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www.potatogrower.com 19 Very little in this life goes as planned. No matter who or where a person came from or how much planning he may have done, people and events outside his control are bound to force change upon him at some point. Over the last 20 years, Idaho Falls, Idaho-based Potandon Produce L.L.C. has thrived precisely because of its willingness to evolve with an ever-changing industry. A glimpse at the company's history (a relatively short but wildly successful one) illustrates what a pivotal role that willingness can play in any organization's success. In 1995, The Pillsbury Company saw fit to move away from marketing fresh produce under its Green Giant® brand. That decision likely would have meant the end of the Green Giant fresh potato and onion business. However, senior Pillsbury managers Jeff Sholl, Mel Davenport, Kent Romrell and Steve Ottum led a buyout of the fresh potato and onion division. In the buyout, they acquired the exclusive licensing rights to the Green Giant brand for fresh potatoes and onions in North America. Utilizing the Green Giant brand has proven key to the company's success. "We loved the produce industry," recalls Ottum, now Potandon's co-chief operating officer. "We loved the fresh potato and onion business and where we could see it going in the future. We didn't want that to go away." To complete the transition, the new company needed a name. "Most of the easy names were taken by somebody else," Ottum says with a chuckle. "I started playing with the letters of our two commodities and came up with 'Potandon,' for POTatoes AND ONions, and it stuck. We've become a world- recognized company in the industry." Today, Potandon is the largest marketer of fresh potatoes and one of the largest fresh onion marketers in North America. Its serves as a marketing agent for numerous cooperatives made up of potato and onion growers from Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Minnesota, North Dakota, Florida and Texas. It also has a Canadian partner, EarthFresh Farms, representing the Green Giant brand in Canada. Along with senior management, many of those growers are part-owners of Potandon. "They're a strategic supply to the company; we're a strategic sales arm to get their product to market," Ottum says, describing the mutual benefits of the partnerships. "We do our part because we're good at it, and they do theirs because they're good at it. We're very dependent on each other. It's a cemented relationship that has worked well. We've evolved to that business model over that 20-year period." Before Potandon, nobody had made a significant effort to introduce a nationally recognized consumer brand for fresh potatoes or onions. Packages largely featured the labels of individual packing facilities. Labeling every box and bag with its Green Giant brand, other Potandon labels and private labels, Potandon's name recognition and popularity exploded. www.potatogrower.com 19 JOLLY GOOD TIME The Green Giant brand, combined with the sharp business acumen of Steve Ottum and Potandon's other managing partners, has helped Potandon gain worldwide recognition.