Blending Tradition with Innovation: Navigating Sales Strategy, Sustainability and Technology

Dave Gonnella, Vice President of Sales at Gonnella Baking

Dave Gonnella, Vice President of Sales at Gonnella Baking Co., has been key in growing the 135-year-old family business into a national bakery leader. With expertise in the Retail, Foodservice and C-store channels, his MBA in Marketing from DePaul enhances his leadership. Dave is also a certified pizzaiolo and serves on the Washburne Culinary Institute advisory council.

Gonnella’s Roles and Responsibilities at Gonnella Baking

Gonnella is a family owned and operated business. I grew up in the bakery business like many of the family members that work at Gonnella today. After working my way through a number of jobs in the bakery during school I ended up on a sales path. Today, I am our Vice President of Sales. We are active in the Retail, Foodservice and C-store channels.

Balancing Tradition and Innovation in Sales Strategy

On our R&D teams we have a mix of bakers, culinarians and food scientists to help blend traditional baking techniques with a modern vision. We lean on our marketing team to provide relevant data, trends and insights around the bakery category to help craft our innovation pipeline. and go to market strategy. We have a high-speed commercial bakery that leverages modern baking techniques to produce best in class bakery products at value pricing. We have an Artisan bakery that we like to say time is the number one ingredient. It’s a much slower production process, for example we cold ferment our Ciabatta breads to develop great aroma, flavor and cell structure that deliver a superior eating experience.

“I always encourage young professionals to network. It’s one thing to go to an industry networking event and stay in your comfort zone with the people you know then it is to truly work the room and introduce yourself and get to know everyone at an event.”

Role of Sustainable Farming Practices and Ingredient Sourcing

Consumers increasingly want to know more about the companies behind the food they purchase. We work with our retailer community to share our sustainability story and to align with new initiatives they have. From ingredients standpoint, we have been moving our product line towards clean, healthy and natural ingredients. We work with our supplier network to help identify ingredients that deliver on quality and value as well as deliver on time and in full.

AI, Automation and Data Analytics influencing production and sales

In our production facilities, we continually need to reinvest into our plant and equipment to improve product efficiencies and throughput without sacrificing on quality. This investment helps mitigate rising costs and allows us to keep pricing stable for our customers.

From a customer facing perspective, the real win is integrating technologies with our customers so we can keep our core product data (e.g. pack, size, brand, description, global trade item numbers (GTIN), dimensions, weights, etc.); Nutritional Data, as applicable to food Products, (e.g. total calories, allergens, serving size, child nutrition, fat, carbohydrates, protein, etc.) and Marketing Data which includes images (e.g. photographs, features and benefits statement, marketing message, serving suggestions, etc.) up to date.

I certainly see a role for AI in the future to assist in analyzing production, sales and customer data to help identify opportunities within our sales pipeline. Furthermore, we will be able to leverage our existing data to create a unique and customized experience for our customers within our sales communications.

Impact of Consumer Behaviors on Gonnella’s sales strategy

Our customers want differentiated, high quality and attribute-based products on their store shelves. We just completed a brand refresh which was the first redesign in nearly a decade, it was time to evolve the look. We used bold food imagery to draw consumer attention and modernized the branding while maintaining our heritage. We developed four designs that underwent consumer survey testing of over 1,100 shoppers.

Shoppers indicated a clear preference for our New Packaging with high purchase intent scores.

81% Overall score of high shopper appeal with attractive packaging
- 92% among C-store shoppers
- 84% Gen Z & Millennials
Increased purchase intent
- 79% among C-store shoppers
- 76% Gen Z & Millennials
Vast majority would like to see product in their local stores

Major Shifts in the Agribusiness Sector over the Next Five Years

Going forward the concerns are decreased planted acres here in the US for corn, wheat and beans. Increased plantings in the Southern hemisphere especially South America. Weather concerns throughout the world that can drastically reduce yield and production numbers. Demand questions especially from China. The strength of the dollar and a conclusion to the war in Ukraine all will influence agribusiness in the next few years.

Key Strategies for Navigating the Complexities of Agribusiness

I always encourage young professionals to network. It’s one thing to go to an industry networking event and stay in your comfort zone with the people you know then it is to truly work the room and introduce yourself and get to know everyone at an event. I would also get involved and be active with the industry trade associations and advocacy groups. They can be a great source for personnel and business growth opportunities. You also need to keep up on current trends affecting the industry by signing up for webinars and staying well read on industry news.