Dutch marketer The Greenery has extended its Sweet and Sunny soft fruit range, a move it suggested would contribute to further growth in berry sales.
The move follows the brand’s launch at Fruit Logistica earlier this year and a subsequent commercial trial involving Spanish strawberries.
Presented in a newly designed pink packaging, the branded offer now includes strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, redcurrants and blackberries.
And according to The Greenery’s marketing specialist Yvette Damen and business unit manager for soft fruit and mushrooms, Sjraar Hulsman, the recent trial proved very successful, apparently contributing to a 30 per cent increase in sales compared with last year at stores selling the product.
'Our consumer surveys show that consumers increasingly value taste and quality,” Damen commented. “We are therefore always looking for varieties that fulfil this wish. The fact that the product had to be recognisable for the consumer was clear from consumer panels.
According to Damen, the pilot project underlined that such an approach works. “Consumers recognised Sweet and Sunny in the striking pink packaging and returned because of the quality and taste.'
Years of effort
Hulsman explained that only the best and tastiest varieties from sources including the Netherlands, Spain and South America are used for Sweet and Sunny, with those procurement choices based on years of assessing where the best fruit can be obtained.
“Some routes have been running for more than ten years and are now bearing fruit,” he noted, adding that The Greenery has been working closely with an independent quality and taste monitoring specialist to help it “make the right choices” as far as sourcing the required product was concerned.
“By means of store evaluations, taste and quality analyses and independent weekly reports, insight was gained into which varieties best suit the wishes of the consumer,” he revealed.
“For these varieties, cooperation with breeders is established in long-term cooperation agreements or licenses. The growers are accompanied in the cultivation by our crop specialist Klaas de Jager.”
The Greenery’s berry business has grown considerably in recent years both in terms of volume and turnover, buoyed by the recent expansion of its soft fruit distribution centre in Breda.
