French apple association Le Crunch has announced that it reached its core UK promotion targets for the 2008/09 campaign, with strong results indicated this week.
Early in-store figures at five retailers and six wholesale markets revealed that sales of Le Crunch apples rose by an average of 30 per cent in volume during the promotional period.
Le Crunch apples clearly benefited from their 16-week promotional presence in retailers, including on-pack promotions and 600 days of sampling, as well as the health education programme that enabled them to reach thousands of primary pupils and their parents.
“In an independent survey of member schools, 90 per cent of respondents believed that Le Crunch Crew characters had encouraged pupils to eat more apples,” the association said. “Almost 70 per cent of schools said more fruit had been made available to pupils as a result of using the Le Crunch materials through initiatives such as fruit tuck shops and healthy breakfast clubs.”
Jacques Vanoye, president of the French Apples Marketing Commission, added: “The Le Crunch promotional programme supports sales by engaging parents, children and communities in healthy eating at the same time as echoing consumer trends towards quality and convenience.“
