<p> A recent Nielsen Perishables Group report revealed that Ambrosia™ apple sales have jumped by 74% for the month of October despite relatively flat apple volumes and falling retail prices, according to a press release.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> “The apple category is under pressure,” says Steve Lutz, Vice President of Marketing for CMI. “With the large U.S. harvest, falling prices puts deflationary pressure on retailers. We’re seeing the big increases in sales of branded apples like Ambrosia play a bigger role by helping retailers maintain category profitability in a deflationary market.”<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Lutz says that the average non-promoted price for Ambrosia is over $2.00 per pound, while the average price for apples was around $1.55 per pound. The data in the Nielsen Perishables Group report also indicates that there were nearly 10% more apple items, or more than 35 unique apple items per store per week, on retail shelves and available to consumers. The key, Lutz says, is to offer shoppers the choice to buy unique branded apples that carry higher price points in order to drive transaction size, customer loyalty, and repeat purchases.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> “The data shows that the average Ambrosia promotion drove a dollar lift of over 75%,” continued Lutz. “That’s more than double the average lift for the total apple category and it shows the important role that retail promotions play in introducing these new apple flavors to consumers.”<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> On average, the dollar lift on a promotion was 36.6% for the apple category as a whole and the promotional dollar impact was considerably stronger on varieties like Honeycrisp and Ambrosia. </p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.cmiapples.com/retailer/ambrosia" target="_new"> CMI </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
