LOS ALAMITOS, CA – Frieda's Stokes Purple® Sweet Potatoes is returning for a 3rd season and on the heels of last years sellout crop, its growers are expecting big things again for 2014.
“We sold out of our entire crop last year in late January—not one single sweet potato left behind for both conventional crop and our organic pilot program! So we planted a lot more this year, so we can have year-round supply,” said Karen Caplan, President and CEO of Frieda’s Inc. “These tubers are extremely popular with shoppers for their gorgeous color and well-balanced flavor. Additionally, fitness enthusiasts find Stokes Purple® to be the perfect fuel for their healthy lifestyle, and they stock up on them.”
According to a press release, Stokes Purple Sweet Potatoes have a lush purple skin and a deep purple flesh. They are high in antioxidants, putting it in the same class as popular superfoods like açai, blueberry, and purple corn. In addition the sweet potatoes are non-GMO and have a very low value on the glycemic index, making it a big hit with consumers following the popular Paleo or clean-eating diets.
Both conventional and organic varieties of Organic Stokes Purple Sweet Potatoes will be available to retailers. A new addition for this season is a 12/3lb bag shipping option in addition to last year's 15lb and 40lb bulk cartons.
According to a press release, Frieda's will be supporting its sweet potatoes with holiday promotions extensive product information, high resolution images, and a comprehensive recipe database.
Now that sounds like a 'sweet' deal to me!
MONTREAL, QC – Metro Inc. announced sales at its supermarkets growing in what the company called an “intensely competitive” environment.
“We are satisfied with our third quarter results achieved in an environment that remains challenging,” said Metro CEO Eric La Fleche in a statement.
Sales were up 1.4% to $3.62 million from $3.57 million year-over-year. The Times Colonist reports that this increase was helped by the reorganization of the company’s Ontario stores. Also, sales in the first 40 weeks of fiscal 2014 totaled $8.88 million versus $8.79 million in 2013, which is an increase of 1%.
Shares in the company closed down $1.79, or 2.5%, to $69.51 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
RBC Dominion Securities analsyst Irene Nattel said Metro’s results were in line with expectations. “Overall we would say management’s tone was better than prior quarters as MRU (Metro) strategies are gaining traction and relative performance is improving as well,” she wrote after the company’s quarterly earnings call.
Metro is Canada’s third-largest supermarket chain. It faced increased competition from Loblaws, Sobeys, as well as Target and Wal-Mart expansions.
TEWKSBURY, MA - Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick offered Market Basket shoppers a ray of hope on Wednesday, saying that a deal between the retailer and its former President and CEO Arthur T. Demoulas may be close at hand.
Having spoken with Arthur T. Demoulas, Market Basket Board Chairman Keith Cowan, and Arthur S. Demoulas, Patrick said that “I can report that I have spoken with the chair of the board, I have spoken with Arthur T. Demoulas, and I think everybody is interested in a sale. My understanding is they either have an understanding or are very close to a price."
He went on to urge Market Basket employees not to wait for a deal to return to their posts, saying that all parties would be greatly benefited by life returning to normal.
"Frankly, my greatest concern right now is with the people who work for Market Basket, the associates," Patrick said. "They have it entirely within their power to stabilize the company by going back to work, and I hope that they can see a way to do that while the buyer and seller work out the final terms of the transaction ... I think it's important for the workers to understand, the associates to understand, that they can go right back to work, and they would do a service to the people served by Market Basket, all the customers, the communities in which the shops operate, by doing so."
The Board of Directors responded warmly to the Governor's statement, saying “Today, we applaud Governor Patrick’s statement encouraging all Associates to return to work as soon as possible.”
According to NECN News however, Market Basket's employees, firm supporters of Arthur T. Demoulas, have not seemed to respond in kind.
"We will go back to work when Arthur T. Demoulas goes back to work with full authority or when the deal is in place to sell him the company. We will not go back to work when the Governor, the Board or any other entity tells us to,” read a post on the pro-Arthur T. Demoulas blog, “We Are Market Basket.”
Here at ANUK we certainly hope for a speedy and amicable solution to the crisis that has paralyzed Market Basket's operations over the past months. Whether that wish will be granted is something that only time can tell.
SCHENECTADY, NY - Price Chopper has announced the promotion of Sean Weiss as the retailer's new Director of Business Intelligence and Pricing. According to a press release, Sean will now be responsible responsible for Price Chopper's analytics, business planning, systems integration, budget preparation, consumer insights and new store marketing. He will report directly to Glen Bradley, Price Chopper's Vice President of Marketing Analytics.
“Sean’s experience and expertise in analytics and consumer insights provide an excellent base for his newly expanded role,” Glen told ANUK.
Sean has been working with Price Chopper since 2002, working in finance, accounting, and marketing, before finding a home as Manager of Business Intelligence. According to a press release, he is a graduate of Union Graduate College and Hartwich College and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management as well as a Masters degree.
Congratulations on the promotion Sean!
UNITED STATES - New findings reveal that shifting to see-through packaging can mean big sales increases at the retail aisle. A report issued by the Wall Street Journal showed that many consumers feel that products they can see taste better, feel less artificial, and have fresher ingredients, than their covered up counterparts. For the produce industry, a sector of the economy whose selling point is the fresh, natural quality of its products, seizing on these results could serve to emphasize the best of what it brings to the retail game.
Larabar Uber's transition to see-through packaging highlights the benefits that can come with embracing this approach. According to the Wall Street Journal, JoAnne Garbe, Packaging Research and Development Manager for General Mills, spent over a year testing see-through plastics for General Mills Larabars. The result, which hit the retail aisle earlier this year, has been a huge hit with consumers. Garbe told the Journal that consumer preference surveys reveal Larabars sold in the new packaging “tasted better, felt less artificial and the ingredients seemed fresher” even though the ingredients themselves were unchanged.
The sight of "simple, wholesome ingredients," can be a powerful sales driver, Julia Wing-Larson, a Marketing Manager for Larabar, told the Wall Street Journal. "You eat with your eyes."
Similarly Coca-Cola's Simply Orange juice has gained substantial ground on PepsiCo's Tropicana brand because Coca-Cola was the first to transition to a clear, pitcher-shaped serving container. According to the article, this packaging gave Simply Orange juice a fresher feeling and taste.
For more on getting the most out of your brand's packaging, check out this article in AndNowUKnow's latest edition of our print publication, The Snack: “Can Your Produce Brand Work Harder at the Shelf.”
While the Wall Street Journal did note that some products such as oatmeal or granola do not benefit from see-through packaging the way most do because they can begin to take on a “dusty” look on the shelf, it would be highly unlikely for these concerns to translate over to fresh produce. In fact, the produce industry is fortunate that its products are the ideal type to capitalize on this packaging type.
The selling point of pre-packaged and value-added produce are its bright colors, sense of healthiness, and freshness. These are the same qualities that customers are saying that see-through packaging promotes which would mean that adopting this packaging would naturally emphasize the best qualities of the product.
Many growers are already taking advantage of the possibilities see-through packaging offers. Check out Village Farms' products for a great example of what a marketer can do with it.
The way I see it, if “seeing is believing” then fresh produce has a big leg up on the competition. The industry already has a great, attractive product. All that's left is to show it.
CHARLOTTE, NC - As we reported on Monday, the Cutrale Group, one of the leading global agribusiness and juice companies, and the Safra investment group extended a $610.5 million buyout offer to Chiquita Brands, throwing question marks into its proposed merger with Fyffes. Now, analysts are weighing in.
Analysts at US financial house BB&T Capital suggest that Chiquita might prefer a Fyffes merger to a takeover, and Cutrale would need to improve its offer significantly to have a better chance, according to the Irish Independent.
In a note to clients, BB&T’s Brett Hundley called the two bids “apples and oranges” with tax benefits of the Fyffes tie-up being more attractive than Cutrale’s $13 a share offer.
“We have called the company’s $40 million synergy target by 2016 as conservative. Further, we think that Chiquita-Fyffes would be an unlikely target of any US government tax inversion law, as the expected tax synergies are modest,” Hundley said.
Hundley believes that the Fyffes deal offers more value to Chiquita at present. However, if Cutrale and Safra make an improved offer with anything above $15 a share, it would be much harder for Chiquita to turn down.
“In short, we believe that the Fyffes merger offers potential year-one value, under a number of scenarios. We think Chiquita management likely agrees with us,” he added.
To read our full article on Cutrale/Safra’s offer, click here, and for a look back at the Fyffes proposal, click here.
Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow as this story continues to develop.
BOISE, ID – WinCo Foods LLC is looking to expand its footprint into Oklahoma.
Commercial real estate firm Price Edwards & Co. told The Oklahoman that WinCo is finalizing leases to open as many as four stores in the Oklahoma City metro area.
Jim Parrack, Senior Vice President of Retail for Price Edwards, told The Oklahoman that WinCo is currently looking at locations in northwest and west Oklahoma City, Moore and Midwest City.
As we’ve reported throughout the year, WinCo has also made its first step into Texas with a distribution center and three stores in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. That distribution could easily serve any Oklahoma stores.
WinCo currently has 95 stores and five distribution centers across Washington, Idaho, Nevada, California, Oregon, Arizona, Utah and Texas.
With WinCo expanding to both Texas and Oklahoma this year, where might stores start popping up next?
CUPERTINO, CA - Starwood Hotels’ Aloft brand has a new employee; A.L.O. the Botlr, or robotic butler.
A.L.O., pronounced “el-oh,” will soon be on call all day and night to fulfill requests from guests. CNBC reports that all a guest will have to do is call the front desk and the staff will load up the Botlr with requested items, enter the guest’s room number and send it off to make the deliveries. A.L.O. will navigate hallways and even call the elevator using Wi-Fi.
With Botlrs making the move from science fiction to reality, how long before we see robots picking fruit or washing vegetables? My guess is that it will be quite some time. For now, we will have to watch and see how Botlrs fare.
A.L.O. is being fine-tuned for an August 20 official launch of its pilot program. If this test is successful, Botlrs could appear in nearly 100 properties. Brian McGuinness, Senior Vice President for the Aloft brand could see one or two Botlrs in each Aloft hotel. “I think there is a chance that this could go enterprise-wide based on a successful pilot,” he told CNBC.
Sunnyvale, California start-up Savioke designed and built the Botlr with a seed round of funding of $2 million from investors, which included Google Ventures. Company CEO Steve Cousins told CNBC that he sees a huge market for service robots.
Innovations like A.L.O. have the potential to change the way that we work. One day, we may see robots in hospitals carrying medicine and sterile equipment, on the dock moving heavy pallets loaded down with fruits and vegetables or in the aisles at a grocery store restocking a fresh produce display. I for one am excited at the possibilites this new technology could bring.
Do you think robots will have a place in the future of the produce industry? Let us know by taking the survey below!
LOS ANGELES, CA - Fusion Marketing's Consumer InsightsTM research is suggesting the emergence of an important consumer preference shift, revealing that the modern consumer is 200% more willing to engage in the online grocery marketplace compared to this time last year. By 2017 Fusion Marketing expects this marketplace to have grown exponentially in size into a $9.5 billion industry, $1 billion for fresh produce alone.
“We are witnessing consumer perception change from being reluctant to buy to testing the waters and making purchases,” explains Steven Muro, President and Founder of Fusion Marketing. “Consumers typically aren’t spending a lot online overall. Our research conducted in 2013 and 2014 indicates that a larger percentage of consumers have made a produce purchase, but many spent under $25.00 per shopping occasion.”
One example of this increasing comfort level is revealed by a significant drop in consumer's concerns over the food quality and freshness of the produce they received via online shopping markets. According to a press release, today's consumer is much less concerned about whether their food will arrive fresh. Fusion Marketing suggests this is due to previous positive online shopping experiences in which expectations were met, creating a new bond of trust between online retailer and consumer.
How many dollars of profit for the industry this growing bond will develop into is still an open question. If Fusion Marekting is correct however, its looking to be a very nice number.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Target executives say that they are hitting the "reset" button on the company's supply chain operations, in order to repair the damage done by what many have characterized as an overly hasty Canadian expansion.
"With the benefit of hindsight, if we could do it all over again, we wouldn't have opened up that many stores, that many DCs (distribution centers), in that short a time frame. I know that much," Target Canada's President Mark Schindele told Reuters. "We're now unwinding some of the decisions we made that were based on speed."
What does this mean for Target going forward? Target hopes that its three pronged approach focusing on its supply chain, pricing, and merchandise selection will prime the company for increased future growth.
According to Reuters, Target's plans start with a full recount of its inventory at all 130 stores in order to “reset” an overburdened supply chain.
The emphasis on speed during Target's earlier expansion caused multiple problems with the set-up of its online systems for tracking product distribution. This led to a major bottleneck, according to Schindele, with orders arriving at warehouses that did not match the records in Target's computers.
"If your data integrity isn't good, it's really hard to keep stores in stock," he said.
Target Canada is now in the position to fix these problems. Together with the planned supply chain reset, they now have the sales data after a year of Canadian operations to more accurately predict consumer demand and allocate resources to meet it.
In addition to an infrastructure reorganization, Schindele says Target will also be retraining its staff to better work with the company's inventory system.
In all, Target should walk away from this period with a better trained staff, a more robust inventory system, and a stronger supply chain. Schindele is confident that these changes will give Target the tools it needs to take on the challenges and opportunities of the future.
"We expect to see measurable progress this fall," Schindele noted optimistically.
With these steps in place, I certainly think Target has given itself the right foundation to make a rebound possible. How successfully Schindele and his team is able to implement their growth plan will play a big part in determining the future success of Target's Canadian operations.