US citrus marketing cooperative Sunkist Growers has announced a major reorganisation of its domestic sales operations following a comprehensive review of the business.
According to Mark Tompkins, Sunkist's director of domestic fruit sales, the realignment involves trading ‘bricks and mortar’ for electronic technology to better serve its customers, shippers and growers. In effect, key sales representatives will be able to work remotely instead of having to operate from a fixed location.
In collaboration with The Monitor Group, a renowned global strategy and management firm, Sunkist’s fresh fruit sales division has restructured its operations and customised working practices in order to better compete in the marketplace.
'We consulted with Monitor to help us design a system that allows us to do the right things for the right mix of customers at the lowest cost to our grower-members,' said Mr Tompkins. 'As a result, Sunkist is moving to a more centralised model of sales operations that allows our key sales people to ‘go virtual’ – to devote more time to strategic selling and account planning in order to increase delivery of services that are most valued by our key accounts.'
As a result, Sunkist’s strategic account managers will no longer manage offices but instead have been freed by the new technology to work from anywhere their customers may need them.
The managers will now be supported by staff in Sunkist’s three operational hubs – the Eastern Sales Operations Center (ESOC) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the Western Sales Operations Center (WSPC) in Sherman Oaks, California, and the National Accounts Sales Operations Center (NASOC) in Visalia, California.
A total of four management changes with promotions and new positions are part of the realignment. John Slagel, formerly the regional manager of Sunkist’s Eastern Sales Division, is heading up an enlarged Pittsburgh office which combines Sunkist’s former eastern and central regional offices. Mr Slagel, a 17-year Sunkist sales veteran, was most recently director of the Eastern Regional Sales office.
Brian Slagel, who served as regional manager of the Central Division, now holds the newly created position of director of business development and will be based in Orlando, Florida. Mr Slagel, who joined Sunkist in 1996, is now responsible for developing strategic customer relationships with key accounts in North America, working closely with other sales department leaders to manage relationships and develop additional Sunkist business.
Bruce Simmons, who previously led the Western Sales Division, is the new director of foodservice sales, based in Utah. With the company for 18 years, Mr Simmons is charged with developing relationships with key foodservice customers and coordinating Sunkist’s sales efforts. He was previously director of the Western Regional Sales Office.
Finally, Lance McMillan is manager of National Sales Accounts in charge of retail and wholesale accounts and will continue to work from the National Accounts Sales Office (NASO) in Visalia, California. Mr McMillan joined Sunkist in 2002 as senior account manager for National Accounts. He was previously a sales coordinator for Sunkist-affiliated packinghouses under the Pro-Ag, Inc. ownership.
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