Mike Maguire is ready to increase sales from day one of cherry production. Mike will do $700,000 to 1 million a week in cherry sales. As he said, what more could you ask for in generating sales.
Mike suggested that Washington think about doing 1# bags for the first two weeks then shift to two pound as volume increases. He is working with a grower in California that is going to do this for him this year. Last year Mike did pre-pack cherries in foam trays in early season to keep the cost down. His thought is customers willl only spend so, much money and if its not affordable to purchase a two pound bag they may not pick it up at all.
Also, Mike signed off on both Cherry and Apricot intent programs for this year. He is not a advocate at all in promoting soft fruit because his grower in California seems to satisfy his needs right to the end of the deal. He is using Kingsburg, Prima and a couple others on soft fruit from California. Bottom line he is just happy with his program.
He is interested in the demo program. However, he didn't know what his in house demo program cost per day. I advised, him to use the dairy companies to off set cost while using cherries with ice cream and smoothies. Andrew let me know your thoughts on demo budget for accounts in my territory?