When Soléco, the French owners of Florette, opened a UK facility in July 1999, it housed 49 employees and had a throughput capacity of 6,000 tonnes of bagged salads a year. In 2004, Florette employs more than 350 people and has recently completed an extension to its Lichfield factory that takes potential annual capacity to 15,000t.
One of the true success stories of the modern era fresh produce industry, Florette has firmly established a brand in a retail market that is generally accepted as hostile to the concept of private brand development. Filming for the company’s latest TV advert has just finished, and the £3 million ATL spend on a campaign that will stretch across all of the leading independent channels on UK television is unparalleled in UK produce circles.
Heady stuff. But UK commercial director Mark Newton keeps the development in perspective. “The beauty of where we’re at as a company is that we are still relatively young in the UK. We have still only been around for five years and sometimes you have to stand back and take stock of what has been achieved. From a start-up operation to where we are now is remarkable,” he says.
“This - bagged salads - is our core competence and we must aim for more of the same, to keep innovating, add new products and ranges and keep our brand interesting for customers and consumers. But we are still only playing in a relatively small and defined section of the overall marketplace. And you won’t find anyone in this company who is coasting along, completely happy with what we’ve got. There are so many areas we haven’t taken the brand into - in France and Spain the brand is used in a number of fresh produce sub-categories and there is no reason why we won’t see that happening here too.”
The UK bagged salad market has been growing annually at anywhere between 10 and 15 per cent. Last year, with a glorious UK summer that lasted virtually from Easter to September, the expansion was at the top end of that scale. Maintaining the pace of expansion of course gets harder with each passing 12 months, but considering the exceptional performance in 2003 and the poor weather to date this summer, an increase of 11 per cent to this point in 2004 is a fair return.
“You’d be a fool to expect a 14 per cent uplift every year,” says Newton. “There is still room for growth, but with more than 70 per cent of the UK population buying bagged salads now, it is less likely that we’ll see double digit year-on-year expansion. The penetration is there, the next challenge is to increase frequency of purchase.
“To have increased the market by 11 per cent in the year to date is phenomenal, but the overall performance will depend heavily on the rest of July and August. If you believe what the experts say, consumers have already put their summer heads away, but I’m not sure about that. There is better weather forecast and if anything, I think we’ll see getting back into salads and making the most of the late summer.”
Florette has long taken the view that over-emphasis on the peak summer period would be a mistake. “The salad market is not just about three months a year. We have focused on optimising our range and promotional activities to position ourselves as a year-round brand and our salads as lifestyle rather than seasonal products,” says Newton.
The three peak months of June to August are each responsible for between 12 and 15 per cent of Florette’s annual sales, but the company’s decision to market its salads for meal occasions is paying dividends. “Easter is always a busy time, but we have seen Christmas build into a huge sales period. Christmas week last year was as big as our busiest summer week - around August bank holiday. There are a number of reasons for this; Boxing Day and people eating more as families, for instance. And the debits and credits approach many of us have to our diets now - pig out on Christmas Day and then eat more healthily - undoubtedly plays a part,” he says. As you would therefore expect, the Florette product development team has been putting a lot of work into the Yuletide offer this year.
The advent of Christmas as a key sales period is typical of general changes in the perception of bagged salads in the five years that Florette has operated its Lichfield facility is remarkable. “Five years ago, bagged salads were a purchase for the weekend and for entertaining. Consumers had not reached the stage of understanding the product. Now confidence in its consistency of performance means that they often walk into the store and pick it off the shelves without even looking at what it contains,” says Newton.
“There will be a section of consumers that will always buy a wholehead iceberg for instance, but last year we saw a severe shortage of iceberg and the prices went through the roof. A lot of people switched into bags, which remain at a fixed price and were particularly competitive with high-priced loose product. Our research shows us that a significant proportion of the consumers that make that switch do not go back once the market settles down.
“Of course, with our mixed leaves bags there is another issue. You could not go into a store and purchase the selection of leaves we offer in our mixes at the same value. Usage changes are having an impact too - people are now increasingly using leaves in different ways, for instance on burgers, which have traditionally been accompanied by a single leaf.”
Florette works extensively with its various supermarket customers to match the bagged salad range and merchandising methods to their particular customer profiles. “We have always believed in the need to look closely at consumer trends and desires, but this has moved on a stage,” says Newton. “We are not launching products into any stores that we have not researched thoroughly with the consumer first. Our whole offer is planned from the development stage right through to the shelf.”
After first deciphering whether the consumer wants the product, the development team works with the retailer to find out what information the consumer requires to ensure that the product is firstly picked off the shelf, secondly used to its full potential and thirdly repurchased on the next visit to the store. “We ask consumers ‘if you’re not buying it, why not?’, and we react to their responses,” says marketing and PR executive Jenny Bond. “The smaller portion bags are a perfect example of that. Research showed us that the demand for convenience and smaller portions was out there - we developed the products to meet it.”
Newton adds: “Experts in merchandising say you have between four and six seconds to grab a customers attention with your product. There are a huge amount of products in store and everybody is trying to segment categories so we will have even more products. If we don’t consistently attract the consumers’ attention we will lose out. In my view, the distinction of different offers and products in store is not always clear enough. There is sometimes too much choice. One of the benefits of our brand is that we are prepared to back it with research; the launch of products like our Ravishing Red bags, which is the first all-red salad leaf mix on the market is testament to our ability to respond quickly to consumer demand.
“For us to continue to be successful, we have to be seen to add value to our brand by being different. The amount of people who say ‘wow I didn’t know that’ when you educate them about the products and their uses is staggering and if you’re not telling them in the first place, how are they ever going to understand the product?
“We are not supplying sauces, ready meals or heavily-processed products, what we have is not based on a secret ingredient X. We are supplying our customers with bags of salad and part of the beauty of course is that’s all it is.”
Research has also told Florette that price, so often cited as the consumer’s number one priority, sits either third or fourth on the list when it comes to bagged salads. “Freshness is invariably the number one ask, followed by quality of appearance and colour,” he says. “What the bagged salad purchaser wants is that something extra - an innovative mix or convenient packaging solution. This sector is a long way from being commoditised and as long as the major players - including ourselves - continue to add value and innovate, that will remain the case.”
Newton is an advocate of a cross-industry effort to communicate better with consumers on all issues. “It is up to us to a) put our house in order and b) tell people about it,” he says. “There are two issues around at the moment regarding lettuce, one being supposedly widespread listeria in the soil and the other the use of chlorine in the washing process. It is tempting to say, well which one would you prefer to do without? But we have to work out an effective way to counteract the media coverage our industry receives, much of which is out of context. We are not going to change the nature of the UK press and there is always likely to be a preference for soundbite journalism. But we should not just duck our heads as in other areas we all know we are guilty of believing what we read. The consumer needs to be told that what they read is the tip of the iceberg, there are so many positive things going on beneath the surface.”
Florette, as industry insiders would recognise and expect, is putting a great deal of emphasis on environmental protection.
The company is constantly researching methods of enhancing water treatment systems. It has also won a TravelWise Award from Staffordshire County Council, as one of only three companies to have been given a Gold level accolade, for operating a green transport policy. All employees are bussed in together, to reduce the amount of vehicles on the local roads and deliveries to and from the Lichfield factory are made overnight. “We don’t block the roads for local users and we are showing commitment to our employees and the environment,” says Newton. “As an industry, we should all be shouting about this kind of work from the roof-tops and actually setting the agenda for discussions about our industry rather than letting journalists do it for us.”
Newton’s company cannot be accused of being backward in coming forward - or of failing to attempt to influence the mindset of salad consumers. Its highly active marketing and PR department organised and ran its award winning National Salad Week for the second consecutive year from July 5-11. “We are aiming to inspire people to be more creative with salads,” says Bond. “Various activities were created, which were targeted towards national, regional and short lead consumer press.”
Florette has trademarked the event and generated a huge amount of consumer PR through stunts such as Raymond Blanc’s creation of the world’s ‘most expensive salad’. Bond says: “This year, Marcus Wareing, resident chef at the Savoy, produced The Florette Savoy Salad, which he hopes will eventually rival the Waldorf Salad, while elsewhere the world’s first chocolate salad dessert was made to follow Florette’s ‘Raw Passion’ advertising slogan and combine people’s passion for salads and chocolate.” Nutritional advice was dispensed by Wareing and TV nutritionist Amanda Ursell, in various radio interviews and consumer press coverage and targeted competitions topped off the effort.
The Florette message has evidently got through to consumers so far and, not content with that, the company retains its belief in the benefits of a long-term PR strategy to both itself and its customers.
ABOVE AND BEYOND
Florette’s new TV advert was filmed in Slovenia earlier this month. It will be launched in September and show on GMTV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and satellite stations throughout the month. Costing £250,000 to produce, the ad is part of a £3m above-the-line spend to support a series of new product launches.
The company’s fresh advertising slogan, Raw Passion in a Bag, has also been brought to life with a new press campaign focusing on the nutritional aspects of salad. The press campaign will pre-empt the TV ads, being featured in the August issues of various food magazines and popular women’s titles.
Three full-page ads have been created, which portray magnified lettuce leaves to produce a modern, dynamic and original campaign, guaranteed to attract attention,” says Jenny Bond. “The Raw Passion in a Bag slogan and the new press ads reflect how the brand’s advertising activities are evolving and expanding.”
The three major new launches on the market already are:
•Smaller portion bags, pictured below, re-packaging some of Florette’s most popular products in convenient sizes for the changing consumer market - a 110g Mixed Salad, a 120g Medley Salad and a 90g bag of Tender Green Salad;
•Ravishing Red Salad - a recipe that incorporates red batavia, radicchio, red chard and lollo rosso, and whose name fits in with the Florette Raw Passion theme; and
•Salad Bowls - individual servings offering four meal solutions for lunch and evening meal occasions, Greek Salad, Crispy Bacon Salad, Traditional Cheddar Salad and Seafood Salad.
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