Internal Processes and Tools — understanding workflows and tools the company uses would have really helped me early on…and asking up front on how to use them. Without an agriculture background, I didn’t understand the flexibility that was at my fingertips!
Intoday’s fast-paced world, snacking has become an essential part of our daily routine. However, not all snacks are created equal, and many options available are unhealthy. Fortunately, there are companies dedicated to creating and promoting healthy snacks and treats that are not only delicious but also nutritious. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Lori Castillo.
Lori Castillo, Vice President of Marketing for NatureSweet, the largest vertically integrated controlled environment agriculture company in North America that is not only creating convenient and healthy snacking options for consumers, but the greenhouse-grown company is also transforming the lives of agricultural workers.
Thank you so much for joining us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?
Sure! I was born and raised in San Antonio and come from a family of migrant workers. I have deep ties to the agricultural industry, and an even deeper personal commitment to help transform it. I graduated from Texas A&M University and earned my MBA from The Ohio State University. I started off my career in finance working for JPMorgan Chase and then I tapped into my creative side taking a role in marketing for COVERGIRL Cosmetics. Today, I oversee national and international marketing for NatureSweet, one of the leading produce brands that provides great-tasting greenhouse-grown fruits and vegetables for consumers, both conventional and organic. NatureSweet is also well known for its commitment to sustainability and controlled environment agriculture methods and processes.
Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Failing projects can sometimes lead to growth and even promotion when they result from taking calculated risks that align with the company’s long-term vision. Leaders who push boundaries and prioritize what’s right for the organization, even in the face of potential failure, demonstrate resilience and strategic thinking. I’ve “killed” as many brands as I have launched at NatureSweet (it’s an ongoing Marketing Team joke). Failure can be an important step toward innovation, and purpose driven companies like NatureSweet often reward those who show courage and learn from setbacks, recognizing their commitment to driving progress forward.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Three key character traits that I contribute to my success are integrity, vision, and empathy. Integrity ensures I earn trust and lead by example, fostering a culture of honesty and accountability on my team. Vision enables me to set a clear direction and inspire others to work toward a common goal. Lastly, empathy allows me to understand and connect with my teams, promoting collaboration.
Rather than a story for each, the best example of these is the reward of growing my career at NatureSweet over the last decade. Coming in as a Senior Brand Manager and getting promoted to Director, and later VP over the reign of 2 presidents and 1 acquisition speaks to not only working for a company that respects and rewards those characteristics, but it also shows that doing the right thing across teams, projects, and community involvement are connected, and build off each other. We have a saying on my team — SOMOS — which stands for “success over my own success”. Said differently, having a shared vision and doing things right, with respect for each other, puts us on the same path for an end goal.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that might help people?
Continuing the mission of NatureSweet is what excited me 10 years ago and keeps me wanting to work at the company for another 10 years. If one thing is true, it is that nothing is constant but change — every day brings new projects.
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of our interview. What inspired you to focus on promoting healthy snacks and treats?
NatureSweet has been providing nutritious products to consumers for more than 30 years, when we first started selling our snacking tomato products. Consumer demand has allowed us to branch out and provide other greenhouse-grown vegetable products like cucumbers and sweet peppers. So, we’ve always been focused on providing the freshest, healthiest, and tastiest produce for meals and snacks. What’s become a bigger focus for us lately is making sure we’re also providing convenience to our consumers. People are constantly on-the-go and time is precious. We’re cutting out laborious processes when preparing fruits and vegetables and giving them a few minutes back in their day. A couple of examples of how we’re doing this is our Cherubs® To Go snack packs which contain washed and ready-to-eat snacking tomatoes tucked into a palm-sized, crush proof, breathable container. The perfect nutritious snack to include in a school lunchbox, backpack, or gym bag. Another healthy snack that people can’t get enough of is our Constellation® sweet & seedless mini peppers. These little peppers are revolutionizing the produce industry just like seedless watermelons and seedless grapes have, because just like them, they’re SEEDLESS! No mess to clean up, just dip, spread, and repeat!
How do you ensure that your products remain both healthy and delicious?
We scour the globe to find the right seeds for our produce. We also perform tests internally, and with consumers, to ensure that we’re delivering nutritious products people want to keep buying. Consumers tell us they can devour an entire bowl of our snacking tomatoes because they’re so sweet! We actually test our tomatoes for sweetness, and they score much higher than most on the Brix scale which measures sweetness. We’ve created a delicious snack that is incredibly nutritious- packed with vitamins A, C, and E, as well as B vitamin folate, and many minerals. We’re also committed to sustainable practices within our greenhouses and those practices are constantly reviewed and scrutinized to ensure our products are safe to eat.
What are some things you have done to educate consumers about the nutritional benefits of your products?
We are constantly creating content on our social channels, website, and through media and influencers to show how easy it is to include fresh produce into recipes. They’re not boring recipes either, we’re having FUN! Whether it’s a quick Cantaloupe Cucumber Salad, a Tomato Pesto Christmas Wreath, or a simple one-pot meal, we’re creating easy ways for people to incorporate nutrition into their meals. A consumer post about our brand went viral when people discovered that we recommend to “not refrigerate” our snacking tomatoes, since it can impact texture and flavor. We’ll continue to educate consumers on best practices and create fun and relatable content that encourages consumers to have a tomato…. a cucumber… and/or a sweet pepper!
Have you experienced any challenges in changing consumer perceptions about healthy snacks? How did you approach that?
People might not view “tomatoes” as a grab and go snack, so we created a way for them to easily and conveniently include them on the go. We are giving consumers some time back in their day and removed the “extra” steps. We created a crush-proof, palm-sized container that has a handful of our washed and ready-to-eat Cherubs grape tomatoes. Throw them into a lunch box, gym bag, or a backpack, and you have a delicious, nutritious snack that won’t turn into tomato sauce by the end of the day since the tomatoes won’t get smooshed! We did the same thing with our mini sweet peppers and saved consumer’s time since our Constellation mini peppers are SEEDLESS. No mess to clean, just dip them into some dressing, and you have the perfect nutritious snack. People often think of the prep work necessary to include produce into their diet and we’re making it easier for them.
What are your ”5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started”?
1 . Company Culture — I came from a very “formal” background between JPMorgan and P&G where bigger, better, faster was rewarded. It took me a solid 6 months in produce to realize “swinging for the fences” and “failing fast to learn” was the new game I was playing.
2 . Role and Expectations — with respect to #1, everyone at NatureSweet is a leader who is expected to come with ideas, raise hands for issues, and take accountability for their own actions. It doesn’t matter what your role/ level is here…we all have an impact on the future of the company that can often get lost in larger organizations.
3 . Key Stakeholders — no matter where you are, it’s always imperative to know who the key decision-makers are, who can influence, and who can help you get there (collaborators).
4 . Internal Processes and Tools — understanding workflows and tools the company uses would have really helped me early on…and asking up front on how to use them. Without an agriculture background, I didn’t understand the flexibility that was at my fingertips!
5 . Opportunities for growth — While I’ve landed at an amazing spot at NatureSweet, I didn’t fully understand at the beginning the potential career path here…the great part is that I’ve had the opportunity to build it!
In a constantly evolving industry, how do you stay ahead of trends to keep your offerings innovative and appealing?
I am constantly educating myself on consumer trends and preferences. We also value consumer feedback, and are constantly performing consumer testing on packaging, taste tests, and analyzing how our products are doing in the marketplace.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Know who your food comes from 😊 Understanding where it comes from is 1 thing; getting to really know the humans and personalities/families behind the work and what they do to ensure the most delicious tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers get to your table is an entirely different ballgame. Once consumers understand that, they’ll have the ability to vote with their wallets on who and what to support — ensuring a better lives for almost 10million agricultural workers in North America.
What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?
Follow us on our website, naturesweet.com or on any of our social channels: LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.
About the Interviewer: Wanda Malhotra is a wellness entrepreneur, lifestyle journalist, and the CEO of Crunchy Mama Box, a mission-driven platform promoting conscious living. CMB empowers individuals with educational resources and vetted products to help them make informed choices. Passionate about social causes like environmental preservation and animal welfare, Wanda writes about clean beauty, wellness, nutrition, social impact and sustainability, simplifying wellness with curated resources. Join Wanda and the Crunchy Mama Box community in embracing a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle at CrunchyMamaBox.com .
