Owner | Golden Sun Marketing
“I believe the key to future retail success is aligning all the players from seed to retail, identifying what the consumer needs and helping the retailer find ways to make the consumer realize they want it.”
As a 30 year veteran of the produce industry with expertise in retail marketing, Goodwin brings this knowledge to every project he works on. From his early days as a retail manager to leadership ranks at major retailers, Goodwin gained experience in retail, procurement, wholesale, marketing and merchandising that affords him a unique and well rounded insight that he brings to his clients at Golden Sun Marketing, as well as in his role as COO at Imagination Farms.
In recent years, Goodwin has translated his retail experience into helping build a retail space for branded produce that includes the likes of high profile brands like Disney and Green Giant Fresh. In 2005, Goodwin helped found Imagination Farms, a fresh produce distributing company focused on increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables among children. Goodwin helped negotiate a partnership with Disney Consumer Products to launch a line of fresh produce in the Disney Garden brand and capitalize on Disney as a vehicle to help achieve the company’s mission.
Today, Goodwin owns Golden Sun Marketing, a marketing and strategic business development company that specializes in all aspects of the fresh produce industry and includes seed companies, growers/shippers, distributors, marketing companies and retailers. Prior to launching his own company, Goodwin served as the COO of Green Giant Fresh where he helped build retail and grower partnerships to expand the Green Giant brand. Other credits to his history include retail experience at HEB Grocery Company, Supervalu and Target Corporation, where he led the produce division through the development and launch of fresh produce for the SuperTarget food strategy.
In 2007, Goodwin was named “Top 25” by The Packer, an industry publication that sponsors annual recognition of top industry leaders. A native of Chicagoland, Goodwin is a graduate of Western Michigan University where he majored in Food Distribution. Golden Sun Marketing is headquartered outside of Minneapolis.
