In the News

Ted Campbell: Florida Strawberry Growers Association

By Doug Ohlemeier

Campbell

(Sept. 2) The offer to head the Florida Strawberry Growers Association is an opportunity for Ted Campbell to return to his produce industry roots and help a grower group increase its sales.

Campbell became head of the Dover-based group Aug. 4.

A former corporate produce director for Supervalu Inc. Eden Prairie, Minn., who has served on the Produce Marketing Association and the Produce for Better Health Foundation boards, Campbell has worked in the nursery industry since 1999. He was vice president of sales and marketing for Kerry’s Nursery in Homestead, Fla.

Campbell has a degree in business administration from Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, Va. He and his wife BJ have two children. 

Q. What do you plan to accomplish with the strawberry growers group? 

A. I’m hoping I can bring more of a marketing and sales perspective and help this wonderful group of people that have a great grasp of the agricultural production side of this business. 

We will try to find ways to increase their marketing window, and I’m involved with plant variety development and am working with the university on research. There’s so much going on here. Once I looked at it all, I find it really fascinating and fun to be involved with.

Q. What’s it going to be like working on the production side of the business? 

A. It’s something I haven’t really done, but it requires a good bit of business manager experience and knowledge of the industry. I look at it from the perspective that I have a better grasp of distribution, warehousing and I know retail.

I look at the consumers’ perspective on many things we do. We have to drive the growers back to what makes the consumers happy and what addresses their needs and issues.

If we do everything right down the line, everyone can succeed down the chain.

Q. What kind of challenges do you see the strawberry industry facing? 

A. All growers have challenges. We have farm labor, food safety, environmental issues and sustainability challenges.

You have to be conscious of everything all the time and constantly improving. None of these issues will go away and none of them will get easier. You need to address them rapidly, correctly and with a sound scientific basis.

Q. You used to be in charge of perishables for Makro, a Dutch-owned company during the early 1980s that was the predecessor to today’s wholesale clubs like Sam’s Club and Costco. What did you learn from that experience? 

A. If you buy the highest quality you can find, and price it reasonably, you create a consumer value. You may not be the lowest in the marketplace on a particular item, but you will have the best value for consumers. That’s the critical part of their business. A simple concept — don’t get greedy. Buy good stuff and mark it up 10 % to 12% at most. You evolve into almost blind loyalty. Some of these cash-and-carry club store customers have a level of loyalty most retailers would dream of.

Q. You were in charge of field buying for Supervalu. What did that work give you? 

A. That exposed me to growing locations everywhere. One of my big challenges there was to maintain their field-buying capability, to really have people on the ground working with growers and using intelligent selectivity to procure produce.

There are some growers that always seem to produce a better crop than others. It’s not accidental. There are people who just do things better. I wanted my people to find that, to make sure they got a reasonable return on investment for doing a better job, and to find retailers that were like-minded, whether corporate or independent stores that really wanted to take their program to a higher level.

We were interested in higher quality and the appearance that brings to your store. Sometimes it’s a leap of faith. When you have it a little pricier, your product looks better to your customers. It’s eye appeal. Customers are better satisfied with flavor and other attributes. They come back more and want to tell their friends.

A good healthy and quality program feeds and builds on itself over time. I have often found that people that only chase a price to the lowest denominator often end up with a lower quality program that doesn’t feed on itself and prosper the way it should.

Q. As part of your PMA board of directors service during the early 1990s, you helped create the 5 a Day program. What kind of future does produce have? 

A. We have a good story to tell in produce. It’s a simple logic train: If you eat more things that are really good for you and can theoretically prevent some cancers from forming in your body, let’s go out and tell the public more about that and make it wider public knowledge.

We didn’t have 1/100th of the budget McDonald’s has in promoting their cuisine. But we moved the needle on awareness and knowledge. And that’s a start. Once people know, they do tend to think about it. It’s far better now and every year it gets a little better.

Q. What do you like to do when you’re not thinking about produce?

I used to golf several times a week, but haven't had time to play since I've been here.