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Good things are in the works! Winter is the time of conferences, workshops and B2B engagement. The Grocers Project of VT Farm to Plate is holding steady in that lane.

Next week we begin the 2nd annual Farmer as Retailer, a free online multi-week series beginning February 21. It is designed to help buff up skills & operations to create optimal conditions to add revenue through, repeat sales & efficiencies of operation enhancing farm-based retail profit centers.

Also, this month we host the 2nd annual Distribution Readiness series for food vendors to up their skill set. It is also free & online over a several week period with a slate of speakers sharing real-world conditions to grow sales, by understanding production, marketing & distribution variables.

For stores, we are crafting an 'on-ramp' skills training for Produce line-staff which will be followed by more extensive seminars for higher level store managers. This year is off to a fantastic start to support the needs of farmers, value-add food manufacturers, & store operations.

Read on for workshop sign-up details, current news, & resources. Thanks to the many who contributed to this issue.

In Store Happenings

Changes in ownership lead to modifications, while also holding on to valuable assets.

The Lincoln General has

ownership bringing incremental changes that will revitalize areas & bring tweaks to the product mix. Up north Green Mountain Natural Foods has taken over the former Newport Natural. There will be several days of buffing up, retooling, & lite construction to improve the store & cafe experience.

At both stores there will be inevitable changes, though the friendly staff that locals have come to know & love will remain. Locally sourced items

will continue to be sourced. In Newport utilizing Green Mountain Farm Direct & CAE's Farm Connex provides easy to access to Vermont products.

Growing a food business is incremental. Sometimes the vision adapts to certain realities including renovations, or switching up the marketing plan to get the word out as the process continues to evolve. Other times it may because of capitalization.

Evolution can include stages of

customer interactions. At the Wallingford Village Market they have created an "on-ramp" building customer engagement with ready-made meals to go. offering

bread & signature special meals (think Valentine's Day!) Supporting local vendors & creating community engagement is part of the ethos of this enterprise. Squire Farm cuts of beef & Ana's Empanadas provide "community spirit" to this emerging enterprise.

Brattleboro Coop, one of the state's largest community owned stores has embarked on reducing waste by introducing reusable containers & cutlery for their prepared foods department. This will require tweaking of labor to handle the bussing & washing of dishes.

Operational changes such as this will have a ripple effect as behaviors shift. Overall reducing waste leads to reduced disposal fees & reduced plastics that ultimately provide a higher level of community engagement supporting the values & mission of stores that make the leap.

At the Brattleboro Coop, clear signage with rail clips helps drive sales of local products. Farm to Plate Retail Tools provides useful merch tips

Vermonters Feed Vermonters

It wasn't all that many years ago where an emphasis was made on extending the season. Private & public funding sources & support from Healthy Living, City Market, other large coops, & UVM & Dartmouth medical centers helped expand greenhouse infrastructure. Simultaneously, marketing & promotions occurred. Twenty years on, Vermont has had a number of greenhouse operations allowing for winter greens to be a available across the state. This is how it’s done: working together on diverse funding support, operational & market development over a period affects positive change.

Now we have winter greens produced

across the state sold to stores & institutions. Below a selection in

February at Healthy Living Market.

Note to Both Vendors & Buyers

Independent stores have an opportunity to participate in competitive pricing through Independent Natural Foods Retailer Assoc (INFRA) & their relationship to contract pricing with KeHe.

The purchasing programs can move

significant volume to retailers as brands expand into wider distribution options. However, there are many costs that must be considered so that growth & capitalization are aligned with operational & financial capacity.

"Trade Allowances" can kill a vendor because you are getting paid less than you anticipated. Many "fee-for services", marketing & off-invoice payments built into your distribution costs add up. These deductions from the purchase order can result in surprising low payments to your account.

There are software programs to help

manage "chargebacks". The more distributors you use the more

necessary it is to hire a competent staff or use online management software platforms such as Floret to help guide you through deductions

management, disputes & promotions. As you expand into distribution options, you must become familiar with, & proficient in, managing the costs.

Store buyers are often unfamiliar

with the costs of these deductions to local companies selling through large

regional or national distributors. Costs to the supplier through national distributors are high. Prices pressure might land the "sale" of Vermont products, but the margins decrease, presumably made up by volume sales (all that before deductions are tabulated too!)

Find out more of this stuff at the Distribution Readiness Series!

All sales are not created equal at the vendor side, or the store side! That is why Building relationships with

vendors, DSD purchases, and understanding BOL freight status can empower sales & profitability.

Defining Local Products

In prior Small Bites, you have seen the clues about what is "local" to Vermont per ACT 129. Here is an example of a complying business:

Raw Agricultural Product. A ‘raw agricultural product’ is any food in its raw or natural state without added ingredients, & includes pasteurized or homogenized milk, maple sap or syrup, honey, meat, eggs, apple cider, and fruits or vegetables that may be washed, colored, or otherwise treated in their unpeeled natural form prior to marketing. 

A raw agriculture product is “local” and/or “Vermont” food if it is: 

1. Exclusively grown or tapped in Vermont;
2. NOT milk, & was derived from an animal that was raised for a substantial period of its life in Vermont (meaning the animal was harvested in Vermont and lived in Vermont for at least one third of its life or one year); 
3. IS milk, where a majority of the milk was produced from Vermont animals; or
4. IS honey produced by Vermont colonies located exclusively in Vermont when all nectar was collected.

Finn & Roots greens pictured above are by Vermont definition a "Local" product as they are raw, & exclusively grown in Bakersfield.

Too Early to Tell

There is A LOT of uncertainty with the transition of Associated Buyers (AB) to Rainforest Distribution (RD)

On the vendor side, for 40 years AB

has supported the nurturing of New England food brands. Part of their niche was creating a product mix need with natural, regional, organic, bulk, & specialty products. They were instrumental in working with emerging brands, some of which grew into nationally recognized staples. Stores could reliably meet minimum orders, gain access to a wide array of items, & rural locations

could be serviced.

At the store level, the AB sales team

historically built relationships the old-fashioned way. With in-person visits they got to know not only the store vibe, but gaining friendships along the way that led to honestly recommending products that would sell at each store. They had a dedicated sales staff that with folks staying on for decades! One not too

be overlooked detail, sales staff were not paid on commission, so they were not foisting products on stores for short term personal gain.

Right now, many stores & vendors

are in the process of on-boarding (or not) with RD. For stores, product mixes will be different, not all AB products will carry over to RD. That can be super hard for small stores with "pantry items" that have become staples to their product mix.

There is plenty of unknowingness as

stores evaluate options & vendors too will seek new outlets such as through

BOL, 3P online platforms Mable & Faire. The food hub network with ACORN & VFFC expanding distribution to stores will be juggling inventory expansion & capacity

issues & might evolve to filling store needs with personalized services.

There is a ton to pay attention to as

regards sales of Vermont products to the other New England States as AB ceases at the end of the month. Stay tuned!

'Distribution Readiness'

Online Multi-week Series

Starts Wednesday February 28th 12-1:30

ZOOM online & FREE!



SIGN UP HERE

Vermont Specialty Food Association members & other food manufacturers are encouraged to join the Wednesday afternoon series.

The Farm to Plate the Grocers Project has fantastic speakers lined up to help food businesses learn about distribution variables & store buyer perspectives. Bring your knowledge to share with others in this B2B sharing formula.

Mighty Mudita plant-based deli slices are handmade in BTV Vermont, packed with protein, & mostly organic ingredients. Minimal packaging, maximal flavor for plant based category management! This emerging brand is one to keep you eye on.

Seven Days has a great article on production & processing facilities featuring some well known, yet still emerging, Vermont brands seeking to expand their capacity. Tipsy Pickle, & Birch Hill English Muffins are two businesses featured. A number of growth pain-points points associated with expanding capacity are mentioned. As is the enthusiasm to grow "away from the home kitchen" into larger facilities. Catch the informative write up from Jordan Barry.

'Farmer as Retailer'

Online Multi-Week Series

Starts Wednesday February 21st,

9-10:30

ZOOM online & FREE!

covering many retail related topics



SIGN UP HERE

Farmers with existing operations and

those new to selling through your

farmstand/farm store are encouraged to learn AND share your insights. From permits to POS & cash-out, merchandising to buying from distributors there is much to cover. All farmers are welcome, not only Vermonters.



Also, check out the NOFA farmstand audit tool



NOFA Winter Conference

February 17 & 18

Here's Great Famer News!

There have been changes in ownership at a number of farms in Vermont the past couple of years. These out-of-family farm transfers are not always easy, yet are so important to sustaining agriculture!

Milkweed Farm, Putney (formerly Akaogi Farm)

Woods Market Garden, Brandon 

Crossroad Farm, Fairlee

Honeyfield Farm, Norwich (formerly Killdeer Farm) 

Networks Work

The Vermont Cheese Council is hosting a fabulous educational series for businesses to develop "business skills!" The Miniversity covers loads of topics to run your business. It is designed for farmers, cheese producers, & food manufacturers across production categories. Find out more here on the variety of workshops to help you build your food business.

Harvest of the Month has a rich array of resources to help stores & farmstands promote products.

Vermont Fresh Network

advancing relationships among farmers, chefs, & consumers to grow markets & eat more locally grown food. Become a member today!

Tradeshow Handbook VSFA Agency of Ag with Rival Brands to help vendors sell to buyers effectively & align their scale of the business.

Small Bites comes to you via grants & is created for farmers, food manufacturers, distributors, & grocers to increase VT food sales. We support the New England State Food System Planners Partnership effort to strengthen the regional food economy

Special thanks to Mary Pelkey of Associated Buyers, Eric Hill of Birch Hill, Vern Grubinger UVM Extension, Becca Perrin Green Mountain Farm Direct

Contact: Annie Harlow

[email protected]

All info is subject to change; thank you to all who contributed to this issue.

Created with support from the Canaday Family Charitable Trust