MEET THE MARGIN BY SKU TEAM
Over the past year, Foremost Farms’ Margin By SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) team has transformed how the organization understands cheese profitability at the item level. By integrating and validating complex data sources and building sustainable reporting processes, the cross-functional team developed insights that help the cooperative make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Their work has already identified product mix opportunities projected to generate millions in improved profitability in 2026. This effort is a strong example of using data to challenge assumptions, drive better decisions, and create greater value for our members.
Margin by SKU team members: Adam Boone, Jill Ewert, Joshua Clark, Kasondra Triggs, Lora Zimmerman, Scott Fahey, Teresa Ellerman, Terese Nickeas, Zackary Daugherty.
Team lead Adam Boone reflects on why the team’s Udder Excellence Data Catalyst Award win was well deserved.
WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT ROLE AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WITH FOREMOST FARMS?
I have been with Foremost Farms for two years and currently serve as the Financial Planning & Analysis Manager, focused on Product Margin.
PLEASE DESCRIBE SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MARGIN BY SKU TEAM’S ROLE AT FOREMOST FARMS:
Beyond the specifics of the data we created, our team’s work has enabled the business to view sales results in a different way. The insights developed through Margin by SKU are now helping us improve decision-making across other areas of the organization.
THE TEAM WAS AWARDED THE DATA CATALYST AWARD AS PART OF THE 2025 UDDER EXCELLENCE AWARDS. WHAT DOES THIS RECOGNITION MEAN TO YOU AND YOUR TEAM?
Most members of this cross-functional team took on this strategic project, and sometimes a significant workload, on top of their existing duties. I’m proud that the team is receiving recognition for their efforts.
THIS AWARD RECOGNIZES YOUR TEAM’S HARD WORK IMPROVING FOREMOST FARMS’ UDERSTANDING OF CHEESE PROFITABILITY, BY COMBINING STRONG DATA, STREAM LINING PROCESSES, AND DELIVERING CLEAR REPORTS TO GUIDE SMARTER INVESTMENTS AND DECISIONS. WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE TRASNFORMATION IN HOW WE UNDERSTAND CHEESE PROFITABILITY TODAY?
When we started this project, there were differing opinions on what drove profitability within the Cheese division. Creating a consistent dataset that could be used for many different forms of analysis has created a common understanding of these dynamics. Most encouragingly, there is still a lot more that we can do with the baseline we have created and we now can explore new opportunities to use the data.
WHAT MADE THIS TEAM SUCCESSFUL IN DELIVERING SUCH A SIGNIFICANT OUTCOME?
Margin by SKU is a new business process that we built from the ground up. There was no way for it to be perfect on the first attempt and the team had to be comfortable navigating uncertainty. The entire project has been an iterative process, and the team continues to learn more and improve our analysis with each version.
WHAT DOES THIS INCREASE IN VALUE MEAN FOR THE BROADER ORGANIZATION AND OUR MEMBERS?
This work allows us to focus on selling our most profitable products to our most profitable customers, ultimately enabling us to return more value to our patrons.