In tandem with recent shifts in category leadership, the Oppenheimer Group has announced in a press release a number of new additions and changes to its sales teams.
Firstly, Barney Gilman joined the company’s Seattle, Washington State, sales location on 3 November, after a career specialising in the produce retail and wholesale businesses.
For the last 12 years, Mr Gilman has served as a buyer at retail-owned wholesaler Unified Grocers of Seattle, before working as a produce manager at Thrifty Foods / Brown and Cole, of Bellingham, Wash., as well as other retail roles in the country.
Oppenheimer’s Seattle office markets the full Oppenheimer product line-up to customers in the Pacific Northwest.
By bringing Mr Gilman into the Seattle sales group, two of his new colleagues can focus on recently assigned additional responsibilities as well, according to John Anderson, chairman, president and CEO of Oppenheimer.
“We’ve worked with Barney as a customer for many years, and have been impressed with his knowledge and strategic approach,” Mr Anderson said.
“By adding him to our Seattle office, others on the West Coast sales team can embrace new opportunities and as an organization we can serve our customers in the region more effectively.”?
In addition, Roger Aguirre, whose sales management career at Oppenheimer’s Seattle office spans a decade, has been appointed to the role of West Coast category manager for apples and pears.
Before joining Oppenheimer in 2001, Mr Aguirre spent six years as a buyer at Safeway, in Houston, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; and Seattle.
His new role entails leadership in the Washington-grown ENZAJAZZ™, Pacific Rose™ and ENVY™ programmes, as well as the management of Oppenheimer’s apple and pear import programmes for the western region, which includes fruit from Chile, Argentina and New Zealand.
In this capacity Mr Aguirre will report to Category Director David Nelley, replacing Charlie Hein, who left the organisation last summer.
Mr Aguirre is also the former West Coast category manager for the company’s mango business, a position that has been handed over to Los Angeles sales and business development representative Tran Nguyen.
Ms Nguyen, joined the company in March 2003 in a temporary role shortly after she graduated from the University of Southern California.
In the ensuing years, she added ever-increasing responsibilities as a business development and sales representative.
Moving forward, Ms Nguyen will lead Oppenheimer’s western US and Canadian marketing activities for mangoes, with guidance from Steve Woodyear-Smith, mango category director.
Oppenheimer’s mango programme includes fruit from Ecuador, Guatemala, Brazil and Peru.
Both Mr Aguirre and Ms Nguyen will continue in a strategic sales capacity, with Mr Aguirre maintaining his role as Seattle sales manager, and both selling to select accounts, while also focusing on the effective marketing of their product categories in the western US.
“A comprehensive background in sales enables both Tran and Roger to add value to the category management roles they are taking on,” Mr Anderson said.
“They know the market, and they have the product expertise. As category managers, they will guide their sales and marketing colleagues, focusing efforts on strategically placing products with customers while also optimizing grower returns.”
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