Jim Kras Podcast Transcript
Jim Kras joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, Home of The Digital Executive Podcast.
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Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Jim Kras. Jim Kras is the co-founder of Edible Garden and has served as Chief Executive Officer and director since March, 2020.
He led the company successful IPO on Nasdaq and brings decades of experience in consumer products and brand development. Previously, Jim was president and chief marketing officer of Edible Garden Corporation from 2016 to 2020. He has held senior leadership roles at global companies, including a Genoma, the Nature’s Bounty Company, where he revitalized brands like MedRX, pure Protein and Body Fortress.
Well, good afternoon, Jim. Welcome to the show.
Jim Kras: Thanks for having me.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely, my friend. I appreciate it. And making the time and calendars hopping that time zone today. You’re based outta New Jersey. I’m in Kansas City. So again, appreciate the time. And Jim, if you don’t mind jumping into your first question.
You’ve had a diverse career spanning Madison Avenue advertising global consumer brands, and now leading Edible Garden as CEO. What key experiences shaped your journey to where you are today?
Jim Kras: Well, it’s really starting in advertising and understanding the importance of, who you’re speaking to and make sure that you have relevancy.
Or at least in, in advertising, make the case for relevancy to the consumer. I think that’s really helped me be able to break down what Edible Garden is doing, the importance and how it is relevant. The importance of, food safety, quality controlled environment, agriculture ca as they call it.
And how this is gonna be how we feed people in the future and how we fit in both on how we work as a grower picker packer for major retailers like, me and Walmart and so on, as well as the consumer brands that we are, we’re building that are functional in nature and better for you.
And how we harness and communicate, what we do in the greenhouse to, like I said, once again, make it relevant for people. So they wanna buy it and it makes sense for them in their life.
Brian Thomas: Awesome. And I appreciate you talking about relevancy that is so important.
That message needs to resonate with your particular audience or consumer, whoever that is. You talked about an advertising. Just totally need to understand who you’re speaking to, especially in your space. It’s important. Food safety, quality tracking, pricing, all that stuff is important part of what you’re doing in your messaging so people are informed and understand what they’re buying.
Jim, Edible Garden operates as a next generation farming company with zero waste inspired mission. What problem in traditional agriculture were you most determined to solve?
Jim Kras: We were looking to solve really the issue of, two things. One, being able to deliver a product on spec with the consistency and freshness and quality that not only the retailer expects, but consumers expect.
So, really said this before, treating it like it’s more of a widget. Understanding the perishability aspect of it. Again, bringing it to market consistently. Where a lot of our, not only traditional advertising, but I mean, I’m sorry, traditional farms. Some of our competitors, where they’ve fallen down is, is the fact that, we’re shipping six days a week.
We have a joke around the office, we call it, an eight week a day business. I’m sorry, eight, eight day a week business. And that’s because it never stops. And I think that’s where, we understood the importance of fill rates. Making sure that we are, we are in time on full on spec.
I mean, I’m very proud of the fact that the company has maintained an over 98% ship rate over the last few years, which has driven a lot of opportunity for us with new customers because they want that consistency. If there isn’t a product available it’s hard to get a sale. And that’s, every, every square inch of that space in the store means money to the retailer.
So I think we’ve, we’ve been able to solve some of those problems that because of the nature of traditional farming, which a lot of it is based on crops, and you have crop failure and buyers tend to buy and spot you know exactly what you’re getting when the edible garden truck shows up.
And I think that’s really helped differentiate us. So we really solve that, that some of those supply chain concerns by, by, having a, a facilities that are. That are, only a few, few in most cases, a few hours at the most from the actual store the distribution center for, for these major players.
And that’s allowed us to, like I said, just kind of stand out from everybody else that, you can count on us.
Brian Thomas: Awesome. Thank you. I appreciate that. You’re looking to solve really those supply chain challenges, and we all know what they can be across the spectrum, but especially in produce and that sort of thing where timeliness and, and freshness is important, your message has been clear.
And that’s why people understand your brand deli delivering the product on spec, consistency, quality on time. What is expected by the consumer, and because of the consistency you’re a brand that people can trust in. And that’s amazing. So, thank you. And Jim, with increasing concerns around food safety and supply chain resilience, how is Edible Garden helping redefine trust and transparency and how food is grown and delivered?
Jim Kras: We have we, we’ve invested, as much as we’re. A greenhouse, a patrolled environment a farming company. We’re really, we’re at a core, we’re really a technology company, a leader in, in Ag tech with, we’ve got, we’ve got seven patents as a company. We have customized patented software that help us, helps us manage and track our plants and our goods through our supply chain.
Once again, efficiency, traceability being able, you can, you have, transparency into the business all the way the, all the way through the journey. And so, one of the things that our business quite, our business tripled during the pandemic. Because of the fact that we were such a solid provider and we, and people knew that there was, safety with the product.
There was, obviously, security with the product, you understood that it was free of contaminants. We. There’s been quite a bit of recalls over the years in lettuce especially. We’ve been, we’ve been, we’re fully certified not only USDA organic we work closely with the EPA, we look work closely with USDA.
To make sure that, we’re delivering on exactly what we say we’re gonna deliver on. And once again, I only does it show in our, in our acceptance rate, right? Which is, which is 98% of what’s coming into the DC on a highly perishable product. We also make sure that we have all the certifications and inspections needed mapped to the, the technology that we have ranging from water treatment to to software to even endorse instore displays that, that address the quality of the plant when it gets there.
We, we take pride on that, that transparency, and I think that’s really helped separate us. And when you look at Walmart, we’re part, we were one of the first. Companies that were involved in Walmart Project Gigaton, which is, is their effort to, to avoid over a gigaton of carbon from being released into the, into the planet the environment.
And with that comes this critical eye on on, on how you’re managing your business for efficiency and all of that. I think kind of mirrors the expectation that, that we live in and people wanna know where the food’s coming from. And I wanna make sure that, they don’t have any worries when they go to eat it.
And I think that’s something that, we do. Well,
Brian Thomas: thank you. I really appreciate that. What I liked when you said at the core of your company, you’re really a tech company or ag tech company with all the things you do, you’re patented software, you provide that transparency, quality, timeliness obviously you’re certified organic.
What’s really cool, Jim, is you’ve built this brand into a reputation that consumers trust, and that’s what’s really important. So thank you. And Jim, the last question of the day, looking ahead, how do you see the future of agriculture evolving over the next decade, and what role will controlled environment farming practices play in feeding a growing global population?
Jim Kras: Well. There’s no ignoring climate change. There’s no ignoring the volatility in the weather. When you think about where our, where especially produce and so many of our fruits and vegetables come from, they’re usually in an area that is, exposed to the climate change.
So that idea of having a secure source of your fresh vegetables. With the important growing importance and understanding of, of better for you type of products that you know are coming from a good place. That’s why I think you’ve watched organic become so popular over the years.
People want, they want less. They wanna know that less, less is more. They know less is more. And they want less exposure to harmful pesticides and things that have. Happened over the years to make sure that you farmers had to, how that farmers were able to ensure crop quality? When you think about it, if you are a if you’re a farmer and you’re growing out in Kansas or somewhere in the Midwest, or even on the West Coast or anywhere for that matter in the world, you’ve got, you have, you’re challenged by water, you’re challenged by, bugs or pests, you are challenged by all types of weather and, weather concerns and, and impacts. So, controlled environment agriculture is going to be a huge part of how we feed ourselves in the future. And over time it, it will evolve and has growing more and more things indoors.
It’s just the natural progression. There are some hurdles right now with power. Costs of energy and heat. So that all impacts unit E economics, which makes it in some regards hard to do right now. But, we’ve been able through kind of volume scale good partners and using, more existing technology than new technology with the actual greenhouses have allowed us to be able to be a good purveyor of these type of products. But I think in the future you’ll see a continued investment. And I think, the, the, it’s only gonna behoove retailers and a lot of the other stakeholders in our food.
Ecosystem to make the investment because it’s gonna it’s gonna have to happen just because of the environmental issues that we have out there and, and what the consumer’s expecting now, which is, which is higher quality less pesticides they want a certain spec and the trends, are, are gonna force it.
And ultimately that’s. That’s how, that’s who we cater to is, is the person who’s buying, our herbs or lettuces, at, at the store. And they’re demanding high, higher quality and consistency and safety and, you know that’s exactly what the greenhouses are set up to do.
So that’s where I see it’s going. I think that’s gonna, it’s gonna take some time because of the capital expenditures that are involved. But it, it will happen.
Brian Thomas: Thank you, Jim. Appreciate that. You talked about building that resiliency into your supply chain and food products due to all the challenges globally, obviously you need to ensure that transparent quality is always there, especially around pesticides water availability, power costs.
There’s a lot of economics that go into this but you’re able to achieve a lot of this with technology and great partners, which I highlighted here. So I think that’s important. But again, appreciate your message your quality and the transparency you bring around your product. So thank you and Jim, it was such a pleasure having you on today, and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Jim Kras: Thank you very much. Have a great day. Appreciate it.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Jim Kras Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s Podcast Page.
