Category: Produce Blueprints

Known for barbeque, longhorns, oil, football, and a wealth of crops, the Lone Star State also is the site of a highly competitive retail grocery market.

When it comes to facing obstacles large and small, Save-On-Foods is no different than its rivals.

In the decade after its purchase by the Pattison Food Group, Overwaitea increased floor space by 140 percent and doubled its market share, which was still relatively small in the late 1960s and 1970s.

The Jim Pattison Group, a holding company based in Vancouver, BC, with C$14 billion in annual sales, purchased Overwaitea in 1968, not long after the group got its start in 1961 with the acquisition of an auto dealership.

Community focus is another Save-On-Foods mandate, whether through customizing its product lineup to support area growers or giving back to those in need.

Save-On-Foods has a reputation for providing customers with a great in-store experience, and David Karwacki, CEO at The Star Group in Saskatoon, SK, is a fan.

The Overwaitea Food Group got its start in 1915 when Robert C. Kidd opened an eponymously named store, R.C. Kidd, in New Westminster, British Columbia.

In discussing what the future holds for robotics in the produce field, Mark DeSantis is CEO of Pittsburgh, PA-based Bloomfield Robotics, sees changes ranging far and wide, from labor costs to shipping times to safety and quality improvements at point of purchase.

With a technology as potentially disruptive to the produce industry as robotics, our experts advise growers to weigh the potential costs and risks before deciding it’s the right move for them.

It’s in the field that our experts see the most potential for game-changing developments in robotics, and they were all forthcoming about how the technology can improve production from alleviating the labor crunch to better-quality harvests and less product loss.