It’s not a fruit, it’s an FMCG, and it’s breaking out of the produce aisle. The product is the Rockit apple, and the message is from Phil Alison of Havelock North Fruit Co, the company behind the diminutive variety.
Launched in the middle of 2010, the Rockit apple is about one and a half times the size of a golf ball, and in the same vein is sold in tubes of four to six. Since the variety’s launch into the UK, Taiwanese and New Zealand markets last year, Mr Alison told Fruitnet.com Havelock North has simply not had enough fruit to fill the demand.
“Our Marks & Spencer programme went down extremely well, and we’re going to continue that this season,” he said. “Taiwan sold out so quickly it wasn’t funny. It went so well `the retailers` wouldn’t even promote it; they said they didn’t need to.”
Mr Alison attributed Rockit’s success to the fact it fits a niche with very little competition, and to Havelock North’s strategy of providing exclusive supply to one buyer per market.
The ‘snack’ aspect to the tubes of small, firm Rockit apples is appealing to both adults on the go and children who won’t eat a large apple, Mr Alison said, and the product is much healthier than traditional snack options.
“The chocolates and the crisps have had their time,” he stated. “Now it’s about obesity and healthy living. The demand was there, but `until Rockit` we didn’t have the product for it. I think that’s where there is real growth in this whole market segment.”
Havelock North has so far marketed Rockit apples exclusively through Marks & Spencer in the UK, and in Taiwan through a high-end speciality retail chain. While the company is planning to aim its limited supply of the variety – just 60 tonnes this year – to its existing buyers, new markets are definitely on the radar as volumes increase.
“We’re busy talking to people globally who have expressed interest, but that’s a work in progress,” said Mr Alison. “We’re always doing it exclusively. That’s going to be the best value proposition for the apple and the people involved in the business.”
The produce business both in New Zealand and internationally has agreed Rockit is something different; the variety was nominated for the Fruit Logistica Innovation Award this year, and won New Zealand’s KPMG Food Enterprise Innovation Award in 2010.
