From Marketing to CEO: David Baxter on Leadership, Hiring and Growing Natural Delights

David Baxter’s route to becoming CEO of Natural Delights began with an engineering degree and a facilities management job. It later took him through General Mills, food marketing and a move to the Arizona desert.

In Episode 13 of Behind the Fruit, David joins Lucy Robinson to share how saying yes to work outside his formal remit helped prepare him to lead a business at 40.

They discuss his first months as CEO, including the decisions he had to make when Natural Delights’ available volume changed. David also explains what he looks for when hiring, why experience from outside fresh produce can strengthen a team, and how Natural Delights helped make Medjool dates more familiar to US consumers.

You’ll also hear David’s advice for professionals who want greater exposure to senior leadership and need to make their contribution visible.

About LCR International

LCR International supports senior hiring across the global fresh produce sector.

We work with businesses where roles require a mix of technical, commercial, and leadership experience, often across regions.

Typical support includes:
 • Retained executive search
 • Talent mapping and competitor insight
 • Org structure and succession planning

If you're hiring and want a clearer view of the market before you start, you can get in touch here:

👉 https://www.lcrint.com/

Transcript

A move to Arizona

David Baxter 0:00

You know, it was February. I was living in Minnesota. It was very cold. And this company that is in the desert uh sent me a LinkedIn message asking if I might be interested in interviewing for a job. And I'm like, well, if nothing else, I'll get a couple days in the desert and it'll be warm and nice. And so they flew me down to Yuma. And during the interview process, they drove me out into the date groves and the fields, and I kind of fell in love with it. And so they offered me the uh product manager role at the time. And, you know, I took it. We packed up the family and we moved to Arizona.

Lucy Robinson 0:35

In this

Welcome to Behind the Fruit

Lucy Robinson 0:36

episode, David Baxter of Natural Delights talked about the winding road from facilities management to General Mills. What an MBA in Minnesota taught him about marketing, and why saying yes to opportunities helped him become CEO at the age of 40. Welcome to Behind the Fruit. Today I'm joined by David Baxter, CEO of Natural Delights. David, it's great to have you on the podcast. Thanks for joining me.

David Baxter 1:11

Yeah, thanks for having me here.

David Baxter and Natural Delights

Lucy Robinson 1:13

So to kick us off, it'd be great if you can just give us more of a quick introduction to both yourself and Natural Delights for anyone who may be not that familiar to the business.

David Baxter 1:22

Sure. So David Baxter, uh CEO of Natural Delights. I've uh been with the company for about um eight years now. Um and Natural Delights is the number one brand of Medjool dates in the US. Um and so we grow them all in Arizona, California, and Mexico. Um and that's kind of where we're our headquarters out. And we we sell the product all over the world as of today.

Lucy Robinson 1:46

Brilliant. Where tell me tell us a little bit more about then where you're exporting to at the moment.

David Baxter 1:51

Yeah, so we um our key export markets are um Southeast Asia, um, and then Australia, New Zealand, and then uh Japan and other Middle East countries, um, as well as Europe. Um, you know, there's a there's a lot of value of medjool Date that comes from the US just because of the uh microclimate that we have where it grows, it produces a product better than what they can grow over in the Middle East. It's a little bit more um higher quality.

Lucy Robinson 2:20

Why is that then? Why is it higher quality?

David Baxter 2:22

I think it's because of our access to water. So the the water Colorado River kind of runs through the Yuma area, which is kind of where our our main growing region is, which is the very southwest corner of Arizona. And so because of that water availability, you know, the the trees get as much as they need, which provides kind of a plumper, um uh more tender, um, softer date, versus in the Middle East, they tend to be very uh dry and hard. So not not quite as nice of an eating experience.

Lucy Robinson 2:54

Nice. No, I mean it makes sense, definitely. Um so before we get, we'll go we'll talk about more about the company, but before we do that, let's talk a little bit about you and your background because you haven't always been in produce. Obviously, you started um with a degree in engineering, you went into facilities management, an MBA, General Mills, and you know, there's been a few companies outside of produce before you eventually went into the produce industry. So, could you tell us a little bit more about that in terms of like where you grow up, um, your background, and what life looked like before you actually went into produce?

From engineering to marketing

David Baxter 3:34

Yeah, absolutely. So I I grew up in um Southeast Michigan, just outside of Detroit area. Um, you know, and and my parents were always in the business world. My dad was a CFO, and I my mom was a manager at uh the Detroit newspaper. So I was always around business in some sense. Um but from a young age I liked taking things apart and doing things, so it kind of got me into the engineering world. And so I went to um Western Michigan University and got a degree in engineering management, which is really um more aligned with industrial engineering, like how to run a manufacturing plant and stuff like that. Um and I I graduated in 2008 um during the Great Recession, and so there were not a lot of jobs in Michigan um around engineering at the time. And so I had actually had a couple of friends who moved out to California at the time, and I thought it'd be fun to go join them, and so I started looking for jobs, and that's how I ended up in the facilities management world. I found uh that job through a um a former alum from my degree who also went out there to do that job for a company called ABM uh facilities management, which was really cool because being in the Bay Area, I got to work at a lot of really cool tech companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, um, mainly Yahoo. And then I did some other work up and down the West Coast for like Starbucks and uh Jet Propulsion Labs at NASA.

Lucy Robinson 5:01

It's interesting.

David Baxter 5:02

Um so so that that little job of facilities management management, making sure all these buildings were clean, took me to some really interesting places um and and got to see how a lot of different companies um you know were structured and operated and stuff like that.

Lucy Robinson 5:17

Yeah. Especially also because facilities management doesn't always doesn't sound the most exciting, but as soon as you throw that in that you're going to, you know, working with all these big names, like you say, get to understand the organizations, then yeah, it must have been an amazing experience.

David Baxter 5:31

Yeah. And you know, a lot of them treated us just like we're part of their um staffing, part of their employees. So we got a lot of the same, you know, cool perks and stuff like that that they had out there, which was kind of cool.

Lucy Robinson 5:42

Cool.

David Baxter 5:42

Um, but you know, at the end of the day, facilities management was not the uh most glamorous job. You can only um walk into so many bathrooms to make sure they're clean until you're like, I wonder what's next um for me in my career. So um, you know, while I was out there, I happened to meet my wife while working at Yahoo, um, which, you know, usually when we tell people that, they think they're like, Yahoo had a dating site? Like, no, no, at their actual corporate campus is where we're where we met.

Lucy Robinson 6:07

Oh, nice.

David Baxter 6:08

Um, so um, you know, we ended up we got married, and and as we looked to what we wanted to do next, I wanted to go and get my MBA. And so had our sights on going back to the Midwest, um, uh where I'm originally from and where her parents were originally from, um, you know, uh Minnesota and Sioux Falls. And so I picked uh the University of Minnesota because they had a really good uh reputation for their part-time MBA program, and I knew I wanted an MBA, but I didn't want to go full-time because again, just got married, wanted to have some income and supporting, you know, a new family. And so um we moved. I started the MBA program, and then very shortly after that got a job at General Mills, um, starting off in their marketing program, which um was new to me. I had never really thought about marketing. And and the job that I had there in marketing was really, they called it their holistic margin management program, which was really um a cost savings program, but their approach to it was unique because it was it was always positioned as consumer first cost savings. Like, how can we take costs out of this without impacting the consumer experience? And so that was um, and that's why marketing ran it, because marketing was so much closer to the consumer, right? We as a marketer, you you know what the consumer values and what they don't, and and how to go and test for that. And so that's really how I got into the marketing um career path. You know, when I started my MBA program, I thought I would do finance again, CFO dad, you know, going down that route.

Lucy Robinson 7:40

Yeah.

David Baxter 7:41

And then General Mills very quickly changed my mind on going into marketing as I looked at that company and saw that, you know, the people actually running the company all came through the marketing discipline. You know, the CEO was a former marketer, um, the COO was a former marketer, and just realizing that marketing was more than advertising. Um, again, having an engineering degree, I didn't get a lot of the business in undergrad. So it was all kind of new to me. And and seeing that, I knew I always wanted to be in upper leadership. Um and so I that's kind of how I landed in the marketing role and spent about three years at General Mills uh mainly working on Yoplait. And then as I graduated my MBA program or was about wrapping up, you know, obviously those changes facilitate looking at other things outside. And while General Mills was great, um, opportunity at a company called Flagstone um opened itself to kind of advance my career a little bit. And so I moved over to Flagstone, which um they focused on trail mix and snack bars and snack nuts and stuff like that. And it was mainly private label, which was um which was very new to me. Um you know, going from big general mills brand to private label was kind of a culture change just on how you work with retailers, how you work with your sales team, and it's very much driven by the retailer instead of driven by the company to the consumer. Um, so it was kind of good to get that that well-rounded both sides of you know, branded as well as private label.

Lucy Robinson 9:13

Would you say it's more complex in that respect than in private label, more driven by the retailers?

David Baxter 9:18

Yeah, I think it is more complex because you know you're at the mercy of a retailer and their bid schedule. Um, so you know, you could be working you could be selling Costco um, you know, their number one stack nut brand or product, and it's a private label item, and they could switch vendors, and from a consumer standpoint, nobody notices because it's the same label branding, but all of a sudden you have this gap in your business, right? That is hard to fill with somebody like a Costco. Oh so there's it's it's a little bit more risky to go all private label, um, which ultimately led me to the next move over to Bellisio Foods. I really wanted to get back into a branded um a branded offering. And so I went over to Bellisio Foods and their main brands were uh Michelina's Frozen Foods and Boston Market and some other branded items. Um, and so I landed there. I wasn't there very long until um, you know, it was February. I was living in Minnesota, it was very cold, and this company that is in the desert uh sent me a LinkedIn message asking if I might be interested in interviewing for a job. And I'm like, well, if nothing else, I'll get a couple days in the desert and it'll be warm and nice. And um, so they they flew me down. So they flew me down to Yuma. And during the interview process, they drove me out into the the date groves and the fields and uh, you know, talking about how they were the number one brand in their category and and growing significantly um and doing a lot of exciting things. And I kind of I kind of fell in love with it. And so they offered me the uh product manager role at the time. And you know, I took it. We packed up the family and we moved to Arizona. And I've been um working for them ever since. I think that was in 2018. Um, but luckily the one good thing for me that came out of COVID was um, you know, we all went remote and I was able to relocate back to Michigan um with the family, and now we get to live near family and friends again while I get to keep the job that I really like. So that's kind of uh the high-level background.

Lucy Robinson 11:24

So you said that obviously you got the opportunity to get to go and interview, it's in the desert, you went and fell in love with it. I mean, what was it about it at that time that really drew you in?

David Baxter 11:35

Yeah, I think it's just seeing the the care that the company had for the growers themselves and how closely we got to work with the growers and you know, working for a product that is essentially coming off the trees, getting sorted, and going into a package, and there's no processing, there's no um formulation, there's no additives. There it's just a very healthy, natural product, and I could get behind that because it's something that I value. Um, and so I I really thought of it like if I'm gonna work and market a product, working on one that you know I enjoy as well as can see the value in for consumers makes it that much easier. Um, you know, it's not a requirement to market a product that you love, but it certainly helps.

Lucy Robinson 12:22

I suppose

David’s route to the CEO role

Lucy Robinson 12:23

it'd be very interesting for people that are listing, particularly that have a marketing background, to know that there, you know, there is that possibility to go through uh into eventually a CEO or similar position. So talk to us about um how your role has progressed within the business to the CEO position.

David Baxter 12:41

Yeah. Excellent. Uh yeah. Like I said, I started as a product manager, um, and about four months after joining the company, they kind of went through a a small reorganization. They put new leadership um in charge in in um in the CEO role of the company. Um, and as part of that, they moved me into a brand manager role to kind of take a more of a leadership over all of the marketing program. Um, and so I did that for a couple of years. Um and then really that evolved into becoming the uh director of marketing. Um, so so really owning the whole program. And then from there I started to get more ingrained with the sales team and understanding their sales process and starting to work very closely on how I can make the sales team marketers and how can I make marketers salespeople because they're so intertwined, they need to know each other's jobs and to know how they can support each other. Um, and so that kind of moved me into the um business development role where I was really working closely with the sales team while still leading the marketing team, um, and and making sure that everything that we were putting out in terms of innovation, merchandising, brand support all would have a cohesive kind of look and feel and and value to the retail partners. Um, and then um our VP of sales and marketing retired at the end of our last season. Um, so that would have been August of 2025. And so with him retiring, he had been kind of grooming me to move up and and take over his role. So I did that for a while. Um, and so I was kind of the number two in the company, right behind the CEO at the time. Um, and then that CEO decided to leave as well. And so he moved over to actually went with one of our competitors. So we still worked together on a different basis, but he's still the you know around. Um, but then you know, the growers kind of selected me to run the company because I kind of had the longest tenure, the most experience, and they knew me well. Um, and so they gave me the opportunity to kind of step into the CEO role, and I've been doing that for um almost six months now, which is that's gone by very fast.

Lucy Robinson 15:03

Yeah, I can imagine. So still, I suppose you still do you feel like it is still, I won't say new, but are you still learning, still finding your feet, etc.?

David Baxter 15:11

Yeah,

Leading Natural Delights through change

David Baxter 15:12

you know, it's um it's been different than any previous CEO because I have the up challenge, let's say, of kind of redirecting the company. Um, so one of our larger growers happened to leave to go and kind of start their own brand and do their own thing. And so because of that, because we are a co-op of growers, you know, we are our job is to sell and market the fruit that we have. So we're not buying fruit off of you know any external growers or mark markets, you know, foreign markets or anything like that. So we we only have access to what we grow, and so our volume um took a significant hit. So it took some real um quick and decisive action on on how to reposition the company to um the new reality of what our volume was going to be. But that happened just as you stepped into CEO role around the time or yeah, so it's it's been um kind of in the background for a little while now, but I think with the CEO leaving, um the former CEO leaving and and moving over with that that growing group, it became more of a urgency um to act now. Um I think we had been moving a little bit slow before that, so I was happy to be in the role that I could, you know, impact that and and make us go faster and and redirect it. And and now as we're heading into our new season here in August, which is when our new year starts, um, I feel pretty confident in our team and and our customer base and very well aligned with with what we're growing and what we have access to to what we'll be able to sell. And so, you know, being able to move very quickly at the beginning, um, right as I stepped into the role was very helpful instead of like if things were to draw out longer, then we might miss something, or customers might not be as confident, or you know, um there'd be other roadblocks ahead of us. Because at the end of the day, um, to keep the customers that we could keep, the the goal really was to make them comfortable and make sure they know that we're gonna continue to grow. This is a a setback for sure, but it won't impact anything on how we operate with our customer base. We're still gonna promote, we're still gonna lead the marketing charge, we're still gonna have volume to serve you this year and for years to come and continue to help you grow. Um, and so it's been it's been fun to kind of get in front of all these customers and go through all that.

Lucy Robinson 17:37

What would you say have been the biggest sort of learnings, I guess, of stepping into the role, what are the areas you've you've had to really uh focus on that have been maybe quite a big transition or even a challenge, would you say?

David Baxter 17:51

Yeah, so I think the the biggest thing for me as is formerly being over just sales and marketing, right? And now stepping into this role that oversees everything. You know, I worked with the finance teams and customer service and logistics and planning ops, but I was never overseeing them. So really learning everybody's job and what they're doing and what they need to be supported so that they can be the best at their job and uh is is been a little bit of a a challenge because you know, I I went from like four direct reports till 18 essentially, um, because that's how many people are in the company. Um, and so that that was probably one of the biggest like eye-opening things for me was was was learning learning all that. And then, you know, I I knew our growers, um, but it was on a less formal basis. And so then being the main contact for our growers and and that community as well has been, I wouldn't say a challenge, but uh a learning curve and and just learning all their personalities and what do they value and and what strategic direction do they want to take the company? Because at the end of the day, it as a co-op, it is their company, and I'm here to serve them and and make sure that I'm helping them achieve whatever goals that they have through through our through our sales and marketing programs.

Preparing for executive leadership

Lucy Robinson 19:09

We do have quite a lot of conversations around people that are looking to step into a CE CEO position and maybe they've come from a finance back background or commercial, for example, and they're always looking on how they can expand their skill set to eventually step into the CEO role because a lot of companies do want people that have overseen or functions, which obviously you know makes sense. So I suppose with you coming in as CEO and having your background has been sales and marketing, is there anything you could have done differently in the past in hindsight to help you develop that knowledge? Or do you think it's one of those that you just have to learn as it as it comes, I guess?

David Baxter 19:45

Yeah, I think um one of the things that I always point to is, you know, when people ask me, how how did I get here? How'd you do it? You know, 40 years old, CEO. Um I never said no to a lot of opportunities to do something, even if it was outside of my my job purview or whatever. I I was more than willing to learn, um, even if it was just to support in a minor role, um, and always had my eyes and ears open as to what was going on. Um, so while it was a challenge to to manage these new roles at the CEO level, it's not that I wasn't aware of what they were doing or how they were doing it. It's more of the details that I got more familiar with in this role now. Um so I think just being open to doing things that are outside of your your skill set and to create that more well-rounded um overall business, um, accoutrement and and and ownership and and all of that is you know what gets people's attention and you know, being present and people see you and you know, they recognize that um you're offering more than than just your specific kind of job.

Lucy Robinson 20:57

Nice. And obviously we talked earlier how um produce business recognized you as so it was in their 40 under 40 class in 2022, I think it was, is that right?

David Baxter 21:08

Yeah, yes.

Growing the Medjool date category

Lucy Robinson 21:09

Yeah, so just three years uh into your time. So what had you achieved by that point, would you say, that you were most proud of?

David Baxter 21:20

Yeah, I think it was um kind of continuing to accelerate the growth that we had already been experiencing. Um so you know, medjool dates were a very, very niche um product when I started. Um my first experience with a medjool Date was actually in the Middle East. I went to um Abu Dhabi in Dubai as my MBA program study abroad portion. So I spent a month in the Middle East. That was the first time I had ever had a date.

Lucy Robinson 21:44

Nice.

David Baxter 21:45

Um kind of fun to well, you know, kind of connect those dots.

Lucy Robinson 21:50

Yeah.

David Baxter 21:50

Um, but you know, in terms of what I achieved is well, a few things. One, I internalized our marketing program. So we used to work a lot with. with agencies and um I very quickly um realize that there's a lot of not necessarily money waste I think agencies are worth it but you get less um ownership coming from an agency you know they've got their block of time that they're going to work on your business and then they do whatever work is on their desk and then they got to move to another client, right? When you internalize things and you have those dedicated staff I think there's a little bit more ownership and and loyalty and enthusiasm behind the brand that I think has led us to really accelerate our marketing program and and has helped facilitate a lot of the growth in the category. You know, from when I started to now the amount of consumers in the US eating dates has close uh actually more than doubled in terms of consumer penetration. It was around 6% now or north of 12. So seeing all of those things happen and being able to point to some of the work that we've done um in terms of the marketing and and sales efforts as as the emphasis behind what caused that I think is what um ultimately got recognized and why I was selected uh for that that class what did cause that then why what was the reason for that increase in consumption? Um really I think it's a lot of the marketing efforts we do um you know we before I took over the marketing program um the former person was uh strategy was very niche marketing um the product as kind of a um a sports superfood and and how to fuel athletes and and while that's all true I think it was a little too narrow of a focus so we kind of we we step back and said how do we how do we focus on a broader population and what value is this product bringing to um the everyday consumer who might have aspirations to be a super athlete but at the end of the day they're you know maybe taking a 30 minute walk or going for a you know two mile run or something like that. They're not you know running marathons or doing all of that. And so being able to focus on on the everyday usage occasions so people um become more familiar with the product and and understand what is the value um of it. And I think one of the big things is dates have a lot of sugar but being able to educate consumers that while dates do have a lot of sugar they also have a lot of fiber. And when you pair those two things it's it's it's kind of like a superpower because instead of the sugar spike and crash you get this long sustained energy burn that the fiber um produces when combined with the sugar. So being able to educate consumers on a lot of that and then working with um influencers and RD, um registered dietitians um and and media people to get the product out in front of people more so and on morning TV shows and and online you know creating a ton of recipes and digital content for social media um and just trying to do all of that. And then we were very beneficial that in the last few years there's been a lot of like viral trends aligned along dates in terms of you know for a while there was the date Snickers which is basically a date stuffed with peanut butter and chocolate chips and then there was date bark um which was smashed dates coated in chocolate and stuff like that. And so I think the more that we got dates out into the world people started experimenting more with them becoming more familiar with them. They were less um less scared of them you know they can be a little bit intimidating from a visual aspect a lot of people you know um have that but but understanding that all right I'm just gonna try this and and see if it's something that I like even though it might look a little strange right now.

Lucy Robinson 25:41

Yeah do you know and now you've mentioned it yes I have seen a lot on social media the health yeah content creators I guess sharing various versions of yeah date based desserts or whatever it might be for for health reasons but I do know there are a lot of people that are scared of dates so it's nice that you're able to change that through through your marketing definitely. Going back to what you were saying before about the um bringing your marketing in-house how were you able to do that? Were you for example did you have to hire in for different skill sets to be able to do that or did you already have that within the business?

David Baxter 26:18

Yeah we had to we had to definitely bring in some people and so we we hired two people we hired one to focus on the consumer side and one person to to focus on the trade side and really um it was it was a cost justification at the time you pay an agency X number of dollars to hire these two people would be X number of dollars and the night and day savings um is is very clear when you just put it on paper and look at it very logically like that. And then you've got a full-time staff person. So you're not only saving money you're ultimately getting again that loyalty that that focus that energy that is behind the brand 100% of the time of their working time right um so there was a lot of cost benefit review and and ultimately doing that was very successful. We do still work with a PR agency just because we can't hire for for every skill set within the marketing but I I hired kind of the general marketers who could go out and work with an ad agency to place ads or work with a PR agency you know to to run the PR programs. And so it's not that we completely got away from agencies we just got away from kind of that core agency that would then go out and do those things on our behalf.

Lucy Robinson 27:33

And

Hiring for a small, adaptable team

Lucy Robinson 27:34

when you hire within the marketing team or at that time do you typically look for people with produce experience or just branded experience or is there anything particular that tends to work?

David Baxter 27:45

Yeah I think for me in hiring um I'm not necessarily looking for produce experience. I'm looking for culture fit first and do they fit within the team? Do they have a similar way of working? Are they gonna you know mesh well with the rest of the team because being in a small company um you know we wear a lot of different hats we do a lot of different things and sometimes we need to step into areas that aren't our role and so it would be hard to hire somebody in who's like all right I am doing this one job and I'm gonna stay in my lane and I don't want to get out of it. That's that's kind of what we need first at a company like this. And then look for the very tactical can they do the job after that right do they have the skills the the leadership the cross functional management necessary to um continue to grow and develop this this program to where we want it to ultimately go so that could come from anywhere. That could come from outside of food inside of food it can come from produce um so where they come from isn't necessarily the um the important factor in making a hiring decision.

Lucy Robinson 28:58

How do you assess somebody for culture fit? Is there anything in specific you do or is it just something that you get a sense you know during the interview process?

David Baxter 29:06

Yeah I mean there's there's a few questions um that I like to throw at people um and one is you know if you know we're experiencing a crisis and and it's all hands on deck like how comfortable are you jumping into areas that are outside of your purview? Like you know how would you handle the situation where X, Y, and Z is needed and stuff like that. But at the end of the day I trust my gut quite a lot. And so if I get that that good feeling about somebody and and and what they're saying and I leave the conversation feeling like man I'd I'd love to I wish that could have gone on longer um you know is is kind of what I look to to kind of ultimately make the decision as well as feedback from from the rest of the team who's interviewing these people as well.

Lucy Robinson 29:51

So just

Grower relationships and future growth

Lucy Robinson 29:52

that natural connection I guess just naturally being able to get on with somebody if it's difficult then it's it's not going to be right essentially so um we're gonna I want to talk again about the growers that you mentioned previously um because I know Natural Delights has recently welcomed a new growing partner um through the Naturally Grown Growers Association. So what does that kind of grower relationship mean for the brand and why does it matter how the fruit gets to market?

David Baxter 30:19

Yeah so first of all bringing is really helped us shore up our volume for the next year. So they'll bring in around 2 million pounds for us um which is great but they bring in so much more than that um just because they are a Mexican grower and they're very well connected down in Mexico where kind of our our third growing region if you consider kind of Coachella, Yuma and Mexico as the three regions that grow medjool dates. And so their connections to a lot of the other growers down there could lead to future opportunities to continue to bring in new growers to the association, which um ultimately is my biggest charge is how do we continue to to get more growers in, get volume back and grow. But they also are bringing in um some really world-class uh production facilities and operations where they'll be able to support us in terms of um all of the operational steps as well. And so they can you know grade and sort for us they'll be able to pack and and process and do other um operations on that side of it as well that will help us kind of manage demand and and be able to react to um our seasonality um better which dates are a very seasonal item. You know we have the the holidays and then Ramadan are kind of our two big seasons. So we'll actually see it here in August September the volume starts ramping up for the holidays and stuff like that. But anyways um so it's very important to to bring in growers like that um and they can add a lot of value to us um through everything that they can offer as well as just you know industry experience. One thing that people will say about me is you know I I listen well and I take feedback well and and direction. And so bringing in somebody with other experience my ears are always open like how would you approach this? How would you do this? What do you think we should do here? And so just being able to have another um grower to bounce ideas off of and talk through strategies and stuff like that is is very helpful.

Lucy Robinson 32:18

Nice. And um we've talked obviously a lot about the growth of just dates in the US in in general but what do you think the future holds for the Natural Delights brand? Do you see that momentum continuing?

David Baxter 32:33

Yeah um so I said in five years we've kind of doubled the category and as of I want to say the end of 2025 um dates were actually the largest um segment of the dried fruit category which we overtook raisins last year I think was the former number one pretty cool um which is is very cool. So I I definitely see that momentum continuing um especially in the US where there's again 12% penetration means um 78% of people or 88% of people aren't eating it. So you know we there's still a huge runway to continue to grow and um you know with the grower who left they'll be they'll be adding to that too and you know they're gonna be doing their own marketing program and I think the more that all of us can can can market and continue to get consumers more aware of the product you know rising tides lift all boats kind of thing right so while while they're competition I'm not afraid of the competition I think I welcome it and and I hope we can all you know work together to continue to grow this thing. But for the Natural Delights brand itself um I don't see us losing our our number one spot anytime soon in the US as the number one brand and you know we're gonna continue to do everything that we can from from our side to make sure that um we just we serve our retailers and and we treat our employees well and that we continue to market to consumers. And I think those three things done um in coordination will will just help us kind of continue to grow and maintain the the trend that we've been on.

Lucy Robinson 34:03

Do you see are there any other markets in the world that are again growing in terms of their date consumption?

David Baxter 34:11

Yeah so Japan is very up and coming um in in terms of a market. There's some of the markets that we sell to are actually a lot more mature than we are in the US like um Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia and other Muslim facing or Muslim primarily Muslim cultures but with Japan we kind of introduced dates there um at least in terms of a a true branded presence um through uh Costco Japan to start and then we built that into working with some other other growers and then we work with a um we work with a a commodity board on international growth and and the Japanese market was one we identified that was um had significant growth opportunity um prunes were actually kind of the best number one dried fruit over there and and now dates are taking a lot of the share away from prunes as we've continued to grow there. So it's been very exciting to kind of see us um not just sell more product but really impact a culture and and how they're interacting with with fruits and dried fruits in general and um trying something new.

Lucy Robinson 35:20

Yeah interesting I wonder how they're doing in the UK market because I don't know many people that eat dates I know a few but not not that many.

David Baxter 35:27

So yeah they do decent I think we sell that let's say Tesco right yeah um but it's an in a in a private label um offering they don't they don't they're less branded over there.

Bringing outside experience into produce

Lucy Robinson 35:39

Of course yeah yeah it's quite different so okay and I want to talk again from um so you obviously came from outside of produce moved into the produce industry and obviously that's worked out for you and I know companies you know don't always want to hire from outside of the industry but you know what are your thoughts about bringing in talent from other industries do you think that companies you know are getting it wrong at all or do you think it is just it is just super challenging for people? Yeah what's your view on that?

David Baxter 36:08

Um I think it's I think it's valuable because we learn different things in different industries right if if we only hired produce people I think all of the produce brands that are now kind of starting to grow would still be very commoditized. And I think that's what I brought to Natural Delights is I came in and said I want to make this a CP uh consumer package goods brand not a produce brand right because a CPG brand is one that's more focused on uh consumer communication and growing the brand and ensuring quality and and things like that um versus I think traditionally maybe 15 20 years ago in produce it was like how can I just sell my crop and get it out of the door and and move it and um you know especially with things like um tomatoes or you know shorter shelf life items where I mean salespeople there they're they've got phones glued to their ear trying to move truckloads of product at a time we have the very unique benefit of having a long shelf life um so we don't have to necessarily play that you know we need every truck out of here within seven days kind of thing. And so that gives us the time to be a little bit more strategic and be a little bit more brand forward. And I think if if they had hired somebody that would just coming from say a tomato produce company, they might not necessarily have that same view of let's build the brand and and make sure consumers are valuing the brand and not just the product.

Lucy Robinson 37:37

What do you think is the most challenging part though of moving somebody from outside the industry into produce what are the main areas that are more challenging for them to learn?

David Baxter 37:46

I think the sales process um because in a lot of at least in my experience in um the larger companies like General Mills it was it was very marketing driven and then sales executed um being in a produce company is is kind of the opposite almost where um the sales it's very sales driven and and there's the value is is really the sales relationships with retail and then marketing is there to support the sales versus sales is there to support the marketing. So you know we work to we work very closely with our sales team to understand all right what is our our retailers goals and objectives um in terms of growth are they are they dollar growth based are they unit growth and and how do we work very closely with them to execute marketing programs specific to them versus like the larger um consumer general marketing is is less impactful versus you know especially with a niche product um working at at shelf and backwards um in terms of marketing is really kind of how we approach it.

Lucy Robinson 38:55

Have you um seen anybody move in within the sales capacity sales commercial again from outside of the industry and moving straight into produce and it's and it's work.

David Baxter 39:04

I have not not with sales um with sales I'm sure it's happened but I haven't seen it and I haven't had that conversation with anybody but I have had um people on my marketing team when I was um the director of marketing move over to sales and so she came from a outside I think she was at a pet food company and then we hired her to run trade marketing and so she went pet food to produce marketing to produce sales and so that's kind of a a roundabout way but I I that one would be challenging just because sales is still so relationship driven in produce that if you're gonna hire a salesperson you want somebody that actually has contacts and knows the buyers knows the brokers and knows who to talk to um and so that's a little different than on the marketing side where those contacts aren't necessarily as important but if you know how to tell a good story and how to translate that story into something a salesperson can use for a retailer then you know that can come from anywhere I think.

Lucy Robinson 40:02

Yeah I mean we I mean I've definitely seen it it's not something that we've hired for and I totally understand in terms of coming into a sales role like you say if you haven't got the relationships you don't know the product and you don't fully understand the supply chain then it's gonna be it's gonna be tough anyway unless you come in at a very junior level it's gonna be very tough. Yeah I just wondered if you've seen it but um but yeah I think it does happen but it's definitely rare in my experience. So when you stepped into the CEO role at the beginning of this year um how was that in terms of you know your relationship with the team um you know being maybe a peer to then obviously stepping up uh into that position how did you find that?

David Baxter 40:42

Yeah small team so um pretty good relationship with everybody even before this um I think the a little bit of the change was more of um now instead of a colleague I'm essentially their boss which is you know obviously a different relationship but um you know we were just down in in South Carolina last week celebrating one of our employees who's retiring and you know at one of the dinners you know I made the comment of you know we we are all friends who just happen to work together. And so there's not there's not this um emphasis on hierarchy and and whatnot like anybody on the team from the most junior person to the most senior can call me and have a conversation and they all feel um very welcome in that and there's no like nerves around it. I know like if I were still at General Mills I can't just call up the CEO and be like hey I've got this problem or this question or need this resource or whatever. So my door is always open with this team and and that's ultimately why I think I've been here so long is I really value the size of the company. The being a smaller company and and having worked from the 17 billion down to you know where we are today is is just a lot more rewarding to see um see everything that happens and and how I can impact you know people's careers and lives and um you know we get to be friends.

Sustainability and organic production

Lucy Robinson 42:06

Yeah no it's nice. I'm glad that it wasn't too challenging because I guess other people might have experienced that you know stepping up can be challenging at times but it sounds like you've got a great yeah relationship with them. So that was being managed really well. Let's talk about sustainability because I know the get the date category has a real sustainability story. Can you tell us a bit more about why that is and then whether that resonates with today's consumer

David Baxter 42:32

yeah yeah so I mean dates just by the way that they are grown and and all the growing practices is is you know we don't really have to go out of our way to be sustainable which is really nice. And so like things like tree trimmings and all the work that we do, there's always a use for it. Like we can grind tree trimmings back into the ground which helps you know build up the carbon content as things decompose and whatnot. So that's sustainable. We do a lot of um drip irrigation but we also still do um flood irrigation which is essentially you open up a hydrant and flood a field and then the water kind of soaks into the ground but that is actually um you know people might see it as waste but when you only have to do that you know two or three times throughout the harvest season versus drip having you know kind of almost always on type thing um you know both of them have their benefits and it really comes down to the soil content on which one works better for for which kind of soil. So there's there's a lot of sustainability there. In our product in innovation we try to find ways to use what we can't sell as like a premium in package date to make other products like date rolls. So we're always trying to think of ways how can we use the um I we'll call them the seconds the of the date harvest and and continue to make make products out of that so that we're not just either sitting on it or throwing it away. Um And and so there's a lot of that. And so I I think consumers really um they they like to know that a company is being sustainable. I don't know that they like to get in, at least not broadly get into the details, um, because everybody's got focuses everywhere else in their life. Like who's got time to study? Why are dates sustainable?

Lucy Robinson 44:19

Yeah.

David Baxter 44:20

Um, but but knowing that it's part of our story and and part of of just naturally how we grow. Um, you know, and and then a few years ago, we we converted all of most of our farms to organic. And really, we didn't really change much in terms of practices. It was more of filling out the paperwork that we had to for the USDA for a few years, um, just to make sure that we had that record of consistency and and whatnot. And, you know, that was not a very challenging process for us. So for a lot of others, where growing organic means, you know, you have to change fertilizers or you can't use pesticides anymore is is a lot more challenging because we for those groups, because we just don't have a lot of those headaches that they have in terms of infestation and and whatnot.

Lucy Robinson 45:08

Would you say the organic label then has helped with the growth and the the additional consumption for the product?

David Baxter 45:16

Yeah, absolutely. I think as as we as we converted on the farming side to more organic, on the sales side, obviously we started selling and um pushing more organic product and and really telling the story on why organics was growing. And we've seen um, I want to say triple-digit growth on our organic side at US retail over the past couple of years. Nice. Um and and really kind of helped transition the whole category to a more organic focus, um, which has been really cool to see that, you know, when we've been challenged with selling more organic, we met the challenge and we've been very successful at it.

Lucy Robinson 45:52

And you mentioned about using the um any waste product to create other products. So can you give me examples of what you have or potentially could do with that?

David Baxter 46:01

Yeah, so we we make a product that we call Mini medjools, which is basically um ground-up dates, um, date paste rolled in coconut, or we do a cacao pecan one that has cacao and and uh is rolled in pecan pieces. So those are our two main ones. We've done some innovation over the years that hasn't stuck. Like we had a um chopped chocolate covered date, which you know, people who have had it still come to me and like, do you have any of that? Are you still selling it? We want it, it was so good. Um, but ultimately at retail, it didn't do great in the produce set. Um and so I think there was opportunities there where we could have done things differently. And then we did uh we did a partnership with Tajin, um, I want to say uh about two years ago, and we had a Tajin season date slice, which again was really good. And it did pretty well in certain markets, but at the end of the day, um it wasn't performing well enough to keep it around. But so we're always trying to think of innovation and and new items that we can go to market with. And I think in the next year we'll we'll probably have a few more come out that will probably be more closely related to our date rolls since those do well. We'll probably come up with some new flavors of that um and be able to continue to use up all of those uh those seconds.

Making dates more social

Lucy Robinson 47:22

You've you've talked a lot about wanting to make dates more fun and accessible, so not just positioning them as a health food. Where do you think produce marketing as a whole gets that wrong? Or what could they do differently? What does good actually look like?

David Baxter 47:37

Yeah, so I I think, you know, while we value and and do focus on the healthy aspects of it, I think um one of the things that I learned at General Mills, there is um one of the, I want to say consumer insights leaders who used to do this this thing called the um the potluck throwdown, right? And and it's like, how do you think of your consumer going to a potluck, taking a dish, using your product, and and kind of winning the cook-off, so to say, and like having the favorite dish and the pride that comes along with that. You know, being a Midwesterner, um, cookouts and potlucks are you know part of our culture. And so that that kind of resonated with me. And so how do we make it more fun? Is you know, how do we get people to take dates and create, give them recipe inspiration where they can then take that to, you know, a gathering or a cookout and have people just rave about it and like, oh my gosh, you got to bring that every time now. You know, when I go, I take um, I take dates stuffed with uh a spicy cream cheese on a jalapeno wrapped in bacon and I I smoke them. And every time I go anywhere now, people require me to bring that with me.

Lucy Robinson 48:45

Sounds amazing.

David Baxter 48:46

Because it is it is so good. And so I think that's how you make it more fun. You make it more social, you make it more engaging, you make it a part of the conversation.

Lucy Robinson 48:54

And it's different, isn't it? You know, if I had someone that brought, like you say, something similar to that every time they came around, I mean, yeah, you're gonna remember them, you're gonna want them to come more often.

David Baxter 49:04

Yeah, you're gonna want to make it yourself too, you know.

Lucy Robinson 49:07

Yeah, exactly.

David Baxter 49:08

Yeah.

Asking for a seat at the table

Lucy Robinson 49:09

Um, so for someone um in produce marketing or even sales, for example, who wants to move into a more strategic or leadership role, what advice would you give? So is there one thing that they could do that could accelerate their journey?

David Baxter 49:27

Yeah, I think um, you know, it's primarily I think you gotta ask for your seat at the table, really. You gotta ask to be involved in the leadership meetings. Um, but again, you can't just ask and expect to be there. You gotta bring value too. You gotta like, okay, you want to come to this meeting, why? What are you gonna do? What what value? Like, even like, hey, can I take notes in that meeting? Can I can I be this, can I be the secretary? Can I help, you know, manage the follow-ups or do the things just so I can get exposure and experience um at you know either the executive leadership level or even the board level, depending on where you're at in your organization, and just be willing to add value and take something off of their plate, because we're all you know chasing cats and trying to herd them all and got so many things on our plate that if somebody came along and said, hey, I'd really like to do that for you, as long as I can, you know, be a part of this and just to get some exposure. Um, because the more you're seen and the more value you add is is gonna ultimately what gets you kind of recognized and um where people are gonna see you.

Lucy Robinson 50:29

Was there something that you did in your past similar to that that again helps you accelerate your career?

David Baxter 50:35

Yeah, absolutely. Um, like I said, I I went, I didn't just not say no to a lot of opportunities. I went and looked for opportunities and you know, I you know, can I go to the grower meeting this time? Can I present the marketing plan at the grower meeting? Can I, you know, do this? Can I do that? Um and I think a lot of that is what got my name out there with in this group and and kind of what um ultimately how I was continued to move up was continuing to add value at every every step and adding value beyond your role is ultimately how you get promoted, right? You gotta kind of do the job you want before you're hired to do the job.

Lucy Robinson 51:10

Absolutely.

David Baxter 51:10

Um is is kind of the old adage. And so that's kind of how I've approached things here.

Lucy Robinson 51:16

And not just sit back and wait for it to happen, go out and what you're adding value, ask and make that ambition.

David Baxter 51:25

And I think the other part of it is is being willing to celebrate your successes. This is probably my biggest challenge of, you know, um, I had a former VP when I was very young in my career, he's like, look, nobody else is gonna pat you on the back, so you got to do it for yourself. Um, so while you might be adding a lot of value and doing a lot of things, like people are busy, they might not always see it. So in your one-on-ones or your annual reviews, you got to make sure that you're able to articulate, you know, what did you do and and what was the value that you brought, and how did you potentially go above and beyond your role, and and then um being able to ask um in those meetings for you know, what do I need to do to get to that next level? Kind of stuff like that.

Connecting with David

Lucy Robinson 52:07

Great. No good advice, thank you. Well, I think that's everything for today. So yeah, thank you so much. It's genuinely been a great conversation. So if people want to reach out, if they want to, you know, follow uh natural delights, are you happy for them to either connect with you on LinkedIn or message you personally?

David Baxter 52:26

Yeah, absolutely. Um, people can find me on LinkedIn, um, again, David Baxter, and then you can follow uh our Natural Delights brands on social, is um at NDmedjoolDates if you're interested in in following along the journey as we continue on.

Lucy Robinson 52:42

Perfect. Well, thanks again for joining me on Behind the Fruit.

David Baxter 52:45

All right, thank you. It's been a great conversation.

Lucy Robinson 52:51

Thanks for listening to Behind the Fruit, a podcast by LCR International. We are global experts in fresh produce executive search. Hit subscribe if you enjoyed this episode. And for more industry insights, connect with us on LinkedIn.