Welcome to What’s in Store. From the Heart of Onion Country, USA Onions is bringing a versatile marketing program, created to enhance and excite retail produce departments and the consumer experience. USA Onions currently represents more than 200 growers and 30 shippers in Southwestern Idaho and Oregon, a place where some of the best tasting onions call home.
USA Onions will be offering a host of promotional programs this year, as well as foodservice and retail materials including printed information covering prep tips, yields, sizing, storage and recipes and beautiful full color POS materials. A Broker Incentive Program is also starting September 15th plus programs available to individual retailers and foodservice partners that are interested in promoting the USA Onions brand. In addition, for industry professionals and consumers alike, USA Onions has a new website featuring recipes, prep tips and much more all easily accessible and user friendly.
Growers in the fertile Snake River Valley plant yellow, red, and white varieties of sweet Spanish seed in March and April to offer more than one billion pounds of USA Onions from August to Early May. Premium Idaho-Eastern Oregon onions are available from August to early May. All of the company’s onions are stored in state-of-the-art facilities and are inspected daily by the Federal-State Inspection Service to certify that they are the right grade, size, pack and maturity. In fact, USA Onions is the only storage onion region to operate under a federal marketing order, 958, which exceeds size in grade standards of USDA. From field to kitchen, USA Onions, America’s Local Onion Growers, have you covered.
MONTEREY, CA – PRO*ACT's sustainability and local produce initiative, Greener Fields Together, has announced that it will be an official sponsor of Farm Aid 2014.
“Supporting local farms and sustainably raised fresh produce is a big part of our Greener Fields Together mission,” says Max Yeater, President of PRO*ACT. “It’s a passion that we share with the Farm Aid organization and we’re happy to support the effort with our sponsorship. We’re looking forward to what promises to be a great event for a great cause.”
Farm Aid brings together recording artists like Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews in order to raise awareness and money for America's family-owned farms and to help grow the “Good Food Movement.”
According to a press release, as in previous years Greener Fields Together will be participating in Farm Aid's HOMEGROWN Village. The HOMEGROWN Village will feature live music, interviews with artists and farmers, the HOMEGROWN Skills Tent featuring a wide range of local agrarian and homesteading skills presentations, and educational hands-on food and farm activities. By attending the Village, event-goers have the opportunity to learn more about environmental conservation, what fuels economic growth, and how to support the Good Food Movement.
Finally, together with local purveyor Foster-Caviness, Greener Fields Together will be donating produce from local farmers which will go into the construction of the artist backstage catering venue and for the HOMEGROWN Concessions area.
It's great to see PRO*ACT supporting a wonderful cause like this. Nice job, Greener Fields Together!
Edmundson Martin has been featured in the latest edition of AndNowUKnow’s print publication, The Snack Magazine. Partner and Creative Director at Edmundson Martin, as well as contributing author for The Snack, David Edmundson, gives six insider tips on how to make your produce brand work harder on the shelf.
Check out The Snack article by clicking here, or read the full text below:
Can your produce brand work harder at the shelf?
When speaking with produce marketers regarding what they want out of their brand and packaging, you hear things like, “We want it to pop,” “It needs to feel high quality,” “Make it look fresh,” “We want to look like a category leader.” While the intentions are good, without a more strategic approach most brands end up over-packaged and uninspired, lacking the emotional appeal needed to engage shoppers and ultimately increase market share.
Before embarking on your next brand creation or redesign initiative, consider the following points to help ensure a fresh and successful outcome:
1. Does your brand tell an authentic story?
We’re not talking about the 8 lines of text on the back of your bag but about your brand’s visual expression and whether it communicates the true you in a unique way. In the produce sector, many companies fail to share a compelling and genuine story. This leads to generic looking packs with large logos, graphics color bars, and redundant product photography that lacks ownability. Developing a visually distinctive brand language that tells an authentic story will engage shoppers and help set your brand apart.
2. Does your brand appear fresh?
In produce, freshness is communicated by the product itself. Unlike frozen dinners or cereal boxes, a picture is not worth a thousand words. The product should be the hero with the brand, and graphics serving a supporting role to help differentiate and communicate things like trust and quality. Finding the right balance between product visibility and brand impact is a crucial consideration when you want to stand out without sacrificing freshness perceptions.
3. Is your messaging meaningful?
Product description, quality/quantity statements, health benefits, flavor profiles, sustainability messages, etc.… That’s a lot to communicate on a clamshell or bag, especially when you are trying to minimize the graphics. It’s critical that your messaging is simplified down to two key points: what makes your product different and why a shopper should buy it. By reducing content and focusing on what matters most to your audience, your package will be less cluttered and more engaging.
4. Is your brand versatile?
Given the many production techniques, substrates, sizes, and structures in the industry, it is important to consider how your brand voice reproduces in different scenarios– such as a spot color box vs. a 4-color bag, or the size limitations of a PLU tag vs. a large display box. Quality perceptions are at stake; a strong brand will reproduce flawlessly across any medium for maximum consistency and increased brand equity.
5. Is your brand tired?
All brands need to revitalize their packaging to stay relevant. Many brands in the produce sector are outdated, opening the door for competition and loss of market share. Keeping your brand current is a great way to differentiate and provide new meaning. Is there a new benefit or characteristic that can be leveraged for more consumer relevance? Being current is not about looking trendy or being different just to be different— it’s about creating a better bond between your brand and consumers.
6. Is your packaging unified?
The best brands speak with one distinctive voice across all touch points, both visually and verbally. Consistency fosters trust and loyalty. Clamshell labels, PLU stickers, display boxes, handle bags, and pop displays should all speak with the same dynamic brand voice. By engaging consumers with a unified appearance and message across your entire product line, you can maximize brand recognition and relevance where it matters most... at the shelf.
The produce sector is a largely untapped and underdeveloped category with its own set of challenges and special considerations when it comes to branding and packaging. Some would say that in produce, brands don’t have the same influence as in other categories, but there is certainly an opportunity to affect buying decisions for those willing to take a strategic, shopper focused approach.
David Edmundson is Partner/Creative Director at Edmundson Martin, a strategic branding firm that helps build better food and beverage brands through meaningful design. They combine creative intelligence with executional know-how to deliver brands that are different, relevant and successful.
JUPITER, FL - Locus Traxx has announced that it will be launching an updated version of its SmartTraxx Portable unit, redesigning the equipment to make it possible to fit almost entirely inside the shipping container.
Ray Hoffman, Managing Director of the European venture of Locus Traxx Worldwide and Vitrociset Belgium, says that this new SmartTraxx Portable will “redefine the market,” giving produce shippers more options than ever before.
“SmartTraxx Portable is a multimodal unit that is capable of transmitting location and temperature data from inside a container even when traveling across deep oceans,” he said. “Self-reporting shipments continuously send out real-time information on their location and status updates, which can be received by users on their desktop or smartphone.”
One thing that makes the updated unit so exciting is that it is capable of sending intrusion alerts whenever the doors of a container are opened, protecting shippers from unauthorized tampering of their products.
All the data from SmartTraxx Portable and Locus Traxx's other units are secured and displayed on the company's client dedicated website, Oversight. There shippers can create create reports and graphics for more efficient analysis of their operations.
Together with Locus Traxx's other products like the innovative SmartTraxx Go unit which AndNowUKnow had the privilege to highlight in a previous Behind the Greens episode, SmartTraxx Portable gives logistics companies powerful tools to promote cost savings measures and efficient operations.
For example, the Allen Lund Company, which makes use of roughly 600 SmartTraxx units a month, saved $540,000 in 2012 as a result of a reduction in the level of claims from its client, thanks in part to the information provided by Locus Traxx.
“By reporting the status of the load in real time our customers are able to react immediately as problems arise and not after the fact,” Hoffman shared. “Many times a simple phone call can get a problem solved, thus avoiding damage to the product, time and resource consuming claims and even total loss of product.”
To learn more about Locus Traxx's line of products, check out the company's video at this link here.
IMMOKALEE, FL - Lipman is bringing a customer favorite to produce departments this summer, Lipman’s proprietary Vintage Ripes.
The exclusive tomato is field-grown and vine-ripened for a one-of-a-kind flavor. This heirloom variety is ideal for stuffing, slicing into a meal, or simply consumed as a standalone snack. Since the Vintage Ripes are sold at the peak of freshness, the company recommends handling them with care for optimum shelf life. Packaging comes with unique recipe options and links to the company website via QR code for more information on the product and Lipman Produce.
If you’d like to see your product in this video segment, please send samples to 2020 L Street, Suite 320, Sacramento, CA 95811.
MISSION, TX – The Texas International Produce Association, TIPA, is gearing up for the inaugural Viva Fresh Conference and Expo on March 26-28 in Austin, Texas with the launch of a new website. Check it out by clicking here.
The new website provides a wide range of information including the schedule of events, exhibitor and attendee registration, sponsorship opportunities and a summary of education workshops.
Full Tilt Marketing, a full service marketing agency specializing in the produce industry, has worked closely with TIPA to plan and conceptualize this new event from start to finish including the design and launch of the new website, according to a press release. “It’s exciting to be on the ground floor of industry opportunities like Viva Fresh that celebrate new directions for our industry and create collaborative experiences,” stated Heidi McIntyre, Managing Partner at Full Tilt Marketing.
The Expo takes a unique and different approach from other regional trade shows. “In our case, a regional show is an international show,” commented Bret Erickson, TIPA CEO. "We’re excited to be able to talk trade, retail trends, and grower issues all while connecting U.S. and Mexico based grower/shippers with buyers from throughout the U.S. and Canada.”
The Viva Fresh Conference and Expo is a “Gateway to the Americas” that showcases produce grown in the Southwestern United States and Mexico. Visitors are offered the unique opportunity to learn more about transportation issues, product availability and upcoming trade regulations within and between the U.S. and Mexico.
The expo offers a fun, unique educational look at the health benefits, style and taste of Southwestern and Mexico-grown produce, with chef-inspired events and receptions with a region-specific foodie flair.
Make sure to check out the new website for more information on how to register for this must-see event.
HAMBURG, GERMANY – C.H. Robinson continues to grow its European base of operations with a new office in Germany and the hiring of two office managers, Michel Datz and Jochen Mueller for the company's Basel, Switzerland, and Düsseldorf, Germany offices.
Oliver Schmidt, a logistics veteran who began his career in the industry in 1994, will be tasked with managing the new road transportation office in Hamburg. According to a press release, the new office will focus on new customer sales and executing road transport services. With his background in in road transport, air, ocean, project cargo, and supply chain consulting, C.H. Robinson is confident that Schmidt is the right man for this job.
Because it co-located with C.H. Robinson’s Hamburg global forwarding office, the new office will serve a variety of supply chain and logistics requirements for a whole host of European countries in addition to the German market.
“The addition of Oliver, Michel, and Jochen, along with the Hamburg office opening has solidified our commitment to the European region,” said Bryan Foe, President of C.H. Robinson Europe. “Our dynamic office network offers flexible, quality, and reliable service with the local knowledge that customers demand.”
Datz will be taking over the Basel, Switzerland office, where he will be bringing his 30 years of experience in logistics and global forwarding, to the task of developing a strong customer network and growing the company's business operations.
Mueller will be managing C.H. Robinson's office in Düsseldorf, Germany. Through his employment with TNT, Fercam Transporte, and Gruber Logistics, Mueller has years of experience in sales, sales management, and branch management. He will be bringing these formidable skills to C.H. Robinson to help grow the Düsseldorf office.
Congratulations Mueller and Datz on your new positions and to C.H. Robinson for its exciting new office expansion!
NEW YORK, NY – Limoneira shares were up 5% to $25.50 in after hours trading on Tuesday.
These gains came after Limoneira released its Q3 and nine months FY 2014 financial results. The company increased its full year operating income guidance to between $12.6 million and $13.7 million from its previous forecast of $10.6 million to $11.8 million. The company also raised its earnings per share range to between $0.57 and $0.62 from its previous $0.45 and $0.50 per diluted share.
Limoneira also saw third quarter revenue increase 22% over last year, an increase of 40% in third quarter lemon sales over last year and a decrease in long-term debt by $8.9 million in the third quarter.
In its analysis, TheStreet highlights that Limoneira’s revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 3.1% and that the company’s net operating cash flow has significantly increased 1412.20% to $6.77 million when compared to the same quarter last year.
The improved outlook comes from a continuation of higher lemon prices. Because of this, TheStreet Ratings team rates Limoneira as a Buy, saying, "We rate LIMONEIRA CO (LMNR) a BUY. This is driven by a number of strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, good cash flow from operations, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, increase in stock price during the past year and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income."
As of 12:25 pm ET today, Limoneira stock is up $0.59, representing a 2.43% increase.
Congratulations on the stock gains, Limoneira!
OLATHE, KS - Price Chopper's parent company, Balls Food Stores, is opening Payless Discount Foods, a new grocery store concept aimed at the growing savings-savvy segment of the American consumer base. Opened at the site of a former Price Chopper in Olathe, Kansas, the new store concept will carry a “No Games. No Gimmicks” tagline and a whole host of excellent discounts.
“People are always looking to save a little money where they can,” said David Gryszowka, Vice President of Store Development for Balls Food Stores. With the store so busy on weekends that every shopping cart in the establishment is in use, according to the Kansas City Star, it's hard to argue with his vision for Payless Discount Foods.
Does this move signal a new way forward for Balls Food Stores? Probably not, says Kansas City Star, which points out that the “no-frills” approach of Payless Discount Foods shares a common philosophy with the Price Chopper chain.
Aisles of customers packing their own groceries, a no-credit card policy, and the pages on pages of discounts in Payless' “Wall of Value” and “Manager's Specials” come from the same fundamental Price Chopper philosophy that the way to a successful retail business is simple: a great product at the lowest possible price target.
So far, Balls Food Stores has not released any word on whether it intends to expand this new concept outside of Olathe, but if word on a future move is released, you can count on AndNowUKnow to bring you the news first. Stay tuned.
BENTONVILLE, AR - Wal-Mart has disclosed through an internal memo that it will be folding its Express store format under its Neighborhood Market banner. Going forward, its 21 Express store locations will be rebranded as Neighborhood Markets in what the Motley Fool believes is an effort to differentiate its line of smaller stores.
According to The Fool, Wal-Mart realized that there just wasn't enough separating the Wal-Mart Express format and the Neighborhood Market format to justify keeping both brands on the books. The retailer found that consumers were at large using the Express and Neighborhood Market stores for “fill-in trips” for last minute items or for filling prescriptions. By going with the larger 42,000 sq. ft. Neighborhood Market format over the 15,000 sq. ft. Express format, Wal-Mart will be able to offer a greater selection to this type of customer, especially in the fresh produce category, meaning more sales and a larger basket size due to impulse purchasing.
The fact that this decision comes now has struck some as perplexing. Less than a month ago, President and CEO Greg Foran had announced that Wal-Mart was enjoying excellent same-store sales growth with its Express stores and planned on opening 90 new locations this year with more coming in 2015.
The Fool speculates that the reason behind this decision may come from a recent Nielsen poll which found that the "food, consumables, & OTC" category had gained 37 basis points of market share during the 13-week period ending in mid-July. The increasing importance of fresh options like produce, would doubtlessly increase the value of the Neighborhood Market format where these offerings are more easily incorporated. In this context, Wal-Mart's doubling down on its line of Neighborhood Markets makes much more sense.
There is also the argument that the Neighborhood Market format is Wal-Mart's best weapon against increasing competition from America's growing dollar stores, especially with Dollar General and Dollar Tree vying over the right to acquire the operations of Family Dollar. The Fool notes that none of these discounters offer fresh produce options, giving Wal-Mart's Neighborhood Markets a sizable advantage over its competition.
So far, Wal-Mart has not released an official statement commenting on this rebranding effort.
Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for any updates on Wal-Mart going forward.