CJ Given, Director Sales, Retail, Taylor Farms<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">We do everything from snack trays to the regular retail trays, all the way up to 4lb club store trays. The veggie tray market is definitely a more developed and mature market. But we’re still seeing good growth year over year, up about 5%. One thing we’ve noticed with vegetable trays is that they’re being used on a weekly basis. They’re not just an event item anymore. We see a lot of increased sales when retailers build those secondary displays and make the tray an item in the category. We’re seeing a lot of great performances from retailers when they do that.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Barbara Dan, VP Marketing Research & Development, Ready Pac<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Ready Pac has a line of fruit and vegetable trays that were put together specifically to compliment the kinds of occasions that consumers experience, including entertaining guests. What we’re seeing is entertaining at home continues to be a very important occasion for consumers, and they like the homemade appearance of a lot of their own foods--but when they want a fruit and vegetable platter, a lot of the time savings that goes into what we provide is not having to chop up all of the fruits and vegetables, so it’s a very convenient type of product that they can put out as an appetizer ahead of the main meal. It makes entertaining much easier. <hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
