Sargento’s Erin Price on Long-Term Growth, Category Leadership, and Consumer-Centric Innovation

Summary

Brave Commerce Podcast Summary: Sargento’s Erin Price on Long-Term Growth, Category Leadership, and Consumer-Centric Innovation

Release Date: June 3, 2025

In this insightful episode of Brave Commerce, hosts Rachel Tipograph and Sarah Hofstetter engage in a compelling conversation with Aaron Price, General Manager of Consumer Products at Sargento. The discussion delves into Sargento’s enduring success as a family-owned business, their consumer-centric strategies, innovative product developments, data-driven decision-making, talent acquisition in Wisconsin, and the essential skills for future leaders in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry.

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1. Family Leadership and Long-Term Growth Strategy

Aaron Price opens the dialogue by highlighting the unique advantages of Sargento’s family ownership. He emphasizes that the company’s long-term vision is a cornerstone of their sustained success.

“This is a family that is not focused on kind of the short term gains, making money, getting out. They really take seriously their commitment to the categories that we play in, to our retail partners, to the communities that we're in.”
[04:04]

Aaron explains that the enduring commitment to long-term sustainability, rather than seeking immediate profits, has allowed Sargento to invest thoughtfully in production capabilities, employee development, and product innovation. This approach ensures growth not just for Sargento, but for the entire dairy category, benefiting partners, suppliers, employees, and communities alike.

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2. Sargento Family Promise: Building Consumer Trust

The conversation transitions to Sargento’s latest brand initiative, the Sargento Family Promise, which focuses on fostering consumer trust and transparency.

“Our tagline is, you have our word on it, you have our name on it. And so we're really trying to, in this era of fake news, and what do you trust and what's real... at least you can trust that the cheese that you love, it's going to deliver what you want for you and your family.”
[06:17]

Aaron discusses how younger consumers increasingly value knowing the origins of their food and seek assurance of quality and authenticity. By showcasing the family-led nature of the business and committing to high-quality, natural products without compromises, Sargento aims to build deeper trust with their customer base.

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3. Navigating Consumer Behavior and Dietary Trends

Erin Price probes deeper into the fluctuating trends within the dairy industry, particularly the oscillation between plant-based alternatives and traditional dairy products.

“It feels like dairy's back. You know, there's obviously people within the presidential office who are also endorsing dairy. Hopefully only can mean good things for Sargento.”
[08:37]

Aaron acknowledges the cyclical nature of food trends but points out that cheese remains a beloved staple, making dairy relatively resilient. He shares an interesting statistic:

“An interesting fact that I just heard the other day is on average, a consumer will eat 42 pounds of cheese in a year.”
[09:03]

He elaborates on how Sargento proactively responds to consumer insights, such as the demand for less processed foods, by innovating products like the 100% Natural American Cheese Slice. This product development was driven by consumer feedback seeking high-quality alternatives to traditional processed cheese slices, ensuring Sargento meets evolving preferences without chasing fleeting trends.

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4. Leveraging Data for Consumer Insights

The discussion shifts to the challenges and opportunities presented by the abundance of consumer data available today.

“You can get so much more data now than you ever have before... the trick is really digging through all of that and finding the signal and ignoring the noise.”
[10:42]

Aaron outlines the diverse data sources Sargento utilizes, including traditional metrics from agencies like Nielsen and innovative real-time feedback mechanisms that capture consumer sentiments in-store or via mobile devices. He stresses the importance of filtering vast amounts of data to extract meaningful insights that drive strategic decisions, ensuring that Sargento remains aligned with genuine consumer needs rather than transient fads.

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5. Recruiting and Retaining CPG Talent in Wisconsin

Sarah Hofstatter raises a pertinent question about Sargento’s efforts to attract top CPG talent to Wisconsin, a region not typically recognized as a major metropolitan hub for such professionals.

“How do you get outside to really recruit strong CPG talent? I'm thankful I'm in the New York area...”
[13:53]

Aaron candidly acknowledges the challenges but attributes their success to the company’s strong family culture and long-term focus. He explains that once potential employees experience Sargento’s passionate environment and commitment to employee well-being, many are persuaded to relocate. Additionally, Aaron extols the virtues of Wisconsin, describing it as a beautiful and welcoming place to live, which further aids in attracting talent.

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6. Essential Skills for Future CPG Leaders

The conversation progresses to discuss the critical skills aspiring CPG leaders must cultivate to thrive in a dynamic industry.

“Having a general manager, whether you have that title or not, being able to act as though you own the business...”
[16:57]

Aaron emphasizes the importance of ownership mentality, effective communication, and the ability to prioritize strategically. He uses the metaphor of “big rocks and sand” to illustrate the necessity of focusing on impactful initiatives while minimizing distractions. Additionally, he highlights the need for agility and adaptability to keep pace with rapidly changing consumer behaviors and market conditions.

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7. The Bravest Thing: Embracing Change and Growth

In a lighter yet meaningful segment, Aaron shares a personal story illustrating his bravery and the importance of stepping outside one's comfort zone.

“At 21, sort of did that accidentally. Looking back now, it was a brave thing to do and it's something that really has impacted my life moving forward.”
[18:48]

Aaron recounts his experience moving from small-town Wisconsin to Manhattan for a college internship. Overcoming initial fears and unfamiliarity, he navigated the bustling city life, which profoundly influenced his personal and professional growth. He encourages others to seek diverse experiences to foster empathy and expand their perspectives, underscoring that such bravery leads to significant personal development.

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with Aaron affirming Sargento’s ongoing growth and openness to new talent, followed by a reflection on the value of stepping beyond one’s usual environment to achieve personal and professional growth. The hosts wrap up by directing listeners to additional episodes and encouraging reviews and shares.

Key Takeaways:

• Long-Term Vision: Sargento’s family ownership fosters sustainable growth and category leadership by prioritizing long-term strategies over short-term gains.
• Consumer Trust: Initiatives like the Sargento Family Promise build deep consumer trust through transparency and commitment to quality.
• Data-Driven Insights: Effectively harnessing diverse data sources is crucial for understanding and responding to genuine consumer needs.
• Talent Acquisition: A strong, family-oriented company culture and the appeal of Wisconsin’s quality of life are pivotal in attracting top CPG talent.
• Future Leadership: Aspiring leaders must develop ownership mentality, strategic prioritization, effective communication, and adaptability.
• Personal Growth: Embracing new experiences and stepping outside comfort zones are essential for personal and professional development.

This episode of Brave Commerce offers valuable insights into how a storied family business like Sargento navigates the modern eCommerce landscape by staying true to its roots, prioritizing consumer-centric innovation, and fostering a culture of growth and adaptability.

Transcript

[Aaron Price]

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[Rachel Tippograph]

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[Aaron Price]

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[Rachel Tippograph]

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[Aaron Price]

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[Sarah Hofstadter]

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[Aaron Price]

The great thing and the challenge right now is we are absolutely swimming in data. You can get so much more data now than you ever have before. And we have so many sources with our retail media partnerships. Behavioral data, the traditional sources, the Circana, the iri, the bases, the Nielsen. You know, you can get so much data, but I think the trick is really digging through all of that and finding the signal and ignoring the noise. And again, how are you really digging into those deep consumer insights to look at what they're looking for? Not following the fads, not following just the short term trends.

[Sarah Hofstadter]

Welcome to today's episode of Brave Commerce.

[Erin Price]

I'm Rachel Tippograph, the founder and CEO of Micmac.

[Sarah Hofstadter]

Sarah I'm Sarah Hofstadter, president of Profitero.

[Erin Price]

And this is a show that talks about what's relevant in E commerce for the world's biggest brands. All right, Sarah, you ready to do this with me?

[Sarah Hofstadter]

Abso freaking lutely. What a great panel. Thanks so much to everybody there. Wow. Fabi, Amy, Dawn, Steve, that was just extraordinary.

[Erin Price]

So many of your friends.

[Sarah Hofstadter]

I know. I felt like I was at home or at a Profitero event or at a Profitero event at home. But either way. It was awesome.

[Erin Price]

But now we have another friend with us, Erin Price. Hello, Erin.

[Aaron Price]

Oh, good morning. It's nice to be here.

[Erin Price]

Those of you who don't know Erin, Aaron is the general manager of consumer products Sargento, one of America's largest cheese and dairy companies. And Erin, we're so excited to do this with you.

[Aaron Price]

Thank you. This is going to be great. I can't wait for the conversation.

[Erin Price]

So Sarah and I have done a few of these Brave Commerce episodes live. So this is live. So I'm just going to give our future listeners an overview of what's happening today. It's May 20, 2025 and we are at Micmac's Commerce Growth Summit and I have the great pleasure of recording a live episode of Brave Commerce with my co host, Sarah Hofstadter and our friend Aaron Price, the general manager of consumer products at Sargento. And we are here to pick Aaron's brain on what's happening in the industry. And so to kick it off, Aaron, Sargento is a three generation family. It's a multibillion dollar business that's within the family. And there's been such massive changes in consumer taste and how they shop since obviously the family started this company three generations ago. So what do you think it is about this family that has positioned them to be able to change with the times?

[Aaron Price]

It's a great question because at Sargento, we really see our family leadership, our family ownership as one of the core sustainable competitive advantages that we have. This is a family that is not focused on kind of the short term gains, making money, getting out. They really take seriously their commitment to the categories that we play in, to our retail partners, to the communities that we're in. And so they focus very much on the long term sustainability of everything that we do, whether it's the investments that we make in our production capabilities or in our employees, in the products that we create. We're always looking for the long term consumer growth and making sure that we're doing things that are going to grow the overall dairy category. We're not interested in just stealing share from this player or a short term gain one year by doing something crazy in the category. We're really focused on how do we build our categories long term because the family believes that that's how everybody wins. That's how we're going to find value. That's how we're going to give value to our partners, to our suppliers, to our vendors, to our shareholders, obviously, but then also our employees and the communities that we live in. They really take that long term view and I think that that's the reason that they've had so much success over the last 70 plus years.

[Sarah Hofstadter]

I think that makes a lot of sense and I'm sure throughout the course of this conference and further discussions, you're going to hear a lot of people talking about the criticality of growing category. That's the way we win. We learned that lesson the hard way as an industry for sure. And so as a dairy lover myself, I'm very happy to hear that this is where your MO is going. That said, it does seem like being family owned is a big differentiator, both for the consumer. You've got this new brand platform positioned around the Sargento Family Promise. There's so many people here that are on this broadcast, listening in live and some of them are at big companies and some of them are at family owned companies. Tell us about the insight of what brought that to life and how it's resonating in the marketplace.

[Aaron Price]

Absolutely. We are very consumer led as I think most of the companies who have been part of your panels. Most of the people listening to this podcast probably are some. So we really do try to follow where the consumer insights are. And our latest brand platform, we call it the Sargento Family Promise. It comes from the insight that consumers, especially younger consumers, they really appreciate knowing where their food comes from. They're looking for, as you've been mentioning earlier today, a lot of value in what they're seeking. But value is very different than price. For a lot of consumers, value when it comes to food means, hey, I know that I'm not going to be wasting my money. I know that when I buy this item, it is going to be high quality, it's going to deliver what I want. I know that I can trust it. And so for a lot of consumers, a way to help build that trust is to tell them exactly who we are, that there is a real family that is really involved in the business. They are running it day to day. Our CEO is a third generation family member and they are really, really passionate about making sure that, that absolutely everything that we put in the market is the highest quality, real natural cheese. No compromises, no substitutes. Our tagline is, you have our word on it, you have our name on it. And so we're really trying to, in this era of fake news, and what do you trust and what's real and how do I sort through all of this stuff that's coming at me? Hey, you have our word on it, you have our name on it at least you can trust that the cheese that you love, it's going to deliver what you want for you and your family.

[Erin Price]

Clearly you've said this line before a couple times. Diving a little bit deeper into consumer behavior, I feel like dairy for a while got a bad rap. Everything plant based came into vogue. And this isn't the first time. Right. I remember periods of my childhood where everyone was like, focus on soy. And then everyone's like, no, no more soy. And so it feels like dairy's back. You know, there's obviously people within the presidential office who are also endorsing dairy. Hopefully only can mean good things for Sargento. But what are you seeing right now, you know, in terms of consumer taste preferences and their dietary behaviors? And. And then I'm also curious, like, what data sources you're using to get that information.

[Aaron Price]

It's really interesting. I know what you're talking about. It feels like every few years, the food trends kind of go back and forth and circle back around, and it's just. It seems to be human nature that folks are interested in that. Honestly, though, we're a little bit insulated when it comes to dairy because people love cheese. An interesting fact that I just heard the other day is on average, a consumer will eat 42 pounds of cheese in a year.

[Sarah Hofstadter]

My bad.

[Aaron Price]

I know. I feel like maybe, I hate to admit it, but I'm sure I'm on the upper end of that scale. And so, you know, really, for us, we try to not follow trends. We're in this for the long term, so we're following what the consumer is looking for. And we know that we are offering the consumer something that they really want. As an example, over half of consumers will say, hey, I am trying to eat less processed foods. We know that that's been something that they've been saying for a very long period of time. And so we follow those consumer insights to launch our innovations at the beginning of this year. Until we launched a natural American Cheese Slice. We just launched at the beginning of this year. And before that, the only way that the consumer could get a American Cheese slice is it was processed cheese. And we know that consumers love American cheese. It's got a great melt and a creamy flavor and a texture that you just. You can't get anywhere else. But up until earlier this year, the only option was a processed cheese. So we spent a long time with our R and D really trying to replicate that exact melt and flavor and texture and that great American cheese performance, and came out with a 100% natural American cheese slice. So that's just an example of if you really look at the consumer insight and figure out what is the consumer asking for, that's how you can follow that and be successful and grow those categories long term.

[Erin Price]

And so, Aaron, are you relying on like traditional forms of research? Is it social listening? Is it the retail partners? Like, where is this consumer data coming from?

[Aaron Price]

Yes, all of the above. The great thing and the challenge right now is we are absolutely swimming in data. You can get so much more data now than you ever have before. And we have so many sources with our retail media partnerships. Behavioral data, the traditional sources, the circana, the iri, the bases, the Nielsen, you know, you can get so much data. But I think the trick is really digging through all of that and finding the signal and ignoring the noise. And again, how are you really digging into those deep consumer insights to look at what they're looking for? Not following the fads, not following just the short term trends, but really deeply understanding those consumers. And so a lot of times that does mean you have to reach the consumer in a different way. There's a lot of different research methodologies out there that we're using that catch the consumer real time in store on their mobile device and, and we ask them questions when we know they are right in front of our category or another category that we want to ask about so that we can catch them in the moment and really get their true deep understanding of what they're thinking. And so the technology has just evolved so much and continues to evolve so much. It's just sort of amazing, you know, versus back when I started in the business and focus groups were kind of, you know, oh, wow, let's get a bunch of people in the room and try to remember what you thought six weeks ago when you bought this product. And no, you can get so much closer to the consumer. And so as long as you're using that in a really productive way and not letting it kind of distract you, I think it's a really powerful tool that you can use. All of the above to really understand where you need to go.

[Sarah Hofstadter]

Makes a ton of sense. And a lot of this goes back to a famous quote from Jeff Bezos is a brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room and feel like we're getting closer and closer every day to really understanding what's happening when we're not in the room. A little creepy. A little creepy. But in many cases it's because the consumer wants us to know the Ratings and reviews, for example. And the way that your team taps into that with Profitero is one of those things where it's like, okay, we're going to get an understanding immediately after purchase how you felt about that, whether that's the natural American cheese or anything else in the portfolio. And frankly, that also plays a role in understanding competitive environments. And what is it that's holding people back or driving people forward. But one thing that happens with that, with all of the things you just said about the different sources of data and insight and agility that comes with a really strong talent. You guys are headquartered in Wisconsin. You are a very strong in person culture and frankly, if you run a cheese company, Wisconsin's the place to be. How do you get outside to really recruit strong CPG talent? I'm thankful I'm in the New York area. We've got the whole CPG corridor going down the entire length of New Jersey. You've got Chicago, you've got Bentonville. How do you get them to Wisconsin?

[Aaron Price]

Yeah, it's a great question. And you know, look, I'm not going to pretend that it doesn't take us longer to find great talent than probably it does in one of the major metros. But it really goes back to where we started this conversation of we're a company that is family owned, family led, and we really focus on the long term. I was in, you know, big CPG before I came here to Sargento, so I know how the game is played. I know kind of all the things that you have to do when working at a public company and you have to make a number. But for a lot of sales and marketing and demand planning, for a lot of professionals, having an environment where you can really focus on the consumer, really focus on the long term, focus on those category, building the innovation, the long term investment, it's such a luxury. And so oftentimes we find that maybe when they first hear the name Sargento and you know, the recruiter or whoever talks to them and says, hey, have you ever considered moving to Plymouth, Wisconsin? You know, the immediate answer is kind of what? But we have really found that once we start talking to them, and especially once we bring them on site and they hear our story, they feel the passion of absolutely everybody that they talk to. They recognize how the family takes care of all 2500 Sargento employees, like, we are a family. They really feel that and they live that and they understand that we offer an opportunity to, to grow a career in a way that you don't get a lot of places. You know, if you have to make those trade offs, you have to make those short term choices, you don't get to really see things through long term category growing consumer building, household penetration building activities. And so a lot of people come here and they say, yeah, you know what? I think I'm going to make that move. And then just a little plug for Wisconsin. We're coming into the summer season, so I can say this with a straight face. Wisconsin is beautiful, wonderful. It's a great place, great people. It's an awesome place to live. Don't ask me that question in January, but right now I can say fully endorsing living in Wisconsin, I would say for sure.

[Sarah Hofstadter]

And it was not lost on me that our team went to go do their quarterly partnership review with you guys last week and not necessarily on time. That being said, you do have an opportunity. You've got a lot of commerce leaders on, on this virtual call. If there's any positions you want to advertise, now might be a real good time.

[Aaron Price]

I think we should, we will have to get our. We are growing and expanding at an absolutely monumental clip. So I may take you up on that. Anyone can send their resumes in to me and we, I bet we'd have.

[Erin Price]

A role for you and Erin on that note. I mean, I've obviously been working with you for a while and I see how Sargento is investing in their people. So when you think about the skills, because people want to become GMs P&L owners like you over the next five years, what skills do you think that they need to develop?

[Aaron Price]

That's a great question. And I do think that moving forward, the CPG model, having a general manager, whether you have that title or not, being able to act as though you own the business and you are making decisions as though it truly is your own small business, I think is really critical. And so a lot of the things that we talk about here as we're growing and developing our talent is first of all, communication obviously is critical. And I think as technology continues to evolve and things are moving faster, having good communication and making sure that you can keep a team aligned and prioritized and not getting distracted by, you know, on my team we talk a lot about the old chestnut, the big rocks and then the sand. Right? And how do you sweep the sand so that you're spending more of your time and energy focused on the big rocks? Identifying the things that are really going to move the business forward and what are the things that are noise, what are the things that you can kind of diminish and try to spend less of your time on and then really understanding that the consumer is changing. I really do believe that. I think that the way that the consumer moves through the world, and you were talking about it earlier on some of your panels, you know, consumers are finding out about products so much faster and so much differently, and we reach them differently with different messages and different channels. And how do you stay on top of all of those changes? I think you just have to be agile and flexible and making sure that you're staying on top of all of these things that continue to evolve very quickly and keep your teams up to date and make sure that they're all focused and moving forward together.

[Erin Price]

Preach. Erin, we gotta ask you our famous last question, which is, what's the bravest thing you've ever done?

[Aaron Price]

Yes. I knew this was coming, and so I had to think about this a little bit. And I hope that you two New Yorkers don't think I'm a wimp for saying that this is my bravest thing. But when I was in college, I actually got an internship in Manhattan. And so at 21, having lived in small town Wisconsin, small town Wisconsin my whole life, I picked up and I moved to Manhattan for six months and I did not know a soul, and I had to find somewhere to live. And I very clearly remember my first day of work. I lived kind of up Morningside Heights, kind of Columbia University neighborhood, and I took the subway to work and I got to Grand Central Station, and, you know, you get off the train and there's just that rush hour, there's that mass of people just all kind of moving together. And I remember very clearly as a small town girl who had never taken public transportation before, thinking, oh, my gosh, I'm going to die. I am going to die in a New York subway station. But you know what? I kept going. I figured it out, and I had the most amazing experience living in New York, completely different from my lived experience. And so I take that with me. And my team knows. I'm always telling people, hey, if you want to grow, if you want to continue to learn, you need to have an experience that is completely different than the way that you see your life today. Whether that is taking a different role within the company, challenging yourself to go back to school and get a different degree, or in your personal life, moving somewhere different, exposing yourself to different people. The absolute best way, I really believe this, the way that you can grow is by forcing yourself to see the world from a totally different perspective. And I at 21, sort of did that accidentally. Looking back now, it was a brave thing to do and it's something that really has impacted my life moving forward, I would say.

[Sarah Hofstadter]

I take the subway fairly frequently and I always think I'm going to die. It's certainly better than taking a taxi. So yes, well, if you can make.

[Erin Price]

It in New York, you can make it anywhere.

[Aaron Price]

That's what I learned. Absolutely. That is true.

[Erin Price]

Couldn't agree with you more. You know, Sarah and I are definitely through and through New Yorkers, but I know we share your your sentiment in terms of taking yourself out of your daily environment, putting yourself in someone else's shoes and beginning to grow that empathy. Thank you for allowing us to pick your brain. This episode will be available on Brave Commerce Podcast on whatever podcast app you like to use. And if you like what you heard from this live recording and want to listen to other episodes where we interview guests that are full P L owners, go check out a recent episode we do with Perfetti Van Mel's North America President CEO Sylvia. Or go listen to an episode that we did with the founder and CEO of PIM Brands, Michael Rosenberg and his business, just like Sargento's, is a family business. And please write us a review. Tell a friend and thanks for listening.

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