It’s been a good year for Sainsbury’s when it comes to grapes, says Christian Hickey.
The retailer’s tropical fruit buyer says Sainsbury’s has made significant strides forward in growing market share in the grape sector.
“We saw that there was a big opportunity to grow red grapes. We weren’t focused enough on that sector. If you look at the figures, a year on, you can see that’s exactly what we have done.”
He says the retailer has managed to grow its share of the red grape sector from 15 per cent to 16 per cent in a 52-week period, and there are still opportunities to expand it further.
“The good thing, I’m pleased to say, is that we haven’t grown red to the detriment of white,” says Hickey, adding the market for white grape was continuing to grow steadily by around one per cent on last year.
“We also introduced black seedless grapes in January 2004, and that sub category has also been growing steadily. It has performed exceptionally well over in the US and we think there’s big potential here. They taste fantastic and are really sweet.”
Seedless grapes are now the main focus with Sainsbury’s, which has now not sold any seeded product for over a year. “Our customers now only want seedless,” says Hickey, and the chain is working hard to ensure it is only getting the best grape varieties. “We’ve been targeting our producers to get the best quality product,” he adds. “We’re worked really hard on the technical side to understand what is happening at the source and to ensure our varieties are being grown to the optimum standards.”
However, Hickey says there needs to be patience when it comes to grapes: “There is a slight problem with people being too eager and sending fruit when it’s not at its best. We don’t want to extend seasons too far or begin too early.”
Sainsbury’s is focusing mainly on ensuring it is getting the flavour of the fruit right while still remaining competitive on the high street.
When it comes to sources, Hickey says they are seeing increasing quantities of Thompson coming out of South Africa each year, as well as growing volumes of high quality varieties from Morocco and Egypt.
Brazil, however, is a trickier prospect. “It’s a difficult country, not just for grapes, but for lots of products, but we’re starting to see some excellent fruit coming out of Brazil and there’s a great deal of varietal development going on out there at the moment.”
On the sourcing front, a key aim of Sainsbury’s is to improve the quantities of Crimson that meet the right specification and colour from European producers. “European Crimson always had a lot of promise but never quite delivers on the volume front, and we’re struggling to get enough product out of Spain,” says Hickey.
At the moment, that means the retailer is having to rely on US product to keep its shelves stocked, something he would prefer to avoid.
“The major problem with north American grapes is the fear of Black Widow spiders, which is not what we want, we’re not keen on taking US grapes but the truth is, there’s still a need for it and there probably will be for another couple of years.”
He says they are working hard with growers to limit the risk of spider contamination: “There are some pretty basic techniques to tackle the issue, but the fact the problem hasn’t gone away means people aren’t following the protocols closely enough.”
He says the conditions in Spain make growing the fruit more difficult: “The temperatures are not exactly where you need them to be. You need cool nights and a good temperature change from day to night.
“However, each year things are improving, but there’s still the need for US product. But I really believe in the next couple of years it will change as we get more and more fruit coming through.
“If we’re going to market red grape as red grape, it needs to be red. At the moment it’s a shame because the European grapes are excellent quality.”
When it comes to new varieties the retailer is keeping a close eye on developments, Hickey says: “There are some fantastic new varieties coming on stream, but it take time to build things up to commercial volume. We try and stay as close to any new development as possible, so we can have first call on them. It’s very exciting, but things just don’t happen as fast as you would like.”
Sainsbury’s has also been paying attention to how grapes look in-store: “I’m keen to ensure that grapes get their fare share of space within the store and we’ve been putting product into special-offer bags which help catch consumers’ eyes.”
The retailer also introduced a new fruit snacking range and Hickey says grapes have proved to be the star performers. “They accounted for about 80 per cent of the whole range’s sales. We positioned them with the sandwiches in our Central and Local store formats.”
The fruit, both red and white grapes, is being sold in resealable block-bottom pouches which stand up on shelf and retail at 99p for 175g. “It’s been running for around six months now and has done very well - white grape proved the most popular, but red grape has also performed well.”
He is not surprised the snacking range has proved a hit: “People buy grapes as a snack. They’re very healthy and convenient - there’s no pips, stalks or cores to dispose of, and they don’t require any kind of ripening.”
Children are a key consumers, he adds: “They’re a great healthy alternative for kids, they are sweet and full of natural sugars and far better than crisps and sweets.”
At the moment, Sainsbury’s has not introduced its own branding into the category - there’s no Taste the Difference offers in grape. Hickey says that is a deliberate decision: “We have yet to find something that we felt was special enough to go under that brand. At the moment, we’ve decided to simply concentrate on boosting the quality of everything.”
Grapes are an impulse purchase for most consumers, he says, and that makes them a good product to run offers on. “Promotions will encourage people to add them to their shopping, and if we get the quality right, we increase the likelihood that they’ll be back to buy their grapes from us again.”
He says end of aisle promotions have a huge impact: “It’s incredible the uplift you can get.”
Overall, he is happy with Sainsbury’s performance on grape: “The nice thing is that our household penetration has increased significantly, particularly on red grape - we’re up around 50 per cent, year-on-year.
“That means we’re not gaining share by getting the same old customers to buy more, we’re attracting new people into the category.”
And that is the kind of momentum he wants to maintain.
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