Pink Lady branded apple producers are celebrating after Asda performed a u-turn on its policy of stocking the fruit.
The retailer had previously made the decision to stock the generic Cripps Pink variety in preference to the branded apple, after objecting to paying a premium for the fruit. At the time it said it would only be using Pink Lady apples to plug gaps in supply.
However, that decision has now been reversed, and the retailer is starting to put Pink Lady back onto the shelves.
A spokeswoman said: “We’re going to be re-stocking the Pink Lady apples brand in fresh produce. We had decided to drop the brand originally because we were paying more to have the branded apple. We were experimenting with keeping costs down by selling unbranded Cripps Pink apples.”
The change in stance is being attributed to customer feedback. “We’ve listened to our customers and the feedback we got was that they wanted Pink Lady apples.”
Asda is now selling the apples loose and also in a four-pack and is considering adding further lines.
The spokeswoman added: “Brands are always important, customers do like them, but a lot of our customers also like and trust the Asda brand. There needs to be a balance between the two.”
The news caps off a period of success for Pink Lady producers who have expanded their range in Marks & Spencer and also managed to get their fruit into Morrisons for the first time.
The Bradford-based retailer has previously only stocked Cripps Pink but is now carrying a four-pack of Pink Lady under the old Safeway Best brand. The move sees producers re-establishing some of the market lost with Morrisons’ acquisition of Safeway.
At the same time, UK sales of Pink Lady for the first five months of the year are up by 44 per cent, claimed Andy Macdonald, md of Coregeo, the brand’s marketers in the UK.
“We’re all delighted with the news and we’re trying to help Asda get the changeover done as quickly as possible.
“It’s important that people understand the value of the brand, and the fact is, customers do recognise it. We’d like to believe we’ve got a very good brand and we’re doing what the customer wants,” he said.
The experiment by Asda simply led to consumer confusion, he added: “Consumers were looking for quality and they recognise the Pink Lady brand, so it was confusing to sell only Cripps Pink as people don’t know what it is.”
Macdonald said the change in retailer stance, coupled with the sales success so far this year were a real shot in the arm for the branded apple.
“Last year we faced a lot of criticism, we lost two major customers in Safeway and Asda, which represented about 20 per cent of our business. But despite that, sales were still up by 12 per cent, so we must be getting it right somewhere.
“We now have every major retailer stocking Pink Lady apples in some form or another.”
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