Making experience count
Making experience count
When it comes to knowing what works in the produce industry, Patrick Mills has been there, done that — and then some. The retail promotion director-West/Canada for the Idaho Potato Commission relies on his 38 years of experience in retail produce to offer an array of strategic solutions for whatever kinds of challenges his retail customers are facing.
“I’m not just the ‘potato guy,’” he laughed. “With my experience behind the desk for so many years, retailers understand I can help them in other areas like ad writing, merchandising and promotion planning. I understand profit and loss for the category. And when I’m dealing with new young buyers and category managers, I can help them with Idaho® potatoes and support their business for any kind of question they have.”
Being present
Mills said he puts his experience into action every day by maintaining a steady presence in his region. “I’m a big believer in boots on the ground,” he said. “I spend a lot of time shaking hands and just talking to the guys and gals putting product on the shelf to give them support. When you’re there day in and day out, people give you a lot of credibility.”
More store-level visits is one of Mills’ goals for this year, especially for grand openings, he said, along with produce manager training at the store level. “Staffing is really tough nowadays, and IPC can really help retailers with training and support,” he added.
Retailers reach out
Mills said retailers have taken notice of both IPC’s knowledge base and his own expertise.
“I have retailers reaching out to me for direction on things like, What are the best items for ads? How can I keep up with the Joneses in my area?” he said. “I get a lot of questions on what the local market is like. What are the category total sales for their area — what’s up and what’s down?’
IPC is heavily data driven, said Mills, so when a retailer is looking for specific types of data, he is ready to go. “We can narrow the data down to pack size, color, what item is selling the best, where the retailer needs to focus more to continue to build margin. We can narrow down best buying practices—we help everywhere.” When IPC promotion directors are out meeting with retail partners it’s all about finding the win-win scenarios.
One Southwest region retailer, for example, reached out to Mills to find out how IPC could support one of their banners. “We made suggestions, looked at the data, and came up with a 20-pound russet window of opportunity,” said Mills. “They decided to do a one-day-a-week special on them, and went from selling 2,000 bags on a typical Friday to 5,000 bags on Fridays. We built a 20-pound potato bin promotion, and it worked, we grew category dollars and pushed more volume to help our Idaho farmers.”
