Bobby Chacko calls the company he works for “the best kept secret” in the food industry.
When he considered taking the chief executive job at Bonduelle Fresh Americas in Irwindale last March, he didn’t know anything about its French parent, Bonduelle Group.
“I did not know it was a 170-year-old company,” Chacko said. “I did not know they were behind the peas and the corn in Europe that are so famously served in great restaurants.”
The United States business that Chacko oversees specializes in high-quality fresh vegetables, salads, and meal products. Its products can be found at Sam’s Club, Stater Bros. and Albertsons locations, among other retailers, throughout Los Angeles County.
And getting the Bonduelle name in front of American consumers is among the goals that Chacko has set for himself.
“While the business had been here for the last couple of years – it came to America through an acquisition of Ready Pac Foods – we never brought the Bonduelle name, that legacy name and the 170-year story, to the U.S. consumer before,” Chacko said.
The company had always operated under the Ready Pac brand name, he added.
But with Loaded Bowls, a new product launched last summer, the Bonduelle name was on the packaging.
“We are now getting the support from the global organization but also the conviction and support from our retailers to bring that brand story to the market,” Chacko said.
‘Lean into the mission’
Chacko is of Indian descent and immigrated from Nigeria to the United States at age 15. He is married and has one son and a golden retriever. When not spending time with his family, Chacko enjoys riding his BMW GS1250R motorcycle.
In his professional life, he said he has always gravitated toward companies with a health and wellness aspect to them. It was one of the reasons why he took the job with Bonduelle to begin with.
The second key thing is it is a very complicated business, Chacko said, adding that the company has a 15-day shelf cycle to get product from farm to retail stores.
“That is an amazingly short time to get a product to customers for them to enjoy,” Chacko said. “That 15-day cycle is a very complicated operations process. I love puzzles and so it is one of the key pieces I wanted to figure out how best to work with this business to help it grow.”
Xavier Unkovic, global chief executive of Groupe Bonduelle, said at the time Chacko was hired in March of last year that he brings an expertise in consumer goods powered by a track record in new product innovation, marketing and growing market share to Bonduelle Fresh Americas.
“I am confident that his background and acumen position him well to lean into the mission of Bonduelle and accelerate the growth of fresh plant-rich meal solutions in the U.S.,” Unkovic said in a statement.
Prior to joining Bonduelle, Chacko was managing partner of Ageya Management LLC, a venture capital and advisory firm and before that was chief executive of TruRoots Co., a food and beverage firm in Dedham, Massachusetts.
And prior to that job, he was chief executive at Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., the food cooperative in Lakeville-Middleboro, Massachusetts where Chacko performed a turnaround of the 90-year-old company.
He re-ignited growth through focused financial discipline, customer centricity, new market entrees and accelerated innovation – all of which he has done or will be doing at Bonduelle Fresh Americas.
Chacko left Ocean Spray under a cloud when he was fired in early 2020 for violating the company’s policy on harassment.
“At Ocean Spray, we have pledged to hold everyone accountable and ensure that every decision is made in the best interest of the cooperative,” Peter Dhillon, chairman of Ocean Spray’s board of directors said in a news release at the time that Chacko was canned.
“It should be noted that Bobby Chacko helped to right the ship at Ocean Spray and set us on a new path,” Dhillon’s statement continued. “However, no matter how valuable someone’s contributions may be, we simply cannot accept a violation of our company policy.”
Chacko declined to comment on the allegations, saying that as a matter of policy he does not comment on personnel matters involving previous employers.
Innovation and other changes
In addition to the marketing of the Bonduelle brand to American consumers, Chacko has also taken on shortening the time it takes to implement new tech and innovations at the company. He said he’s reduced it from two years to six months.
“We now have a pipeline that we can see two to three years out of what we want to bring to the market,” Chacko said.
That includes Loaded Bowls, which come with 40% more toppings than previous similar offerings and will be followed by more new food items next month and during the summer. One of those will be cuisines of the world with flavors of Indian, Spanish, Southwestern and Mediterranean cooking being added to grain bowls and will be brought to the market in the next month or two.
“These are going to be products that any young kid will grab and want to eat right away or put in the microwave for a minute or two and eat it,” Chacko said. “All 100% plant based, no preservatives and great tasting, chef-crafted products.”
As for expansion of geographic markets, Chacko said he’d love to see a footprint outside of Southern California and the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area on the East Coast.
He’d like to see Bonduelle get more into the Pacific Northwest and the central and southeast areas of the country, he said.
“I’d certainly like to have the company expand to north and south of the U.S as we see the business evolve,” he added.
And when it comes to company growth, Chacko said there are three things responsible for it: a constant pipeline of innovation; an effective business model that satisfies its direct retail customers’ needs and its ability to deliver on time for them; and ensuring the company is satisfying the consumers’ needs.
“Those three elements are really important to helping make sure the company’s growth is secured,” Chacko said.
And so how does Bonduelle know what the consumer wants? It talks with them, Chacko said.
“Not just desk research,” he added. “I’m literally saying to talk with them. Get out to the stores and meet with consumers.”
He has gone to stores with the group chief executive and has met with shoppers in focus groups, he continued.
“We ask them what do you need, what do you buy, what is in your basket when you shop,” Chacko said. “That kind of proximity to your end consumer is incredibly valuable to inform those three core elements of our strategy.”
In North America, after several years of decline, the business activity returned to growth in retail with positive trends in both volumes and value, fueled by the bowls activity and salad kits, the company said in its first quarter earnings release from November.
Finally, in line with the implementation of the “Transform to win” plan teams have been actively preparing the launch of the Bonduelle brand in the United States, effects of which will be felt over the coming quarters, the release said.
According to a release from October, the “transform to win” program is built around five strategic pillars: performance, brands and innovations, key geographies, operational and organizational efficiency and positive impact.
Becoming a B Corporation
Although achieved before he came to the company, Chacko is proud of it being a B Corporation.
He described the designation as being a fancy way of telling the world that it scored high enough on a series of questions about its manufacturing techniques, safety protocols and sustainability and environmental practices to become a B Corporation.
“We are one of the few manufacturing-driven companies that is B Corp certified,” he said. “We are invested, and we are willing to do it because as a company it is part of the Bonduelle family’s DNA.”
Many manufacturers don’t do it because you have to uphold very high standards, “while we lean into it because we care about what we do,” Chacko said. “The family has cared deeply for 170 years, and it is something given our responsibility to bring the best food to our consumers, so we want to make sure we are a B Corp. moving forward.
“It is our responsibility, not just our accountability,” he added.
‘Quand c’est bon, c’est Bonduelle’
Bonduelle has never told its story to an American audience before, Chacko said.
Ready Pac is a recognizable name in Southern California but in research done on the awareness of it and Bonduelle, the latter is more well known, despite there being little product with that name attached to it.
“It’s fascinating because Bonduelle doesn’t exist in the U.S.,” Chacko said. “It’s not a product.”
The explanation as to why Bonduelle is better known that Ready Pac is Bonduelle’s heritage in Europe is well known. So, when you look at the density of Europeans in the U.S., people recognize the name, he added.
“When you say Bonduelle, people remember it,” Chacko continued. “There is a notable jingle ‘Quand c’est bon, c’est Bonduelle.’ It’s a jingle but people remember it.” (The jingle translates to “When it’s good, it’s Bonduelle.”)
The American version of that which the company is launching along with the brand story is “Eat Well. Be Well. Bonduelle.”
“If Loreal can help Americans pronounce Loreal, with kids saying it,” Chacko said, “I think that Bonduelle can become a household name.”
