LOS ANGELES, CA - Tapping into the affirmation that always feels good at any age, Good Choice, Kid has launched. The campaign is Wonderful Halos’ way of celebrating healthy eating habits in the face of temptation, and this year’s run is geared towards not only kiddos young in age; it also congratulates those young at heart–or the “big kids” who might be older in age–for making healthier snack choices.
“We’ve always known that Wonderful Halos is the obvious choice for kids because they’re healthy, easy to peel, seedless and bursting with sweet flavor,” said Adam Cooper, Vice President of Marketing, in a recent press release. “But our research shows that adults also turn to the Pure Goodness of our California mandarins with the same enthusiasm, so these commercials present the perfect opportunity to extend our existing campaign and celebrate the good choices made by kids of all ages.”
New commercials complement the established Good Choice, Kid campaign and are a product of the continued investment of $100 million investment that was made throughout the first five years of the brand. On top of this investment, Halos is also looking to make its biggest digital investment to date, as it launches a robust influencer program and increased visibility across social media platforms. Print, national FSIs, PR, a New York City Times Square digital billboard, and Wonderful Halos’ biggest in-store POS display program will be amplifying the campaign and bringing Halos to consumers everywhere. The POS collection will showcase a grove-to-store tractor and grove tree display, which the company hopes will highlight its fresh California mandarins’ delivery process.
Wonderful Agency, the company’s in-house creative team, curated the new commercials and this year’s campaign. The Good Choice, Kid campaign was released at the onset of last mandarin season, and with four smart and witty television spots, children were able to identify with the characters in the commercials as they faced difficult snacking choices in precarious, far-fetched, and hilarious instances. Now, the Agency is looking to widen its audience to attract all ages with commercials, both old and new, throughout the mandarin season in local and national markets as an aspect of the company’s multi-million dollar ad spend.
“In expanding the campaign to directly address adults’ snacking choices, we finally dispel the notion that with age comes wisdom. Adults are just as capable of making wrong-headed choices as kids are,” said Chief Creative Officer Darren Moran in the release. “With these spots, we’re simply offering up a healthy but delicious alternative to runaway organs and ruined parties.”
Mandarin season runs now through May, and consumers are able to pick up 3- and 5- pound bags and 5-pound boxes in produce aisles at groceries and club stores nationwide.
This year's revamped campaign is just one more way that Wonderful Halos is looking to expand its audience and ensure the continued growth of its bags and boxes.
MIAMI, FL - Once a specialty product found in higher-end restaurants, now a beloved veggie for everyday dining, French beans, or haricots verts if you’re fancy, are the perfect year-round product for retailer’s looking for a reliable and delicious green to offer in produce aisles.
“Since Crystal Valley Foods switches production regions in the Guatemalan highlands to different micro climates, we are always in production,” Jay Rodriguez, President, tells me. “As is typical during this season every year, we do expect extra promotional volume during the holidays. We manage our crop production as best as possible to match the demand peaks in the market which historically has exhibited higher demand during holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.”
To help retailers promote French beans and other Crystal Valley products, Crystal Valley’s marketing department is available to create the right, relevant POS and sales support for your store, recommending eye-catching displays that show the addition of tasty French beans to holiday meals along with turkeys and roasts. Retailers also have the option of specifying the portion size that best fits their customer profile, and are even available to private label if needed.
“We offer a tremendous degree of flexibility to our customers in the area of pack sizes, and they have an option of receiving clipped beans as well,” Rodriguez says. “Food service customers can select 5-pound ‘bulk packs’ with beans packed in extended shelf life bags, or they can opt for 2-pound bags packed in a case of 10 or 5. The packs with the 2-pound bags offers our customers that larger volume they might need but with smaller units in order to maintain freshness.”
Crystal Valley also offers white asparagus—perfect for Hollandaise-based holiday dishes. Produced in Peru year-round and distinct from green asparagus in appearance, preparation, and serving, white asparagus gets its color from the way it is grown—in sandy soil conditions in northern Peru with the spears growing into the sand, unexposed to sunlight—and is a more neutral tasting vegetable providing uniqueness for holiday tables.
Or if you’re looking for something sweeter, Crystal Valley imports blueberries from Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Peru, and blackberries from Mexico and Guatemala. With the season in full swing now, Crystal Valley expects a good volume. It offers blueberries in 6 oz dry pints or 18 oz and 24 oz containers, and blackberries in 6 oz and 12 oz containers, as well as organic for both varieties.
For more on exceptional year-round offerings in our industry, stay tuned to AndNowUKnow.
LINCOLNSHIRE, ENGLAND – Residents of Eastern England’s Lincolnshire County received an unexpected produce delivery when a trailer overturned on the A52—an important route running through the East Midlands—spilling roughly 10 tons of potatoes onto the side of the road—and into one resident’s driveway.
“The trailer came off the tractor on the bend and deposited around 10 tons of potatoes in the drive of the bungalow,” said Eddie Hewitt, a local from nearby port town Wainfleet who first came across the incident, according to local news source Lincolnshire Live. "He's done a neat job as he has parked the trailer in the guy's driveway and not blocked the road...The homeowner is having chips for tea."
Hewitt reportedly spoke with the truck’s driver, as well, who was unharmed.
"The driver said [my grandsons] could have some potatoes, so they were happy,” added Hewitt.
The incident occurred on a stretch of the A52 between Boston and Skegness just before 3:00 p.m. when a truck rounding a bend on the road became uncoupled from its trailer and the container tipped into the roadside. No injuries were reported and traffic was largely unaffected as the trucks cargo was largely confined to the roadside and a single driveway.
Could two tons of spuds be headed to a driveway near you? AndNowUKnow will keep you up-to-date, Home Fry.
KINGSVILLE, ON - With the season of giving and gratitude upon us, it’s fitting that SUNSET® was recently recognized for some of its work in the community. The produce company was presented with the Food Bank Council of Michigan’s 2017 Beacon of Light Award.
Presented at the annual Michigan Harvest Gathering Luncheon in Lansing, Michigan on November 8th, Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan nominated SUNSET® for recognition of its having donated over 5 million pounds of produce this past year.
“For over ten years, Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan has been an excellent partner in our efforts to give back to the community,” shared President Paul Mastronardi. “Together, we’ve distributed millions of pounds of fresh, healthy produce to people in need and we’re extremely grateful for this tremendous honor.”
The donations from SUNSET® have been used towards the Gleaners School Food Mobile Pantry program. According to a press release, this feeds families from 79 underserved schools in southeast Michigan.
“We are grateful for all SUNSET® has done and continues to do for Gleaners,” said Gerry Brisson, President of Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan. “Through their generous donation of millions of pounds of produce, hundreds of thousands of food-insecure families are receiving the healthy food they need to thrive. The partnership with SUNSET® is dramatically advancing our shared vision of a hunger-free southeastern Michigan.”
Now in its 27th year, the Michigan Harvest Gathering (MHG) is an annual statewide campaign that has successfully raised over 54 million meals for Michigan’s emergency food response and those in need.
Congratulations to the SUNSET® team on this latest honor!
KINGSVILLE, ONTARIO - When was the last time you looked something or someone up on your phone or computer? My guess is that if it wasn’t within the past hour, you are out of town and on a beach somewhere in perfect contentment. No, not you? Well, our enjoyment of that fantasy is just about as unlikely as us not connecting to the web for answers and information. While we might not be on vacation, DelfrescoPure® is making our searches feel a bit more like paradise by redesigning its website to cater to consumers’ needs. To make this happen, the company teamed up with Windsor-Detroit-based Douglas Marketing Group (DMG).
"DMG was selected based on their long-standing experience and an integrated approach that combines key objectives in marketing with an online strategy supported by exceptional design," stated Fiona McLean, Marketing Manager for DelfrescoPure, in a recent press release. "Our process was a well-thought-out charted course with DMG that created an integrated approach with our team at DelfrescoPure."
The website design keeps users in mind and showcases the rich diversity of the company's products so that consumers can visually experience the goods. Layered with various engagement tactics, consumers navigating the company’s new website will find it to be easier to locate messaging about brand renewal, products, produce, and recipes that make the company so great.
The navigation has been made simpler by the creation of a drop-down menu, which allows consumers to find the high-resolution and eye-catching photography of the company’s products. The visuals communicate key factors, relevant information, and detailed content about the company’s products with a blend of graphics and text. Alongside fun facts and information regarding nutritional benefits about the company’s products and produce, there is also a recipe portal with high-resolution photography. But, to top it off, the company’s website is responsive in that it is user-friendly across multiple browsers and devices so that regardless of consumers’ environments or behaviors, they will be able to locate exactly what they are looking to find!
Users can thank the collaboration between both companies, which has made their online experience easier. With so much time being spent online these days, such alteration to our searching efforts is very much welcomed! While the companies worked closely to make this transition happen, we look forward to seeing how well the new website affects the company’s growth and business moving forward.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - Whole Foods former Co-CEO Walter Robb is adding his food industry star power to Colorado Springs-based FoodMaven, a company that redistributes “oversupplied food” from suppliers to buyers through an online marketplace. Robb, who stepped down from his role at Whole Foods at the end of last year, has joined the startup’s Board of Directors, as well as invested what FoodMaven CEO and Co-Founder Patrick Bultema called a "significant" and “sizable" sum.
"FoodMaven is going straight at the growing challenge of food waste and has created an imaginative and innovative market-based approach to using more of what we produce," said Robb. "I am excited to join with Patrick and team to help with this effort and grow the company."
FoodMaven has said its business model complements the big food system by acquiring high-quality food from oversupply, imperfects, and local products, and through the use of its Internet marketplace and logistics system, the company is able to re-sell and deliver what it refers to as “lost food.” “We believe that the food system needs a 'back-to-the-future' play—an agile hybrid of the best of local, and the best of the current big food system, seamlessly blended together," said Bultema.
In the next five years, the startup will look to expand to up to 100 major cities in the next five years. According to a press release, FoodMaven has a someday goal of $1 billion in revenue and 8,000 employees.
"Walter is one of the most influential people in the U.S. food system, and we are thrilled to welcome him as a significant investor, trusted advisor, and member of our Board of Directors," said Bultema. "His decades of thought leadership in the food industry, experience at Whole Foods Market, and most recently his involvement in Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods, will be instrumental as we continue to grow FoodMaven and transform how we think about the big food system."
FoodMaven has put an emphasis on being a solution for all walks of the food industry, offering quick delivery times, cheap prices, and high-quality to restaurants, kitchens, and other buyers, while providing an avenue to make a profit on products that would otherwise be lost as food waste to grocery distribution centers, food distributors, and producers.
Now in a final push to build in the Front Range metro areas of Colorado, FoodMaven plans to roll out its services nationally in 2018. Want to learn more about the company Walter Robb has signed on to play for? Visit foodmaven.co.
SALINAS, CA – Employee-owned family farm, Tanimura & Antle, announced this week the launch of a web-based fall consumer promotion The Artisan of Entertaining to fuel its Thanksgiving holiday pull of Artisan Lettuce and Artisan Romaine.
From November 7th through November 28th, the company is offering consumers the opportunity to win 1 of 25 prize packs by downloading the e-Book Artisan of Entertaining, which includes six fall themed recipes–two of which were developed and photographed by supporting blog partners Namely Marly and Eating Richly–that feature Tanimura & Antle's Artisan Romaine and Artisan Lettuce.
“The Artisan Romaine from Tanimura & Antle is so pretty, I almost hate chopping it up. Artisan Romaine has the refreshing crunch of iceberg lettuce and the sweet flavor of a romaine heart,” said Diana Johnson, author of Eating Richly, in a press release. “Sliced in half, it’s like a beautifully layered bowl that drinks up the dressing without getting soggy. I decided to create a fall wedge salad that highlights their beauty, while combining some of our favorite autumn ingredients.”
Tanimura & Antle’s Artisan Lettuce and Artisan Romaine offer consumers a better value, higher yield, and longer shelf-life than bagged salad blends. The unique, petite lettuce varieties provide the texture, variety, and flavors that today’s shoppers demand while allowing more creative flexibility in the kitchen, and endless dish ideas for Thanksgiving.
With the help of Namely Marly and Eating Richly, Tanimura & Antle’s social media content and advertising, and the support of partnering retailers, consumers will be driven to the promotion’s landing page where they can download the promotion’s Artisan of Entertaining e-Book. The download of the eBook automatically enters consumers for the chance to win 1 of the 25 prize packs. Each prize pack includes a $100 VISA giftcard, $100 in Tanimura & Antle product coupons, a salad bowl kit, Tanimura & Antle re-usable grocery bag, and more.
Just in time for the entertaining season, the Artisan of Entertaining promotion shares with shoppers just how easy an impressive salad can be with Tanimura & Antle's Artisan Romaine and Artisan Lettuce, so don’t miss out!
For more produce industry news, AndNowUKnow will continue to bring you the latest.
EL SEGUNDO, CA – Beyond Meat®, the maker of the plant-based Beyond Burger® that looks, cooks, and tastes like beef, is experiencing explosive growth over the past several months. After announcing a partnership with Sysco’s Cutting Edge Solutions program, the company's burgers have been added to more than 2,000 menus spread across various foodservice outlets including restaurants, hotels, college campuses, and professional sports teams’ training camps.
In a recent press release, the company reported a number of new partners picking up the burger—restaurants like Delilah LA, The Moonlighter in Chicago, The Distillery NYC, and The Hamilton Inn in Jersey City, that seek to appeal to meat eaters and vegetarians alike. And, according to that press release, Beyond Meat’s existing partners have also seen impressive growth in Beyond Burger sales.
“In the first three months, we’ve sold more than 20,000 Beyond Burgers which equates to about 10% of burger/sandwich sales and is exceeding our sales expectations. Those numbers continue to grow each week,” said David Friedman, Founder & CEO of Epic Burger in meat-centric Chicago.
Altogether, the Beyond Burger is now available in more than 5,000 restaurants and grocery stores. And the company noted that it is proud to partner with several nationwide food and hospitality partners including:
- BurgerFi
- iPic Theaters
- Twin Peaks Restaurant
Additionally, the company is available at a number of large regional restaurant chains including Veggie Grill on the West Coast, Cody’s Original Roadhouse in Florida, and Chelo’s Hometown Bar & Grille in New England. For updates on distribution, interested parties are encouraged to visit the company's blog.
For more plant-based food stealing the spotlight and snapping up more center-plate real estate, stay tuned to AndNowUKnow.
SACRAMENTO, CA – Convenience is in high demand these days, and the latest addition to Raley’s commitment to providing customers with “Better for You” products doesn’t disappoint in either category. Initially launched in 2010, Raley’s announced today the expansion of its Ready-To-Go meal options with new sizes, flavors, packaging, and 32 different meal offerings, all made with fresh ingredients.
“Our customers are in for a real treat with Raley’s new Ready-To-Go meals,” said Keith Knopf, President & Chief Operating Officer, in a press release. “We understand the importance of convenient, healthy food options at a value and believe our customers will enjoy the new meals, made with quality ingredients that taste great!”
With an emphasis on trending, global flavors featured in meals like Chicken Fajitas, Moroccan Style Couscous, and Beef with Chimichurri Sauce, Raley’s Ready-To-Go meals have modern, functional packaging–easy to heat in aluminum trays in under 2 minutes–and come in three different convenient sizes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including mini size with 15 different offerings, entrée size with 12 different offerings, and large family size with 5 different offerings. The meals range from $3.99 for a single serving to $16.99 for the family size and can be found in easy grab-and-go displays.
The expansion also features Raley’s refocus on label transparency and tapping with its recently launched labeling system tag program. The Raley’s Shelf Guide helps customers find options that meet their personal dietary needs by presenting clear descriptions like “Nutrient Dense,” “Calorie Conscious,” “Vegan,” and “Vegetarian” directly on the Ready-To-Go packaging.
Raley’s Ready-To-Go meals are available in the fresh deli department and online! For more news on the latest and greatest in retail trends, stay up-to-date with AndNowUKnow.
WENATCHEE, WA - Conventional and organic new-crop opportunities are booming more than ever, with a record Kanzi® apple harvest. The projected increase as expressed by CMI Orchards, which is one of the two U.S. growers licensed to grow the variety, is reportedly 120 percent, including a 400 percent increase seen in organic.
News of the bountiful harvest is music to supermarkets’ ears, with scan data from Nielsen Supermarket showing a 66 percent dollar gain for the popular variety in the 9,000 U.S. grocers that are offering it to consumers.
“We’re so excited to be launching the 2017 Kanzi season,” said George Harter, Vice President of Marketing for CMI Orchards. “U.S. consumers are fast discovering why Kanzi is one of the hottest apples in Europe. With our big crop, we’ll be running aggressive promotions with retail partners throughout the season.”
This apple variety is the gift that keeps on giving to supermarkets, as it has proven to be an apple that consumers return to for more of its intense flavor. Harter also expressed that CMI’s Daisy Girl Organics program is also a huge opportunity to leverage the apple variety’s top-selling success for retailers.
“Retailers tell us that once consumers try it they come back to the store time and time again. These repeat purchases really drive category sales throughout the season,” said Harter.
The coveted apple is a driving force in the category for retailers. With so much growth for the apple’s sales, it’s a great thing that the harvest is keeping up with demand.
“Best in Class retailers are now driving up to 15% of category sales with branded apples like Kanzi by changing the varietal mix. The most successful retailers are very strategic in merchandising because they know the value of shifting consumer purchases up to high-flavor, higher-priced branded apples like Kanzi. The net result is they move their mix away from low cost commodity apples into higher cost premium apples. Even small shifts in volume drive strong increases in total dollars,” said Steve Lutz, Senior Strategist for CMI Orchards. “On average, Kanzi delivers a price premium for retailers that is 46% above the apple category average. Every time a consumer discovers Kanzi it drives incremental category dollars.”
CMI Orchards is not the only grower to see the spike in production. While CMI’s crunchy snacks are grown in Washington, Michigan is home to the second Kanzi apple grower, Applewood Orchards, Inc., which is reporting a 150 percent increase in conventional apples. And, U.S. supermarkets are in for a treat because, according to Scott Swindeman of Applewood Orchards, August’s and September’s great weather enhanced the fruit size. He is excited to bring his harvest to grocers.
“Beyond the unique flavor of Kanzi, retailers tell us they love how this apple stands out on supermarket shelves. What we’ve learned is the fire engine red and bright yellow background color of Kanzi really catches the eye of the consumer,” said Swindeman.
For grocers wondering how to market the tasty variety, CMI has done the work for you. To better showcase the popular snack, the company has created in-store merchandising support as a new retail tool for a stronger impact.
“For our 2017/2018 season we have our new “Ship ‘n’ Shop”™ Kanzi retail display bin. We developed this bin to give retailers a quick and easy tool to build powerful, off-shelf displays,” said Harter. “The Ship ‘n’ Shop™ display bin sets up in 10 minutes and ships with 16 euro cases of Kanzi. It eliminates a common problem for supermarket merchandisers by ensuring the fruit and the display materials arrive in the store at the same time. The strong graphics help retailers alert shoppers that new-crop Kanzi is finally back.”
With such a hearty harvest, Kanzi’s success story is just beginning this season. AndNowUKnow will continue to report on where it goes from here and all things fresh produce!