Strong promotions and a consistent punnet-based grape offer is paying dividends for Budgens. The retailer offers four different lines of grapes - green seedless, red seedless, mixed seedless and a specialty seeded grape.
Trading manager for fruit Danny Grover says loose grape bags were delisted a couple of years ago and all grapes sold through the supermarket are now punneted with a fixed price point and backed by a strong promotional strategy. “Pre-packing all of our grapes in punnets protects them from damage caused by excess handling in store,” he says. “Punnets offer the advantage of protecting the fruit by cutting down customer damage and reducing potential accidents in store caused by spilled grapes. Grapes are an impulse purchase, with many customers basing their decision to buy on the quality of the fruit. Having a set sell-by date enhances freshness control and having a set price point also makes the purchasing decision easier as customers know the value of their spend. Our promotions are based on cut-price offers with the most popular being save £1.00 or half price.”
The grape category represents more than 12 per cent of the total fruit spend for Budgens. “Growth in our grape offer has been in excess of one per cent this year because of the focus on the category and identification of key drivers and opportunities,” he says.
Grapes are sourced from growers worldwide - Greece, Spain, Italy, Brazil, South Africa, Chile and the US - because the fruit is on offer in-store year-round with continuous promotions most weeks of the year. Grover says quality this year has been excellent, with a good Greek season and a smooth transition to Brazil, which has developed seedless grapes for the November and April months, normally difficult periods to cover in the past. He adds that Brazil shows the most promise with the ability to supply grapes year-round: “Brazil has covered off the difficult periods of November and April,” he says.
In terms of consumer preferences for varieties Grover says the most popular are green seedless varieties such as Thompson, while Crimson and Flame are the most popular red varieties. “Crimson Red seedless is seeing good growth and seeded Red Globe is also proving popular. I believe Muscat-flavoured grapes, such as Rosada, show enormous potential, being seedless and full flavoured. Consumers are looking for better varieties with improved flavour and there is growing demand for Fairtrade products, so we are planning to sell Thandi Fairtrade product from South Africa next year,” Grover adds.
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