One year later, Baker Family Farms premium private label greens are a hit at retail
One year later, Baker Family Farms premium private label greens are a hit at retail
After 40 years growing greens year-round in central Georgia, Joe and Richard Baker made the decision a year ago to bag and tag their product with a private label and reintroduce it at retail.
Baker Family Farms has been selling fresh-grown greens since Terry Baker planted a few acres of land near Norman Park, GA, in cabbage and Southern vegetables four decades ago. Sons Joe and Richard started helping out as they came of age and, before long, Baker was a growing entity. By the time the decision was made to launch the private label last year, the company was farming 3,000 acres and shipping 1.3 million boxes of premium bunch mixed greens annually.
Red kale from Baker Family Farms.The Bakers decided to leverage that experience with their own label. They opened a new state-of-the-art packaging facility in Norman Park and started knocking on doors. The reception was excellent and demand grew quickly.
One year out, the project is an unqualified success.
The Bakers credit their attention to detail and control of the growing process for that. Joe and Richard have the same dedication to the land they work and live on that their father did. They still believe in controlling a crop from greenhouse seed production to store shelf. And they still put health and safety above all else.
The Bakers are particularly proud of Primus GFS Superior ratings for all its fields and facilities with an aggregate score above 98.
“It’s at the forefront of it for sure,” Joe Baker said. “You don’t want your family eating anything that could be dangerous in any way. You want to make sure there’s a process in place to make sure that our products are not only safe, but are also the grade we expect. Our HACCP and food-safety program came not only from best practices, but out of a concern for overall health. We wouldn’t feed our families anything but the highest-quality product here and we’re able to do that.”
The new processing facility came online in September 2014 with multiple lines and the capacity to produce 130 tons of ice on the premises daily to ensure quality, freshness and safety.
While the company still welcomes bulk or private label orders from retail, wholesale and food service, Baker Farms is now “heavily into the processing side of it,” said Sales and Marketing Director Tommy Collinsworth. “We feel like that’s where the market’s trending. We’re giving customers another choice at a level of quality they may not have had 12-month access to previously.”
