers can maximize avocado sales if they meet shopper needs for the following:
- Quality/Ripeness
- Selection
- Price
Emiliano Escobedo, Executive Director of the Hass Avocado Board says that the avocado category is at the forefront of exciting change and growth taking place in fresh produce departments across the country.
"Understanding how shoppers make the decision to purchase avocados is essential to optimizing shopper satisfaction and driving sales of Hass avocados in produce departments," says Escobedo, explaining that shoppers are adding more and more avocados to their shopping carts these days. "This study helps us understand which factors and perceptions drive larger than planned avocado purchases; trigger an impulse purchase; and what factors and perceptions might derail a purchase.”
The study found that both heavier buyers (purchasers of 37 or more avocados per year) and lighter buyers (purchasers of 1 to 36 avocados per year) rank ripeness, firmness, unblemished/unbruised as very important or somewhat important attributes.
- Approximately 43 percent of shoppers prefer to purchase avocados that are perfectly ripe, with somewhat smaller percentages of shoppers selecting under ripe or mixed as their preferred degree of ripeness, depending on the need.
“Understanding what matters most to heavier and lighter avocado buyers enables marketers and retailers to meet the needs of all avocado shoppers and maximize sales of Hass avocados,” explains Escobedo. “This study provides in-depth insights into these two shopper segments and is a must-read for those interested in gaining and applying useful information.”
Another key to increasing avocado sales, according to HAB’s study, is providing a selection of bulk avocados that are purchased by both heavier and lighter shoppers. HAB explains that many shoppers look for bulk so they can select the individual avocados they purchase.
- 70 percent of heavier buyers and 93 percent of lighter buyers purchased bulk avocados during their last avocado shopping trip.
Interestingly, heavier buyers are more likely than lighter buyers to purchase bagged avocados. Pricing also ranks as a top concern for all buyers and can spur incremental purchases, HAB says. For example, heavier buyers selected “they were the right price” or “they were on sale” as reasons for adding more avocados to their basket than planned.
To learn more about how shoppers make the decision to purchase avocados at point of sale, visit hassavocadoboard.com/retail to obtain a copy of the Action Guide and/or the full report.