Prepared salad giant Florette has fired an opening salvo in its bid to take control of the wider fresh produce category.
“The aim of Florette is to own that first aisle when you enter the supermarket,” said Claire Jenkins, marketing manager.
The campaign has got under way with the launch of Heavenly Veg, unveiled to critical acclaim this week at Sial in Paris with the show’s judges bestowing on the range a top innovation award.
Made up of four varieties, Heavenly Veg provides a mixture of vegetable offerings, complete with sauces, in an innovative packaging concept which allows consumers to steam cook the product in its pack.
The collection is due for launch in the UK at the end of January 2005. Each pack is priced at £2.79 and the varieties include; broccoli, red onion, mangetout and French beans with Thai green curry sauce; broccoli, mangetout, spring onion and tatsoi with honey and ginger dressing; leek, courgette, cherry tomatoes, red onions and spring onions with a goat’s cheese sauce and; courgette, leek and sugarsnap peas with a tomato coulis.
“We will be supporting Heavenly Veg with above-the-line promotion as well as in-store with things like sampling and tasting sessions. We will also be conducting extensive PR. Overall we’ll be spending at least £500,000 on promoting the range, if not more.”
The packaging has been exclusively developed and patented by Florette, which is also sponsoring the Re:fresh 2005 Awards. “Consumer research demonstrated that steaming was a popular method of cooking, but it’s a hassle having to mess about with steaming pans,” said Jenkins.
“The steamer pot is another first for Florette, consumers can cook the product in its packaging and then throw it away when they’ve finished.
“This move is all about bringing our core values into vegetables, introducing our passion for quality, convenience and innovation.”
All consumers have to do is set the pack of vegetables over simmering water for seven minutes and before serving warm the sauce sachet through on the top of the steamer pot.
“We did a lot of research into the flavours we have introduced. Initially we had 20 recipes and we worked with a team of top chefs to get it exactly right,” said Jenkins
New flavours are being developed to expand the range following its launch and the move is only the start of a new campaign to widen the Florette portfolio.
“I think the vegetable arena as a whole could use Florette’s name and its quality and innovation,” said Jenkins. “There will be other developments, there are things in the pipeline.” l
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