As a part of its Taste Local campaign, Spokane, Wash.-based Peirone Produce has unveiled a new truck trailer featuring fourth-generation Washington orchardist Kaitlyn Thornton.
The Taste Local campaign aims to drive awareness about the growers behind its products, Peirone Produce President and CEO Mike Kamphaus said in a news release.
“We started the Taste Local truck trailer campaign three years ago,” Kamphaus said. “We’re trying to drive awareness about the farmers who grow the food that our consumers are purchasing. We believe making this connection adds value to our partnerships with the four key players in produce: the grower, distributor, retailer, consumer.”
Two years into the campaign, Peirone was looking for a new face for the campaign when Thornton’s name came up. She is the daughter of pear grower Geoff Thornton and a young orchardist and “ag influencer” whose mission is to close the gap between producers and consumers through social media and education, the release said.
“From a farmer’s perspective, we admire Peirone’s willingness to invest in sharing the story to consumers about who and where their local produce comes from,” Thornton said in the release. “It’s a great story for people to carry with them as they walk through the store. It doesn’t resonate with people the same way as when they can actually see the faces behind the products they’re buying, and that’s exactly what they’re seeing on the side of Peirone’s refrigerated trailers.”
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Peirone operates under the core principles of the freshest top-quality products, competitive prices and a culture of treating employees, growers, and customers with respect and dignity, Kamphaus said in the release. About 10 times a year, Peirone invites six retailer groups that make up 95% of its product volume to communicate new items. These meetings are an effective tool for getting ideas out into the market quickly, he said in the release.
“Peirone can’t be the one to tell the story to consumers,” Kamphaus said. “We’re a wholesaler and distributor. The whole idea was to drive awareness in the stores that we service. To do this, we give retailers POS materials and encourage them to talk about growers in their stores during these summits. We want consumers to walk in the grocery store and see our signs telling them where their produce comes from in the Northwest.”
Consumers want to feel more connected to their farmers and growers, Kamphaus said in the release. Since Peirone is a regional player, it thinks it’s perfectly positioned to tell the story of Northwest growers, he said.
“I don’t know if you can measure this kind of thing, but we have 26 grower-focused trailers on the road now,” Kamphaus said in the release. “The benefit of Taste Local is how retailers help make connections with their shoppers. We think this differentiates Peirone because we want to be committed to the grower and have relationships with them. We can be a better partner to the grower through campaigns like this.”
Thornton said in the release it was a “huge honor” to be on the Peirone Produce trucks and shared the event with her 350,000-plus followers on TikTok and on Instagram. She was featured in a story by KREM 2, a CBS affiliate in Spokane, Wash., that included her interacting with Peirone respresentatives as she saw her truck in person for the first time.
