Sunny Fresh Foods, Inc.

Headquartered in Monticello, Minnesota, with plants in

Minnesota, Michigan, and Iowa, Sunny Fresh Foods, Inc., is

a wholly owned subsidiary of Cargill, Inc. The company

provides more than 160 egg-based food products to more

than 2,000 customers, including quick-service restaurants,

business and institutional food services, schools, and the

military. The company’s 620 stakeholders produce and

package products ranging from refrigerated and frozen liquid

pasteurized eggs to precooked egg entrees to scrambled egg

mixes, cholesterol-free and fat-free egg products, and peeled

hard-cooked eggs.

SFF also received a Baldrige Award in 1999. Since then,

the company’s revenues have risen 93 percent, and, while its

competitors’ market shares have decreased by more than 10

percent, SFF’s market share has grown. Today, the company

meets 75 percent of the product needs of four of the country’s

top users of value-added further processed egg products. 

Quality through Leadership

SFF ensures quality through leadership that continually

focuses people and business processes on the company’s Core

Purpose (“to be the supplier of choice to our customers

worldwide”) and Core Values (Customer Focus, Safety,

Quality, Stakeholder Focus, and Ethics). These tenets guide

all company activities from customer service and stakeholder

training to strategic planning and new product development.

The company’s leadership structure—a Management

Committee, comprising SFF’s senior managers, and a

Business Leadership Team that includes representatives from

all functional areas of the company—ensures that everyone in

the organization knows how to apply the company’s tenets in

daily operations.

To build and maintain channels of communication,

Management Committee members hold small group and

department meetings throughout the company each year to

discuss the annual business plan, capture concerns, and

answer stakeholder questions. Internal communication also is

fostered through the orientation program, presentations

during Continuous Improvement training, bimonthly

Recognition Meetings, and the SFF internal newsletter, 

The Eggceptional News.

The results are clear. From 2001 through 2004, more than

90 percent of stakeholders agreed with the statements: 

“I understand the goals of Sunny Fresh,” “I understand how

my job affects the customer,” and “My managers demonstrate

and communicate focus on the customer.” This far exceeds

the national Hewitt Associates engagement database of 82.5

percent.

External communication is equally important. SFF brings

value to customers through a variety of personal interactions

that aim to build long-term business relationships based on

trust and understanding. The same philosophy guides

communication with suppliers, local communities, regulatory

agencies, and others. 

2005

Award Winner

National Institute of Standards and Technology ● Technology Administration ● Department of Commerce

Baldrige National Quality Program

Highlights

• Since receiving the Baldrige Award in 1999, SFF

revenues are up 93 percent.

• In the past four years, SFF’s market share has increased,

while competitors’ market share has decreased by more

than 10 percent.

• From 2001 to 2005, sales per stakeholder (employees are

called stakeholders in acknowledgement of their integral

roles in the business) and profit per stakeholder increased

by 19 percent.

• More than 90 percent of stakeholders understand the

goals of SFF and how their job affects the customer. 
Planning Based on Measurement

Strategic planning is based on continual measurement of

performance through a Balanced Scorecard approach that

focuses on the Key Business Drivers of work process

improvement, competitive advantage, stakeholder focus and

performance, customer focus and satisfaction, and supplier

relationships and performance. 

SFF monitors customer satisfaction through direct

feedback. Several key customers regularly provide formal

scorecards, and sales representatives follow up on delivered

orders to assess satisfaction with products, services, and

relationships. By measuring specific performance items and

designing action plans to improve performance, SFF has

achieved remarkable results. The rate of On-Time Deliveries

reached 99.8 percent in 2005, and customer complaint levels

are maintained well below the Six Sigma world-class level.

Even as product complexity has increased, customer

satisfaction from 2001 to 2005 remained near 100 percent.

For all products, the length of time to resolve customer

complaints has declined from 2.8 days in 1997 to 0.8 days in

2005. Resolution satisfaction climbed from 92 percent in

1997 to 100 percent in 2002 and has remained there. 

Such achievements are the result of continuously feeding

performance results into both the long-term and short-term

planning processes. SFF’s Strategic Vision 2010 provides the

long-term view, and its long-term Strategic Business Plan

provides a department-level blueprint for reaching it.

Stakeholders throughout the organization participate by

serving on task forces and cross-functional teams to research

and explore opportunities for improvement and innovation.

Short-term planning centers around the Annual Business

Plan. SFF uses a one-year short-term planning cycle to

remain current in an industry subject to rapid changes due to

factors such as raw material availability, new skill

requirements, regulatory changes, technological advances,

and even seasonal variation in egg consumption. Data from

these and other areas are compiled into a Business

Environment document that serves as the basis for

developing annual key strategies, financial plans, operating

plans, and monthly scorecards.

In both long- and short-term planning, customer needs

and expectations are paramount. SFF leaders analyze sales

and marketing data, customer purchasing and consumption

patterns, and consumer research, as well as dietary trends.

This serves not only to refine current products and processes

but also to develop new ones, such as constructing additional

process lines, which anticipate customer requirements.

Focus on Training and Work

Processes

SFF devotes significant resources to training and to

implementing safe and efficient business processes. Sales

stakeholders are certified by the Culinary Institute of

America to advance their understanding of food service

operations. Production personnel receive ongoing training to

develop, maintain, and advance their skills.

Personal safety and food safety are of primary concern.

SFF meets or exceeds all Occupational Safety and Health

Administration personal safety-training requirements and

provides specialized safety training related to specific

production tasks, such as lift truck operation and working

with refrigeration and ammonia systems. The result is an

exceptional company-wide safety record. Injury frequency

rates have dropped from 15 in 2000 to about 6.8 in 2004.

The plant in Lake Odessa, Michigan, has gone five years

without a lost-time accident; the plant in Panora, Iowa,14

years. 

All sales and technical personnel are certified in food

safety through the National Restaurant Association’s

ServSafe® program, and all production personnel receive

personal safety and food safety education, including Hazard

Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) program

training, which has enabled the company to surpass the U.S.

Department of Agriculture’s and the Food and Drug

Administration’s requirements.

SFF also has pioneered a number of innovative production

work systems, including 20-minute rotations of stakeholders

among workstations and programs that ease new

stakeholders into physically demanding tasks and partner

them with experienced “buddies.”

In addition to improved personal and food safety records,

these intensive efforts are paying off in other ways as well.

Throughout the company, the amount of rework dropped 15

percent from 2001 to 2002, 61 percent from 2002 to 2003,

and 75 percent from 2003 to 2004. And, between 2001 and

2005, sales per stakeholder and profit per stakeholder

increased by 19 percent.

A Sense of Community

SFF’s emphasis on ethical practices and its concern for

public health and the environment earned respect and loyalty

not only from customers and suppliers, but also from the

local communities from which it draws its stakeholders. SFF

supports these communities largely through Awareness

Teams, made up of stakeholders at each facility, which

organize activities and manage SFF’s charitable

contributions. SFF stakeholders are involved in more than

160 local organizations as members, contributors, and

volunteers, and SFF’s charitable giving has increased from

$485 per stakeholder in 2001 to more than $700 per

stakeholder in 2004.

For more information:

Sunny Fresh Foods, Inc.

206 West 4th Street

Monticello, MN 55362

Telephone: (763) 271-5999

Fax: (763) 271-5714

Email: sunnyfreshfoods@cargill.com

Web site: www.sunnyfreshfoods.com