Nature’s Touch - ‘The Quest for the Best’: Simplifying healthy eating at Nature’s Touch

‘THE QUEST FOR THE BEST’:

SIMPLIFYING HEALTHY EATING AT NATURE’S TOUCH

‘THE QUEST FOR THE BEST’: SIMPLIFYING HEALTHY EATING AT NATURE’S TOUCH

Édouard Adès, VP of Supply Chain at Nature’s Touch describes the company’s end-to-end supply chain transformation and sustainability strategy – with the ultimate goal of serving customers high-quality, delicious and nutritious food.

TWENTY YEARS AGO, JOHN TENTOMAS AND HIS COUSIN PHILLIP BEGAN A FROZEN FRUIT AND VEG COMPANY FROM JOHN’S BASEMENT AND PACKED THEIR VERY FIRST ORDER

THEMSELVES FROM A RENTED ROOM IN A WAREHOUSE.

oday, Nature's Touch is the North American leader for frozen fruits, and John regularly travels the world to visit farms in the 21 countries Nature’s Touch sources its fruits and vegetables from as the company’s CEO. Nature’s Touch has also recently acquired the US-based asset of Sunrise Growers – a vertically integrated frozen fruit processor – which has increased its operations.

Speaking to us today about the company’s journey to optimise its supply chain with a focus on sustainable practice is Édouard Adès , VP of Supply Chain at Nature’s Touch.

“My role as VP of supply chain is to oversee all of the planning activities, transportation, warehousing, customer service and indirect procurement,” says Édouard. “We have a wide range of operations from importing frozen fruits to distributing products to customers and seeing our products on the shelves. Every single step of this operation is key, as we are constantly looking to streamline our processes and optimise the rolling of our inventory ensuring nothing but the best quality of our products for the consumers.”

Édouard joined Nature’s Touch just under two years ago, but

“AT

NATURE’S

TOUCH WE NOT ONLY

WORKED INTERNALLY TO FIND SOLUTIONS, BUT WE BROUGHT IN OUR PARTNERS TO THE DISCUSSION AS WELL”

Édouard Adès , VP of Supply Chain at Nature’s Touch

has already seen significant growth within the company – some of which has stemmed from COVID. Unlike many industries, the COVID-19 pandemic led to an unexpected boost in the frozen fruit and vegetable market as more and more people were looking for healthy foods with a longer shelf life. What makes Nature’s Touch stand out has been its ability to maintain that growth.

“The frozen fruit category has grown year after year,” says Édouard.

“The COVID-19 pandemic did give a boost to the category, and it not only remains but has increased. Our CEO will often tell the story of how it started by selling six pallets to a retailer and just within a few days everything was gone. The retailer then asked for two truckloads and since then it never stopped.

“Other than its own brand, Nature’s Touch is in the private label category and this category for years was underrepresented. Yes, you could have found frozen fruit on the shelves but even the retailers did not know

back then how big or what could be the true potential of the frozen fruit category. With new items constantly arriving on shelves and ongoing innovations, the category just kept growing and expanding. There are now a multitude of items in a variety of forms to adapt to the consumer’s needs. And even after 20 years, the road ahead is still open for many opportunities and growth.”

To build on that growth, Édouard and his team have been building an end-to-end supply chain in order to further develop operations.

“Since I joined, my mandate has been to optimise the supply chain operations and streamline the processes and workstreams,” shares Édouard. “As a starter, focusing and implementing a sales and operations planning (S&OP) process to align all stakeholders into a common plan. This drives efficiencies in the operating model from planning to distribution and it reinforces the supply chain integration within all functional teams and stakeholders to ensure the success

of our operations while servicing the customers (the retailers) and consumers accordingly.

“Transportation was also a big piece of the puzzle in reviewing the area of opportunities on how we can move products in a much more efficient way. This is from the container drayage to the last mile delivery while optimising our internal movements as well, from the plant to a 3PL or vice versa, or from a plant to another plant. We had to align on a plan and define the proper transportation lead time so we could balance the transfers by going over the road and intermodal as well.

Édouard Adès

“The same would apply with warehousing where we identified the partners to work with, the recurrent volume we will be storing in their facility based on their location to optimise the distribution is always a key factor we need to consider. Also implementing a joined up supply chain customer collaboration approach with customers is helping us to be closer with our customers, providing the ability to discuss more

to ensure we execute the processes accordingly or, should any issue happen, we can course correct them quickly.

“At Nature’s Touch we not only worked internally to find solutions, but we brought in our partners to the discussion as well. For instance, for the drayage services we were facing demurrage and detention fees because containers were not moving

“WE ENSURE THAT OUR PRODUCTS ARE SOURCED IN A RESPONSIBLE MANNER, THAT SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES ARE NOT ONLY MET BUT IMPROVED UPON AND THAT QUALITY STANDARDS ARE RESPECTED”

about demand and supply and especially getting better alignment.

“All the above is leaning into an end-to-end supply chain to ensure a proper execution at every step of the chain. Having an operating cadence is a key component for alignment with all key stakeholders at every level. We have our daily, weekly and monthly operating plan and it is important to keep the momentum

efficiently within the free period time we were given. By connecting the partners in the discussions, exposing them on appointment and offloading constraints we were able to find solutions to ensure we were moving the containers from the port, offloading them, and returning them back within the free time period timeline. This significantly reduces the demurrage and especially the detention fees. Now, if we get a

demurrage or detention, we know exactly why it happened and can easily identify if it was to be expected or not.

“And of course, as part of our constant market due diligence process, whether it’s freight, warehousing, indirect raw materials or otherwise, we connect with our partners to review rates and conditions and how we can establish a win-win plan for all parties. Having a supplier that provides low rates, but the service is not great means that you end up losing money and time to get back on track. But when you have the right partner then you

are in an advantageous position to focus on the growth of the business.”

Alongside working to optimise the supply chain, Édouard and his team have been factoring sustainability into the supply chain – something that has become a core value for the company as a whole.

“Now that we have a good understanding of carbon emissions in our own operations, we are starting to look at emissions within our supply chain,” says Édouard.

“For consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, the majority of the emissions that make up the carbon

Re-defining the value proposition

“Our business model is pretty simple. Deliver great service at competitive prices and the customers will beat a path to your door”

Stanley Scheves, Founder and CEO of Cloverdale Cold Storage Ltd. (CCS)

CCS is a family-owned and operated company. By extension, we see our customers and business partners as members of the family. We are proud of our relationship with Nature’s Touch, and we look forward to continuing mutual success.

www.cloverdalecold.ca

footprint exist within the supply chain. When it comes to the logistics component of that, we begin by engaging our third-party logistics (3PL) suppliers to understand if first, they are measuring their carbon emissions, and secondly, if they can share that data with us so we can have a more comprehensive understanding of our carbon footprint. There is a saying in the sustainability space that ‘What gets measured gets managed.’ Once we understand what the footprint of our logistics is, we will be looking to collaborate with our 3PL suppliers to find opportunities to better manage it.

“We ensure that our products are sourced in a responsible manner, that social and environmental policies are not only met but improved upon and that quality standards are respected.

“Also, considering the nature of our operations and the environmental factors we do not control, we have been diversifying the regions we source fruit from as a risk management strategy. For example, if one of the countries we source a certain commodity from is experiencing drought, heatwaves, or other climatic events, we are still able to source the fruit we need because we have established relationships with suppliers in other parts of the world.”

This focus on sustainability comes at a time when more and more consumers are looking for environmentally responsible products, something Édouard notes as an influencing power in the company’s decision to adopt a more ambitious sustainability strategy. These have been sorted into three goals to make the company more environmentally conscious.

1. Making packaging more sustainable while maintaining product quality.

2. Climate action.

3. Social compliance within the supply chain.

These sustainability targets closely align with the key brand values of Nature’s Touch – customer centricity and innovation.

“Customer centricity is one of our top pillars and anything we do is oriented towards this pillar,” says Édouard. “The customers have placed a high value on the quality of our products and our brand. Since most of our business is driven by private labels, it is important that we align on the retailer’s strategy in terms of brand awareness and quality. On this, our customers know they will get only the best and we will support them in their growth plan. The same thing goes with the Nature’s Touch brand which is only sold at Costco.

“Another key component is innovation. We are in a fastgrowing category and the customers constantly want to see innovation on the shelves. Our internal teams and the customers are working hand in hand to identify which products will be the ones consumers will want to see.”

In order to adhere to these values, Édouard stresses the importance of the entire supply chain team at Nature’s Touch.

“The supply chain operation is quite the rollercoaster and it can only achieve the desired level of success by having a team that is engaged and will move heaven and Earth to get things done to ensure the success of the business while making the customers

“OUR SUPPLY

CHAIN TEAM

AT NATURE’S TOUCH IS MORE THAN JUST DEDICATED. THEY ARE EXCEPTIONAL!”

happy,” he says. “Our supply chain team at Nature’s Touch is more than just dedicated. They are exceptional! We care about the people we work with.”

But it’s not just the internal team that keeps things running smoothly. Nature’s Touch has carefully curated partnerships with leaders in their

Customs Clearance

respective industries, something Édouard considers deeply important to the company culture.

“We have a culture of partnership and act as such in our interactions with our partners,” he explains.

“By developing this partnership it is important to connect with them and even to get to know personally, their background, their families, their hobbies and such. We are not only building this relationship – we

are maintaining it. This also ensures that when issues arise, they are addressed quickly.

“Suppliers deal with a variety of organisations and each of them have their own issues, which means there are a variety of possible solutions, and we rely on our partners to support us by working in a proactive way with us to identify the area of opportunities and finding ongoing viable solutions for our

business. As mentioned before, our desire is to work hand in hand with partners, we do not want this ‘old’ mentality of customer/ supplier. We want to build partnerships so we can grow together.”

Looking ahead, Édouard sees a promising future for Nature’s Touch, and the frozen fruit industry as a whole.

“I would say there is a world of opportunities, and we will be working to identify which ones align with our strategy as well as our customers’ strategy,” concludes Édouard. “The frozen fruit category continues to expand year after year. There are more consumers buying and adopting frozen fruit. Not only for smoothies but for a variety of recipes and even for a quick snack bite.

“With the recent acquisition of the US-Based asset of Sunrise Growers back in October 2023, we now have another repacking facility in the United States, and we also have a processing facility, from fresh to frozen as well as a repacking facility in Mexico. This will be a good leverage to continue to expand our operation in North America as well as internationally.”

To learn more about Nature’s Touch, visit naturestouch.com.

ADDED VALUE

THE ART OF UNLEARNING

“I recently read a book named Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant,” says Édouard. “The book covers the ability to rethink and unlearn and how to think again to find bold ideas. It also puts the emphasis on how being wrong can help us to re-shape our thinking process.”

CONNECTIONS WITHIN THE INDUSTRY

Édouard is keen to network with fellow professionals at industry conferences and keeps his diary open for such opportunities.

Connect with Édouard

naturestouchfrozenfoods.com