Essay on Ripe: Sales and Ripe

Ripe ‘n Ready
Facts:
Ripe ‘n Ready was a cooperative of California stone fruit growers who produced peaches, plums, and nectarines
Category in Rapid Decline – driven by low cust. Satisfaction with fruit quality, consistency and taste
Ripe ‘n Ready’s objective was to provide “good tasting stone fruit” to consumers in a manner that increased consumer demand for that category of fruit and provided a vehicle for improved store differentiation for their retailers competitors who would need to adopt a common business strategy that would still enable them to maintain their individual business identities
5 other companies – Family owned, well known through the industry, competitive,
All saw the decline in profitability
Some tried to hedge losses by diversifying their offerings such as citrus and grapes, others thought they could lock in retail accounts by importing stone fruits in the off season – a key advantage
Herb Kaprielian – president of the Kaprielian brothers – large family owned stone fruit growers and packing operation
University of CA. id’ed factors affecting the quality of the fruit noting the quality could be improved if the growers paid special attention to the variety, cultural practices and post-harvest handling
Herb used the University’s protocol for pre-conditioning to ensure best product – eventually founded Ripe ‘N ready in 1997
Competition emerged immediately as Summeripe launched its own pre-conditioning program
Kaprielian was unable to keep up with demand and in 1999, invested in a joint venture with Corrin Produce Sales to form King's Canyon Corrin (KCC). Corrin president Steve Kenfield took charge of the Ripe 'n Ready brand and that year, KCC sold 35,000 boxes of stone fruit. In 2000, demand increased to 250,000 boxes and by 2001, KCC was forced to purchase 50,000 boxes from a competitor to keep up with orders
In December, 2002, five companies officially became partners in Ripe 'n Ready, LLC: Sunwest Fruit Company, Inc., HMC Marketing, Fowler Packing Company, Inc., Corrin Produce, and Kaprielian Brothers
We chose to go after the leaders in the industry. Not only did these organizations provide the resources to scale the business, they were also the most formidable long term competitors. Aligning with them would create a preemptive strike of resource accumulation that could not be matched in the industry
Corrin Product
1980s, Corrin Produce was the largest grower and marketer of ruby seedless table grapes in the United States
Ruby seedless grapes began to lose favor in the marketplace, Steve Kenfield and his partner, Bob Greiner bought the company from the founder in 19911 and expanded into stone fruit by planting plum trees
Greiner stayed with Corrin to farm. By 2005, Corrin controlled 1200 acres of plums and produced small crops of grapes and peaches. The company employed 60 year-round workers on its ranch and produced 400,000 boxes of fruit in 2004, up from 150,000 boxes in 2003.
Sold 30% of its fruit through Ripe n Ready
To keep its capital investment costs down, Corrin used outside vendors to pack and market its produce
Cost between $3000 and $4000 per acre to grow stone fruit. Greiner noted that to break even, a grower needed to sell a box of fruit for at least $10
We get a yield of 1,000 boxes per acre and it costs us $4 per box to grow fruit on fully mature acreage. Then it costs us $1.50 to pick the fruit, $3.50 in packing fees, and sales commission of generally 8%. The grower often ends up getting less than $.50 per box
Ballantine Produce
Established in 1943 partnership between grower, marketer, wholesaler founded to meet the demand for fresh produce at the end of World War II one of the original partners also owned a beverage distributorship that delivered beer
1951 Albertson family bought company
1992 approached by Walmart - 'I'll pay you more, faster, and sell to consumers for less.'"
Aggressively pursue the Wal-Mart opportunity. By 2004, 18% of Ballantine's production of stone fruit was sold

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