Bland Farms LLC of Glennville, GA, is known far and wide for its famous sweet onions — most notably its annual abundant Vidalia crop — but over the last two years, Bland has sweetened the deal even further with the addition of another traditional Georgia staple, sweet potatoes.

What began as an experiment two years ago evolved into a full-fledged program in 2015, and “we’re probably going to double our acreage by next year,” President and owner Delbert Bland said. “Our sweet potato program is coming strong. Some foods are fads, some are staples. Sweet potatoes have always been popular, but with all the good news about their health benefits, they’ve gone beyond a fad. We’re gonna be sweet, whether it’s onions or potatoes. I believe we can co-market that way. There’s no reason why you can’t have a bag of onions and a bag of sweet potatoes set beside each other in the store.”

Bland saw an opportunity to co-market sweet onions and sweet potatoes together where possible and the results have been impressive.

Delbert Bland“They go together perfectly,” Bland said. “They can ship on the same truck. Retailers can turn product over more quickly with say, two shipments of sweet potatoes and sweet onions together a week than they can getting one shipment of onions and one shipment of sweet potatoes a week.”

Bland markets its fresh sweet potatoes under the “Vidalia Brands” label (the subsidiary division that also carries the company’s line of dressings, dips, condiments, snacks and frozen items) to help consumers make a connection between Vidalia-grown sweet potatoes and their famous cousin.

Bland also created an ingenious dual bin that helps retailers maximize sales of sweet potatoes and sweet onions. The divided bin displays both products with messaging promoting both, along with other point-of-sale support.

It’s all part of a steady stream of progress at the family company, which now features a third generation recently elevated to an executive level position. In January, Troy Bland, formerly director of operations, assumed the newly created position of chief operating officer. The company also named a new chief executive officer, Jeff Bailey, chief legal counsel and director of administration since 2012.

Delbert Bland and former CEO Bryce Edmonson mapped out the organizational transition and both will remain active in the business.

“Bryce is not going anywhere, he’s just going to step back a little bit and help me do some business expansion,” Delbert Bland said. “But the day to day is going to be handled by Jeff Bailey and the operations are going to be handled by Troy — so the two of them are basically going to run the company. We’re excited about it, the company’s doing great, things have been going good and we’re continuously growing and I feel like we’ve got a lot going on for the future.”