(June 27) Few 44-year-olds have worked in almost every facet of the produce industry. But Doug Ranno , chief operating officer and general manager of Colorful Harvest LLC, Monterey, Calif., the newest company operated under The Sholl Group umbrella, is able to make that claim.

Ranno has been the vice president of produce and floral for Wild Oats, a produce buyer and merchandiser at Raley’s Supermarkets, a district sales manager and national marketing manager at Chiquita, a wholesaler for American Produce on the Los Angeles terminal market, and a director of business development for Green Giant Fresh.
Now he plans to draw from all his experiences during his 27-year career to lead this new operation.

Q: Why did you take this new position?

A: Through my career I’ve always wanted a chance head up an organization…. The people at Green Giant are very innovative thinkers. One of the nicest guys I ever met in the business was Jeff Sholl, and he found a way to make it happen.

Q: At Colorful Harvest, how do you plan to market these strange colored items?

A: We have some cool ideas. Our main thing is focus two ways. First, talk to retailers and show them how they can create excitement by way of colorful displays and unique products. Second, talk to foodservice people, mainly chefs, about ways to color up their menus. No one has ever really gone to market with a color strategy before. We will hit every food editor in the country … with a press release about our Color Me Red consumer campaign. It is based on how new red sweet corn adds flair and antioxidants to your grill.
Also, our products are going to meet high quality standards and will do everything we can to keep items fresh.

Q: Do the colorful products taste different?

A: Red sweet corn tastes the same as regular sweet corn, it’s just red. The flavor profiles are similar.

Q: What volumes do you anticipate handling this year?

A: It’s hard to say. We have lots of products. Thousands of cases will begin shipping in two weeks.

Q: Who is someone that taught you something?

A: I have experienced wonderful leadership examples from people like Nick Casheros at Raley’s. He worked at Raley’s for 42 years. He taught me a lot about understanding people early on in my career. At Chiquita there was a great foundation for learning about consumer branding and innovation. Working for the Chiquita subsidiary, American Produce, I learned a ton from all the people that worked on the street and saw how hard people work on a terminal market. They get up at 1:00 a.m. and that is what you have to do to be successful. At Wild Oats, we formed a real cohesive team and had a lot of fun at work. A lot of those people are still in place and Wild Oats’ produce and floral organization will be strong for a long time because of that.

Q: What is different about working in retail than from what you are doing now?

A: It’s not so much what’s different. I look at it like this: what are the things that are standard to be successful in any business? The similarities are having good people that you trust and respect … so they work hard for you. It’s about respecting vendors and building programs from a partnership perspective with them. I have been a vendor and a buyer now with big national companies all over the country. Being able to treat those vendors with respect when I was a retailer and having to work with them now on the grower-shipper side … is something that creates a foundation for people to want to work with you.

Your financial results are driven in how you grow business profitably…. Ultimately, what I like to say is how big your ear is for the consumer. Are you listening to the consumer and what they really want? I’ve always tried to make a lot of my career decisions based on where I think the consumer is going. It felt good to go to work for Wild Oats because I thought the consumer was really interested in organics, and it’s proven to be very well. It feels good going to work and building this new Green Giant division called Colorful Harvest because I think consumers are going nuts about all of these new colorful fresh fruits and vegetables because they have high antioxidants in them.

Q: How did the national organic standards affect you at Wild Oats?

A: I believe that they added credibility to the organic industry and are continuing to add credibility. They are forcing people to look at their organic programs on a more detailed level both on the grower-shipper side and retail side.

Q: What were the challenges posed to you as a retailer because of the standards?

A: Some of the challenges were training employees and associates properly, training warehouse personnel on how to handle and manage things, and putting detail in signage strategies to be able to appropriately communicate to consumers.

Q: How can the industry get more consumers to eat organics?

A: First, I think consistently delivering on quality expectations. Second, continuously improving organic farming practices to where costs can be driven out of the system. As growers come up with new innovations and get better with organic farming practices, that will continue to drive costs out of the system so that the value can be there for consumer.

Q: How will country of origin labeling affect your company?

A: The way the regulations are written now is a big issue for everyone in the industry. It’s going to be incredibly hard for people to execute the law as it’s written now. People who aren’t involved in it and who don’t understand what it means to their business should get involved and contact PMA to make sure that the regulations that are written about agriculture, and the country of origin law is one of them, can actually be implemented.

I don’t think many retailers realize how hard it will be to implement that law. People are not going to be able to track country of origin on products at every retail level for two years. It’s almost impossible. Systems are going to have to be changed to accommodate that…. Some smaller stores are not going to be able to implement that law the way it is written right now without some modifications to the regulations.

Q: With the new regulations, are you going to have to have your Colorful Harvest product labeled?

A: We are taking the country of origin issue and the traceability issue into consideration in the packing development and design process. From a bulk perspective, companies are always going to have to deal with that from an in-store signage perspective.

Q: What are your hobbies?

A: I like to write to music. I’ve actually had one song published back in 1986. It is a song called Part of Me about Vietnam. I’m not a vet but I was working at a Vietnam vet counseling center in Sacramento during college and wrote a piece of music. I got it published and have received some royalties from it too.

Q: Why do you like writing music?

A: It’s just a hobby. I collect guitars and write music. I am really into basketball too. I’m a Sacramento Kings fan. They had a rough year. I like the Kings and the San Francisco Giants and the New York Jets. I have been a Jets fan ever since the old Jets. I have always been a big Joe Namath fan.

Q: Tell me about your family.

A: I have a wife Tracy. We have been together about 10 years. We have a three-year-old son named Dylan and a 5-month-old daughter named Grace.

Q: What do you love most about your kids?

A: Everything. They are everything to me. They are the reason why everything works. You can have the cruddiest day ever and they fix it.

Q: How have you seen technology change during your career?

A: I have watched people, even the old trenchwork produce guys, get comfortable with e-mail over the last couple of years. I am watching people now use digital photography to have on-time communications…. I carry a phone now that I can take a picture with and send a 15-second video to someone’s e-mail or to another phone user like this and have a conversation about an action or a process or procedure that I just observed on a farm or in a store and say, ‘We have got to get this fixed.’

Q: What’s the best retail promotion you have seen and why?

A: The best retail promotions are the ones that have these elements in them: They must offer taste. They must be incredibly visually colorful and creative on the display end. They must communicate well to the entire store that this promotion is going on so other associates can talk to customers about this cool, innovative display that is happening. Those are the key elements. I think price is much less important to consumers than people realize.

Q: Do you think organic retailers will consolidate in the future like conventional retailers?

A: I am not sure if that will happen. I think what may happen is that some conventional retailer might want to learn about organics and they find that the best way to do that is by buying or purchasing or consolidating with an organic retailer. As long as they run that as a separate business unit, they will probably be OK. But if they try to make too many processes in an organic business like the processes in a conventional business, they will find that the businesses are very different and that it won’t work. I do see bigger, larger retail chains seeking people with organic expertise to be part of their business. A different base of knowledge is needed to be successful. If you just try to sell organics like conventional produce, it won’t work. That’s why people like Whole Foods and Wild Oats have been so success — because they do it entirely differently.

Q: Do you see any consumer segments that aren’t being marketed to?

A: Everyone always targets women 25-50. I think they forget that males go in stores. They may not shop at the volume level that women do, but there has to be certain programs and communications contoured to the male shopper. Then I think kids are always the golden opportunity for fresh fruits and vegetables. Getting kids to be excited about and understand the benefits of fresh produce early on in their lives and developing taste is critical for all of us in the business. I think the 5 a Day the Color Way campaign has come up with many wonderful opportunities to do that.

Q: Speaking of 5 a Day, does it form the foundation of what you are doing at Colorful Harvest?

A: It somewhat has to do with that, but really what is happening with society through technology of the Internet, the average consumer is much sharper today than ever before. Consumers can get online and learn about health. … A mom who is concerned about their children’s diet patterns can get online and learn that eating fresh produce is really good. They can learn about meal planning and nutrients in just a couple of seconds. That is an innovative change that is here today now, that we have to deal with, so the 5 a Day certainly helps…. But even without 5 a Day, the technology of the Internet is there for consumers to use, and they are using it at much higher rates than before.

Q: Are you going to have a Colorful Harvest Web site?

A: Yes we will, over time. It is in development right now as we speak, but its something that we want to give a lot of thought to. Our goal is to have that up and running by the end of the year.

Q: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

A: I like where I am living right now, Monterey, California. It’s a blend of the mountains and beach. The people here are friendly, there’s culture, and there’s diversity. It just has a lot to offer. If you ask everyone in the industry where they like to go the most it’s always usually Monterey.

Q: Would you want your kids to be in the produce industry?

A: I think it’s a wonderful industry. I will let them choose whatever they want to do and they will pick their own interests. But if my children choose to be in the produce industry, I think it’s a great career and a great place to grow up.

Q: What’s your favorite food?

A: Blackened catfish tacos with red corn papaya mango salsa. That is my favorite thing to make. I always whip that up when people come over. We make a sweet red corn salsa, put a little papaya and mangos in it and put that over blackened catfish.

Q: What do you see as the No. 1 problem facing the produce industry today?

A: The people who present produce to the consumer face to face in the industry are the produce manager and the produce clerk. Over time I have seen retail stores face labor cuts and tight labor budgets…. The amount of money, training and expertise devoted to the average produce clerk or manager has become something that is a challenge for all retailers everywhere. My dream is to see a produce clerk recognized with the same level of expertise as a chef and that they build reputations and relationships with consumers to where the consumer is excited to talk to the produce manager and learn about fresh fruits and vegetables. … Could you imagine how impactful that would be if a produce clerk had knowledge about all the products and had cooking recipes right in his mind to roll off his tongue? …

I would like to see a study done in a store that has a crew of 5-7 well-trained, knowledgeable produce associates vs. a store that doesn’t in the same demographic area. Let’s see which store sells more produce, which store has more satisfied consumers. Let’s see which store has more people eating healthy and providing food for their families that are better dietary options.