Pineland Farms Potato Co., based in Mars Hill, Maine, has signed a contract to supply 28 Sam’s Club stores in the Northeast with its refrigerated potato products.
In a press release released last Thursday, Rodney McCrum, president and chief operating officer of Pineland Farms Potato Co., said delivery of the company’s products to Sam’s Club stores would begin within a month.
“It’s a foot in the door for us,” he said. “Our hope is that we expand into more Sam’s Club stores in the future.”
McCrum credited U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who grew up in Aroostook County, Maine, with playing a key role by arranging a meeting between McCrum and Sam’s Club president and CEO Rosalind Brewer. McCrum is hopeful the deal will lead to additional opportunities with the Walmart division, which reported revenues of $58 billion in fiscal year 2015 and has 649 stores nationwide.
“Thanks to Sen. Collins’s idea about increasing our distribution through Sam’s Club, Pineland Farms potato products caught the eye of this prominent national food chain,” he said in the press release sent out by Collins’s office. “This new partnership will help us continue to create jobs for young men and women across Aroostook County.”
Founded in 1995 by McCrum and a dozen other Aroostook potato farmers, Pineland Farms Potato has achieved double-digit yearly growth since 2010, reaching $35 million in sales in 2014. Earlier this year, it completed a $7.5 million expansion to double its storage and production capacity. The expansion included a $1 million upgrade to the packaging line.
The company also launched a $3 million upgrade of its mashed potato production line this year.
McCrum said the company’s employment now stands at 180 workers, with 60 new jobs added since August 2014. Ssales are running 38 percent ahead of the same period a year ago.
Asked how this year’s harvest was for Aroostook County’s potato growers, McCrum said, “It’s a good year and a good crop.”
Pineland Farms’ mashed potatoes are served in Applebee’s, 99 Restaurant & Pub, Logan’s Roadhouse, Pizzeria Uno, O’Charley’s, and Famous Dave’s restaurants. Packaged mashed potatoes and cut potatoes bearing the Pineland Farms brand are sold in supermarkets throughout the Northeast such as Publix, Market Basket, Hannaford, ShopRite and Big Y.
Pineland Farms Potato Co. purchased the Pineland Farms Creamery from the Libra Foundation. in 2013. The creamery produces a line of award-winning cheeses. Although its line of cheeses was not part of the distribution contract, McCrum said Pineland Farms hopes to eventually add Sam’s Club to the list of food outlets carrying its cheese.
Collins said the contract showcases the best of Maine—“all-natural ingredients and small-scale agriculture”—and expands Pineland Farms’ reach into supermarkets throughout New England.
Source: Mainebiz