Apple & Pear Australia Limited (APAL) and Star Fruits, the exclusive licensee of the Pink Lady brand in Europe and other third-party countries, have announced the formation of a joint venture called Pink Lady Development Limited Pty Ltd (PLD).
According to the groups, PLD has been created to help accelerate the development of the Pink Lady apple in the key emerging countries across the world, and to optimise the efficiency of the investments made in the brand and the product.
'This new strategic tool will be useful for developing plans to secure new markets based on the experience and skills of the major players of the international Pink Lady network, including the Pink Lady Europe Association,' a statement read.
Backed by expertise built up over the past few years in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, including Russia, the Pink Lady Europe Association will contribute to the success of this project, alongside APAL and Star Fruits.
'There are many development opportunities for Pink Lady in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as well as in southeast Asia and the Middle East,' said Jon Durham, APAL managing director and chairman of PLD, 'We definitely have a pivotal role to play in the long-term development of apple consumption in these markets.'
The new structure will be in charge of promoting the Pink Lady brand and developing awareness of it, managing the licences and providing technical support to all the licensees.
Additionally, PLD's role will be to foster synergy between the supplies from the two hemispheres, maintain quality assurance of the apples put on the market in connection with the brand’s positioning criteria and provide more technical assistance to the producers of the Cripps Pink varieties and its essentially derived varieties.
'Already involved in the overwhelming majority of these emerging markets through the Pink Lady Europe Association, the entire European network welcomes this initiative,' the statement concluded. 'Pink Lady’s prospects for growth in these markets are necessary to ensuring the development of European production and its economic sustainability.
'The objective for the Pink Lady Europe Association is, by 2020, to double the market share held by these areas in the overall sales of Pink Lady in 2011/12, representing a rise from 5 per cent to 10 per cent in terms of volume.'
