Walmart’s Peterson, Campisi Crowned Top 2016 Mango Retailers

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Wynn Peterson, senior produce merchant and Gary Campisi, senior director of quality control, were chosen as the 2016 Mango Retailers of the Year. The award, bestowed by the National Mango Board (NMB), recognizes retail partners that go above and beyond to offer strong consistent support to the mango industry, and deliver outstanding mango promotion results.

Walmart was selected from over 100 retailers that partner with the NMB across the U.S.

Peterson envisioned that making Walmart the destination for mangos in the U.S. would be good for business – not just good for their produce business, but good for their overall store sales. He convinced upper management to invest in an aggressive promotion and pricing strategy, which included huge mango displays featured in prime store locations.

“We enjoy the tremendous privilege of selling what is, in my opinion, the best-tasting fruit in the world,” said Peterson. “Improving freshness has been a strategic focus for us at Walmart for the past two years. Our suppliers have partnered with us to help take days out of our supply chain so that our Walmart customers are enjoying fresher produce than ever,” Peterson continued. “Even after a few years of excellent sales performance, we still have tremendous upside as we work together to introduce more people to this delicious fruit.” 

Campisi took the lead in making Walmart the first retailer in the U.S. to pursue a year round ripe and ready to eat mango program. He established the in-house ripening program and trained the QC teams in every DC to condition mangos because he knew it was the right thing for the customer and the industry.

“Since 2012 the NMB and their ripening experts…have helped Walmart develop a mango ripening program that would provide a better eating experience for our customers which would in turn increase sales,” noted Campisi. “We have definitely seen the increase in customer demand with significant year over year growth in the mango category,” he added.

Peterson and Campisi have shown a great commitment to the NMB and the mango industry in many other ways, such as joining the mango packaging task force and participating in several different panels for mango industry audiences.

“Walmart has fundamentally changed [its] U.S. mango business model over the past couple of years,” according to NMB’s Retail Program Manager Wendy McManus. “And because they are the largest retailer in the U.S., their focus on mangos has impacted the entire industry, whether you sell directly to them or not.”