Posted on: Thursday, June 23, 2005
Local vendors see $11M rise in military commissary sales
By Rick Daysong
Advertiser Staff Writer
Local grocery vendors, benefiting from recent efforts to showcase their goods on Hawai'i's military bases, saw a sharp increase in their sales to the state's five commissaries last year.
Andrew Shimabuku • The Honolulu Advertiser Rick Page, the Sacramento, Calif.-based director of the federal agency's Western Pacific region, attributed the growth to the Navy's new 105,000-square-foot commissary at Pearl Harbor, which opened in October 2002, and the military's efforts to reach out to local vendors.
Page and Patrick Nixon, deputy director of the Defense Commissary Agency, are in town this week to take part in the eighth annual American Logistics Association Food Show tomorrow at the W. Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa at Ko Olina.
The show will include more than 500 products from 51 local companies that will present their wares to buyers for military commissaries on the Mainland and in Asia.
Page said that previous food shows resulted in 800 new, locally produced items being placed on the shelves of the local military grocery stores. He noted that locally grown products now account for about 40 percent of all produce sold at the local commissaries, compared with about 9 percent back in 1995.
Hawaii Coffee Co. is one of those companies that has benefited from its participation in food shows.
Sharon Zambo-Fan, vice president for sales at Hawaii Coffee, which owns the Lion Coffee and Royal Kona Coffee brands, said the company has been able to expand its reach to military bases on the Mainland and in Asia, where sales are up by double-digit percentage rates.
Zambo-Fan — a director of the nonprofit American Logistics Association, which represents manufacturers, brokers and distributors who supply the military — said that most small companies have a difficult time launching their products in Mainland and foreign markets due to costs.
She noted that the shows have allowed local vendors to meet directly with military buyers on the Mainland and in Asia, who decide within a day whether they will carry their products.
"I would say military is one of most promising growth areas in our overall business," Zambo-Fan said.
Reach Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8064.
The Defense Commissary Agency — which operates more than 270 commissaries for military personnel, family members and retirees — said sales of Hawai'i products to the military's local grocery outlets totaled $87 million in 2004, which was an $11 million increase from the year-earlier.
Defense Commissary Director Rick Page, right, sampled coffee served up by Honaunau Coffee Co. owner and president Richard Emery at last year's American Logistics Association Food Show.
