WENATCHEE, WA - Now is the time to not only get Pink Lady® going at retail, but to start lining up promotions for the historical February promotional window.
A recent Stemilt analysis of Nielsen data shows this key selling period has been overlooked in years past, and Stemilt has the color, crop, and quality to support it in 2025. Retailers can continue the momentum from the variety’s volume growth over the past year while capitalizing on core apple sales growth with a vintage Pink Lady® crop.
“There’s a huge opportunity to create the same pull for Pink Lady® apples in February as we’ve been seeing in the spring months of March, April, and May over the past few crop years,” says Brianna Shales, Marketing Director. “Historically, February has been a primary promotion time for Pink Lady® because of the variety’s pink color and natural tie into Valentine’s Day. 2022 was a similar crop as this 2024 crop and Pink Lady® made up 7 percent of category volumes back then. Growing volumes through promotion is a great tactic for the current crop.”
In 2023, apple sales were down due to a larger crop which lowered retail price per pound as a result. Over the past year, Pink Lady® has been #6 in the apple category in the West region according to Stemilt’s analysis of Nielsen data from 2023–2024. Last year, it made up 5 percent of apple volumes and 5.2 percent of apple sales. In the Midwest, that skews higher at 6 percent of apple volumes and 5.8 percent of sales, making Pink Lady® the #5 apple in the category in this region, according to a press release.
“Stemilt is in a great position for promoting Pink Lady® apples in February as color and quality are a high point of the 2024 crop,” says Shales. “Coming out of last year’s crop, we had good store count and velocity. We didn’t have a gap between the 2023 and 2024 crops so the transition to promoting the new crop can be seamless for retailers. As we look ahead to a bigger crop, it’s all about ensuring we promote during key windows for Pink Lady® and we’re recommending a big push in February to be followed by the strong promotions we see every spring.”
Stemilt has the volume for broader distribution and opportunities for promotions. A natural tie into Valentine’s Day makes it easy to include Pink Lady®’s bright pink, heart-shaped branding to construct attractive merchandising displays. Stemilt has ample volume to promote Pink Lady® apples in bag and bulk as offerings to consumers. Last year, 58 percent of Pink Lady® apples sold in bags and 41 percent in bulk, according to Nielsen data.
“Our goal is to see February become a strong promotional month for Pink Lady® apples again so we can return to increasing sales during this timeframe,” says Shales. “Pink Lady® has been well advertised with good velocity between one crop to the next, and Northeast regions have shown good volume growth over the last two months. At the end of last year’s growing season, we saw phenomenal weather conditions that provided optimal sunlight that helped drive both size and quality. By increasing February promotions, we can bring Pink Lady® back to top of mind for consumers in 2025!”
For updates on more category opportunities, keep clicking on ANUK.
