A Look Inside Appleseed’s World and Its Customers’ World

How? The company benchmarks relentlessly with its sister companies, both from a best-practices and how-to-do-as-well-as-you-can approach. “We bring the team together, find out how we can join forces, what we’ve learned, etc.,” she said. “It’s a big part of the activity across Orchard Brands.”

5. Steroids: Strength from scale. Orchard Brands has used its power as a group to negotiate very aggressively and effectively with its vendors. “We do this on a coordinated basis,” she said. “Culturally at Orchard, it’s not acceptable to go off and do your own thing.”