Bland Farms continues success with Vidalia onions

Troy, Delbert and Landis Bland.With 2,000 acres of Vidalia onions, Bland Farms is the largest grower, packer and shipper of Vidalia sweet onions and represent 1/3 of the Vidalia onion industry. The company offers various packaging options, merchandising opportunities and cross-merchandising with its Vidalia Brands snacks, condiments and dressings. 

Troy Bland, chief operating officer of Bland Farms, noted the company has been growing and shipping Vidalia sweet onions for more than 40 years, and in 1989, Delbert Bland was heavily involved in helping pass Federal Marketing Order No. 955 to protect the Vidalia crop and its name.

“This marketing order stipulated that Vidalia onions can only be grown in 20 counties in Georgia that meet certain soil requirements,” Bland said. “Bland Farms was an early innovator in the industry, helping the Vidalia sweet onion gain national notoriety with implementation of PLU stickers to ensure that Vidalia sweet onions were never confused with conventional ones.”

Success has been constant through the decades, and Bland said business was very good in 2019.

“We were fortunate that the sweet onion market was strong due to a shortage that started during the Mexican season and carried over to our Vidalia season,” he said. “We had an excellent crop with regards to yield and pack-out.”   

Bland Farms is currently packing and shipping Peru sweet onions as well as Mexican sweet onions, both looking excellent by Bland’s account. 

“We are excited about the upcoming Vidalia season. Both will finish around the end of March,” he said. “There is less acreage industry wide than the previous year. It’s been a wet growing season so far but our crop is looking good.”

Success in the industry takes commitment, willingness to take risks, a knowledgeable team of agronomists, consistent, high-quality onions, innovative thinking to evolve with the changing market, strategies to educate retailers and consumers, and a year-round supply of sweet onions from various growing regions.

“It is important to build trust with buyers, customizing programs to what works with their consumer base,” Bland said. “When the buyers and growers work closely together, they are able to develop programs that increase sales and are a win-win for both.”

Bland Farms is continuously installing new equipment to increase efficiency and this year, it has put in an automatic stacking machine to help with that.

“We also have the 8-line Ellisam Gran Torino, a state-of-the-art computerized grading machine allows for unprecedented quality control by taking 20 pictures per onion, 10 per second, then grades them by weight, size, color and external appearance,” Bland said.

This year is a special year for Bland Farms as they are partnering with Paramount Pictures and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.

“We will have dynamic point-of-sale merchandising displays, high-impact themed package designs, national press and ad campaigns, recipe tear pads featuring SpongeBob and Krabby Patty-inspired dishes and social media support,” Bland said. “To help get the retailers excited, we are running a national retailer display contest where produce managers can submit images of their creative SpongeBob/Vidalia onion in-store displays for the chance to win multiple prizes totaling $10,000.”

Bland Farms has also recently hired Sam Burleson and Richie Pazderski.

“Sam has a diverse background, with 30 years of performance-driven sales and marketing strategies to increase product awareness, market share and profitability,” Bland said. “Richie brings years of sales experience with him as well. Both will be great additions to the Bland Farms sales team.”

At the retail level, signage for sweet onions at the retail level is very important, which is why Bland Farms offers its retail partners advanced pricing when needed to support ads either in print or digital.

“Using our display bins which hold 40 pounds of sweet onions in the produce department really helps drive sales,” Bland said. “It makes the sweet onions easier for consumers to find. It is also beneficial to put our secondary display units in other areas of the store like the meat department to drive sales. When consumers go to buy meat for their cookout, they see the onions and are reminded that an onion would enhance their meal.”