Building to scale

Bruce Peterson built it and they came. While Wal-Mart may be trying to find its way past flat same-store sales, retail consultant Dick Spezzano told me today that Bruce Peterson's plan for Wal-Mart's growth in produce retailing over the past 15 years worked amazingly well.
"Bruce is one of the visionaries," Spezzano said. "He took them from six supercenters to 2,300," he said. And one distribution center to 38 DCS. Peterson's plan to dial up produce volume meant getting commitments from increasing number of suppliers.
Even with the buzz of growth, Spezzano pointed out that Peterson was very accessible to many commodity associations and industry groups through the years. He said his efforts to expand use of RPCs and RFID were broad-based and inclusive.
"Wal-Mart was Bruce Peterson," he said.

After Peterson's resignation from Wal-Mart today, Spezzano said that Peterson will be attractive to any one of a number of high profile produce companies.

Biggest impact

Bryan Silbermann of PMA and I have been on the phone several times of late about various and sundry issues including the Farm Bill and Packer 25 candidates, and the resignation of Bruce Peterson afforded me another chance for a friendly talk. Of course, Silbermann has plenty to say about Peterson's 16 year run at Wal-Mart and his long service to PMA and the industry.
This statement is worth noting in this space:

"He has literally grown (Wal-Mart's) produce and other fresh foods from scratch," Silbermann said. "You would be hard pressed to find anybody else in the produce industry who has had a greater impact in the past decade and a half as he has," Silbermann added.

That about says it all. While Peterson's importance to the industry wouldn't have been the same if he had stayed with the 10-store Nebraska supermarket chain he worked at when Silbermann met him in early 1991,Silbermann correctly observes he was the right man at the right time for Wal-Mart.

Bruce Peterson resigns!

Arguably the biggest gun in the produce buying world has resigned. Bruce Peterson tendered his resignation this morning in Bentonville, he told me a few minutes ago.

“We just literally finished announcing that to the officers and to my group; now it is official,” said Peterson, who has served as, senior vice president and general merchandise manager of perishables for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, Bentonville, Ark.

Peterson said he would defer comment about his future plans until later in the day when Wal-Mart public relations will issue a statement, but did say he will be with the company until the end of February.

“The company has treated me great – it’s all good,” he said. No other announcements have been made about who will fill Peterson's position or other moves that would affect perishables, he said.

After he addressed the hot news of his resignation, Bruce gave me some much appreciated insight on a few of our Packer 25 leadership candidates. Fittingly, here is Peterson's own Packer 25 profile, penned by Bryan Scribner in March 2005:

The Packer 25
Bruce Peterson - Wal-Mart
It's hard to tell whether Wal-Mart's Bruce Peterson creates or leads trends in the fresh produce industry.
On one hand, his efforts have fueled advancements that might not have otherwise come into fruition. On the other, his vision has helped develop ideas that have led to change.
But that's not the real issue.
Peterson, 51, is senior vice president and general merchandise manager of perishables for the world's largest retailer. When Peterson whispers, it's a shout, said Dick Spezzano, president of Spezzano Consulting Services, Monrovia, Calif.
And that's a distinction, Spezzano said, that Peterson has earned through charismatic leadership.
"He was being heard because he made good business sense," Spezzano said.
"When you say there's going to be a hall of fame for produce executives, Bruce will be in that hall of fame."
Wal-Mart, Peterson said, has allowed him to affect change in the produce industry -- including advancements in contract pricing, replenishment and returnable plastic containers.
Spezzano said Peterson drove the development of RPCs and the delay of country-of-origin labeling legislation. He also will be the force behind radio-frequency identification technologies, he said.
"He gets involved in the things that count -- the things that will mean something 10 years from now when he's out of the business, or 20 years from now when he's out of the business," said Spezzano, who met Peterson in the early ?90s.
Peterson is a visionary who has become a food expert, said Ron McCormick, Wal-Mart's vice president and divisional merchandise manager of produce and floral.
"He's put our company in leadership positions in things like returnable plastic containers that I think have caused a company that did not grow up in food to be a leader in food," McCormick said.
Wal-Mart reached more than $250 billion in sales in 2004, according to Austin, Texas-based research firm Hoover's Inc. A company that had only six supercenters when Peterson joined its ranks in 1991 now boasts more than 1,700.
However successful, Peterson said Wal-Mart was never satisfied.
"We never wake up in the morning and say, ?Look at us, we've arrived, we've got it all figured out now,'" he said. "If you were inside our organization, you would think that we were down to our last penny the way we approach things."
Part of that approach includes a commitment to availability.
Peterson travels 150 to 180 days a year. Much of that time is spent making speeches, honoring commitments with produce industry associations and meeting with produce industry interests and regulators.
He makes a conscious effort to put a face on Wal-Mart, but he also desires feedback.
"If you think we're being butt heads, I'm going to stand here right in front of you, and you can tell me that I'm a butt head," he said. "When you get in their environment, they're more free to do that."
On vacations, Peterson said he and his wife have come to an understanding -- he checks his e-mail only twice a day.
"I can't relax in my mind until I know that I've been responsible in communication with people," he said. "The bigger a company is, the more important accessibility is."
And as big as Wal-Mart is, it must set a good example, he said.
"People will tell you when Wal-Mart sneezes, the industry catches a cold," Peterson said. "But I would like to believe that we are very responsible with regard to what we do in the industry."
Wal-Mart, because of its size, has the ability to tie together the interests of government, trade associations, grower-shippers, suppliers and researchers, Peterson said. The retailer can then help spur solutions to industry problems.
When it comes to food safety, for example, Peterson said Wal-Mart doesn't want to be the retailer that provides traceability, while others don't.
Food safety and security, he said, should not create a competitive advantage. He said he doesn't want the consumer to think produce is safer at Wal-Mart than any other retailer.
"It may be better, cheaper, prettier, available all the time -- but not safer," he said. "The sanctity of the American food supply is something that's bigger than any individual retailer."
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Get to know ...
Bruce Peterson, senior vice president and general merchandise manager of perishables at Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
BIO
Peterson has been in the produce industry for 35 years. He started his career bagging groceries in Detroit when he was 16 years old.
In the late 1970s, he worked as a jobber, and he later joined retailers Tom Thumb Food & Drugs Inc., Dallas, and Meijer Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich.
Peterson is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he earned a business degree. He joined Wal-Mart Inc. in 1991, and he became vice president of produce in 1996. He moved into perishables in 1998.
In 1997, Peterson was named The Packer's Produce Marketer of the Year.
Though he's responsible for more than produce -- meat, deli, bakery and other departments fall under his leadership -- Peterson said nothing compares to the produce industry.
"The industry transcends socioeconomic background. It transcends educational background," he said. "My very best friends and the people that I admire the most are almost without exception produce people."
LIFE
The oldest of seven children, Peterson grew up in Michigan. He's been married to his wife, Maggie, for 14 years. They have two children, Scott, 27; and Ryan, Peterson's stepson, 25. Peterson plays guitar and writes music. Other hobbies include boating, water-skiing, tennis, golf and reading science fiction.
INVOLVEMENT
Peterson was chairman in 2003 of the Newark, Del.-based Produce Marketing Association, a group he had been involved with for 14 years before his chairmanship. He also has devoted time to the Washington, D.C.-based United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association; Irvine, Calif.-based Western Growers; the Ottawa-based Canadian Produce Marketing Association; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's advisory committee. He's now on the Washington, D.C.-based Food Marketing Institute's board of directors.

Harkin's latest push

Sen. Tom Harkin continues to remain active on child nutrition issues. In his blog-like commentary at The Hill, the Senate Agriculture Committee chair extols the fruit and vegetable snack program while vowing to require the USDA to update its school lunch nutrition standards and give the agency authority to regulate junk food.

Here is Harkin:

It’s time to restore our schools as places where parents can be confident that children receive foods that promote their health and learning. To that end, with my colleagues Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Sen. Lisa Murkowksi (R-Alaska), I will again introduce the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act. This bill would require USDA to update its archaic nutrition standards. And it would allow USDA to set standards for all foods sold in schools, regardless of the time and place that they are provided.


Amen, brother.


Meanwhile, here is a report about B.C.'s snack program.

Enforcement at what cost

The Washington Post examines today the federal government's drive to be credible in its enforcement of immigration laws. The feature focuses on a federal detention camp in Raymondville that houses 2,000 illegal immigrants, part of a record 26,500 held across the U.S.

The $65 million tent city, built hastily last summer between a federal prison and a county jail, marks both the success and the limits of the government's new policy of holding captured non-Mexicans until they are sent home. Previously, most such detainees were released into the United States before hearings, and a majority simply disappeared.


The policy has led to a dramatic decline in border crossings by non-Mexicans. The building boom of detention camps is part of President Bush's drive to create a program for temporary foreign workers and a path toward legalization for as many as 12 million illegal immigrants.

Expect agriculture to suffer if more and more illegals are detained. Critics asks whether the Bush policy of enforcement is sustainable and humane, but overlooked is the reality that growers will face greater shortages and hardship if lawmakers don't pass an immigration law that can provide workers and be credibly enforced.