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Q: What are the biggest challenges for Blue
Diamond and California’s almond industry?
Certainly, for an almond grower, water is the existential
issue. What concerns us as a co-op, what keeps us up at
night, is inflation. It’s a big deal. It’s not transitory; it’s here
to stay. We’ve announced price increases into the marketplace.
Everything in the grocery store has taken a price increase,
so we’re not alone. Fuel costs, wages, the cost of resins
and steel and other core materials all continue to rise. I don’t
see anything short-term that leads me to believe that this is
plateauing, at least in our business.
Q: What one or two things are you
pushing hardest for these days?
Finding ways to be more effective and efficient. We know
costs are increasing. We have a big focus on what we call
margin enhancement, which is more complex than cutting
costs. It’s also about finding ways to increase capacity without
significant investments. That idea also leads into things
like sustainability. The great news is that sustainability links
up very, very well with those margin-enhancement initiatives.
We’ve actually gone so far as incentivizing our growers
for sustainability in their actions. We think it makes them
and us ultimately more efficient. But, also, we think there is
value that goes beyond that because we know our customers
License No. 251698
One of the biggest challenges facing Blue Diamond and the California
almond industry is inflation, according to Jansen.
value that we are good actors and that we’re doing the right
things. That’s another way for us to distinguish Blue Diamond
in the marketplace.
Q: What are your other priorities for 2022?
One of the big things that’s changed, now that I’ve been
CEO here for 11 years, is broadening out who our stakeholders
are. The role of the CEO has greatly changed in
that timeframe. It used to be, ‘Take care of your customers,
your owners and your employees, deliver good results, and
all is well.’ It’s a very different world today. People want to
know how you’re taking care of the communities where you
operate. We talk about environmental issues, but also other
elements of ESG (environmental, social and governance). For
example, we’ve done a lot of work, really employee-driven,
around social impact and how Blue Diamond impacts the
communities we participate in. It’s about how we align the
values of the co-op and our people in a way that we also can
communicate more broadly out into our communities and
the marketplace. This is an area of priority for our leadership
team.
Manufacturing Commercial Grade
Products and Solutions to Growers and
Investors of Almonds Around the World
Since 1963.
P. 209-599-2148
sales@riponmfgco.com
www.riponmfgco.com
Q: What do you consider your biggest success
at Blue Diamond since you became CEO?
Creating a shared sense of purpose between our employees
and our growers. It’s what allows us to be successful.
Drawing those two things together has allowed us to almost
triple in size, to have a 2,000% increase in profitability to
growers
Q: A 2,000% increase?
We used to pay our growers 1 cent per pound more
than what they would get if they delivered their almonds to
anyone else. Now, we’re up to 20 cents a pound. So that’s that
20-times-greater incremental profit margin over and beyond
what they used to get. And that’s real. Particularly in this
past year, where we had historically low market prices for
almonds and increasing costs, that could be the difference
between a grower having a year of loss or breaking even or
being profitable.
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14 West Coast Nut December 2021