Rose’s Berry Farm – Sandi Rose & Mark Sanderson

Rose’s Berry Farm – Sandi Rose & Mark Sanderson

Distribution

• Attend 8 Farmers’ Markets statewide every week with 1-3 employees prepping for and attending

• Use customer feedback to keep up with local food trends
• Income from markets represents 25-30% of total sales (average of $1M per year, but varies depending on many factors such as weather, output, market desires)
• Critical outlet for fresh produce
• Better value than wholesaling
• Quicker turnover
• Increase exposure to more customers, allowing for both higher retail and wholesale sales

• Wholesale through Freshpoint, Whole Food Markets, Highland Park Markets, & BIGY
• Berry and vinegar product to local chefs and restaurants as part of the “Farm to Table” trends in the market
• Wickham Hill Farm Stand in Glastonbury is main source of vegetables for farm stand retail

Quality

• Follow GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) and IPM measures to produce the safest, freshest, and tastiest products

• Works closely with the USDA and UCONN agriculture researchers to keep up with the latest crop production developments

History

• Started in 1908 on 20-acre farm
• Now a 100-acre destination farm
• “Keeping Connecticut Green and Growing”
• Largest blueberry farm in southern New England
• Was one of the first pick your own farms starting in the late 1960s
• Workers from State of Guanajuato in Central Mexico

• About 15 workers live on the farm from April to November and perform the lion’s share of physical labor for such a large farm operation

• Most of the men return home to Mexico to their families during the off season
• Sandi & some of the local team members visit them in Mexico
• The farm has played a key role in these mens’ lives and success in their hometown in central Mexico

• Several of the men have been working at the farm for over 15 years
• Loyalty and experience helps the operations run smoothly

Other Income Sources

• Host Monday Night dinners for employees, friends and family at the farm
• Helps get the word out about the farm
• Sandi has become known as a “go-to” expert on fruit farming for the local media outlets

• Has been contacted multiple times by the state Media when weather threatens to affect to CT fruit and vegetable crops
• Also when scenic video or photo footage is needed

• Host weddings, showers, dinners, other rentable events
• Homemade fruit pies and baked goods
• Sunday breakfast with a view

• Serving breakfast – allows for higher margins on fruit products

• Fall Hay rides
• Halloween scarecrows and décor
• Fun playground for family activities
• School tours
• Pick your own fruit
• Fall fund raising dinner with 2 Hopewell Bistro and the local Audubon Society

Interview Notes:

• 4 Full time employees year-round (Sandi, Mark, Mike – operation manager, Winnie – overseas agricultural and operational work)

• Core crew of 12-14 from Mexico (upwards of 20 years)

• Immigration issues
• Very manual labor, expensive alternatives

• Seasonal crew is hard to keep motivated during hot parts of summer

• Plan to cut back over the next 5 years

• Remove some of the wholesale business since it is much lower margin

• 40-50% wholesale

• Competition on wholesale side is across the country (New Jersey, Minnesota)

• Those states have lower minimum wages, lower taxes, lower insurance costs, etc.
• Makes selling just fruit a harder battle vs competition
• Local wholesale is the only option because of the tough competition

• Expenses continue to rise but fruit prices can only be increased so much, especially at the wholesale level
• 100 acres at the main farm (40 is blueberries)
• In their mind, they are not selling fruit but are selling the experience of pick your own, farmers markets, special events, etc.
• Constantly evolving their options as the market demand changes and customer expectations grow

• Much longer lead time on fruit growing
• Have to predict longer term

• New food safety regulations
• $75K machine to do sorting

• Feel they put out a higher quality product with less ‘garbage’ in it

• Since the fruit is being sold locally, it can be picked when it is more ripe than bigger farms which are shipping longer distances
• Small inventory that turns very quickly
• Daily deals when product is not going as fast as needed with inventory on hand
• Website/Twitter/Facebook advertisements exclusively

• Word of mouth
• Encourages employees to put photos on social media to increase awareness and bring new customers to stands and farm

• Main Farm, 1 Farm Stand (both in Glastonbury)

• 8 farmer’s markets around Connecticut
• Physically send workers to the farmer’s market to sell products

• Only distribution is wholesale to Whole Foods and Highland Park Market

• Only blueberries

• Other produce is in high enough demand through pick your own and retail to sell non wholesale

• Retail includes pies, jams, fruit by the size

• Labor costs for pick your own to transport customers over to the picking area

• Creating a pick your own across the street that has parking right next to the fields
• Saves money on labor

• Sales usually over $1M on a typical year
• Storage Facility (cold storage) – 24 x 48 x 13
• Packing Area – 24 x 48 x 13
• Garage – 10,000 square feet

• Service garage for tractors and tools
• Tractors specialized from Italy for Blueberry fields
• High cost to maintain and repair
• On site operations manager (Mike) can fix 80-90% of the problems to save $

• Store – 24 x 36
• 2 kitchens to maintain
• “something is always broken”
• Becomes difficult when they need to power and cool 7 days a week
• Layout Changes – would not have main barn with storage area if they could do it over again

• Reconfigure the roads – access is a difficulty in getting around the farm
• Greenhouse was put in at bottom of steep hill; had its plastic ripped off in the wind 3 years in a row so it was taken out of commission

• Future plans to take down the green house and build an enclosed pavilion for future events (other new revenue streams)

• Events

• Showers, weddings, parties, restaurants for farm to table movement
• Trying to evolve with the market
• Selling experiences along with products now
• May to October only to avoid having to heat the facilities

• They use the App “Shop keep” & “When I work”

• Used for time scheduling of employees, keeping track of where employees are, how farmer’s markets are performing, bookkeeping and sales transactions (Credit Card processing)

• Integration through Verizon to handle a lot of transaction processing and connecting different areas of the company together for easier communication
• Suppliers

• PCA – Packaging Corporation of America – Westfield, MA
• Country wide
• Sales rep that they work with – helps keep them up to date on
• Helena Chemical Supplier – New Jersey

• Chemical Rep gives them all of their information about the fruit market
• May be more expensive but gives them vital information that helps them succeed

• Hartford Provisions – provides everything needed for Breakfast with a View

• Used to send employees to wholesalers (Costco, BJs) to purchase supplies and ingredients used for the breakfast
• Now they work through Hartford Provisions who sells it all at their location and delivers

• Raw berries go onto conveyor belt with 6 guys working to pick out bad berries and pack the berries for selling or freezing
• Two types of bees for pollination

• Bumble bees from Canada (more expensive but better)
• Honey bees from local areas (cheaper but less effective)
• Need both for good pollination for blueberries

• “Keeping CT Green”