What marketing activities does Zespri have planned for the UK market for 2016?
Nele Moorthamers (NM): Zespri UK’s key marketing aim this season is to increase the awareness of Zespri SunGold. There is a large chunk of the population that haven’t been acquainted with this product. We want to drive consideration at the point of sale with consumers and use SunGold as a vehicle to lift up the profile of the complete kiwifruit category.
We have invested in a number of activities to support this objective. There is a national out-of-home campaign with Zespri SunGold, and we have developed a PR campaign that will target influential food writers/bloggers with a breakfast theme. At the same time, a consumer competition will be running via our website and social media platforms, under the hashtag #breakfastbling. Alongside the above we collaborate with retailers to develop tailored promotions within their stores.
What formats, packaging, or experiential marketing are new for this year?
NM: We are also planning on doing more tasting events this year – as, particularly for SunGold, we know that once a consumer has tasted and is aware of the product they are likely to purchase then re-purchase.
What is the current sales volume of Zespri kiwifruit in UK retail, and how do you see this developing over the next five years?
NM: Zespri sold approximately 1.5 million trays last season in the UK and Ireland. The UK has been identified by Zespri as a strategic growth market, hence why the company’s investment has increased in this region. As with all our markets, we anticipate SunGold will be the key driver of this growth over the next three to five years.
What is the import structure of Zespri kiwifruit into the UK?
NM: Most of our business in the UK and Ireland is with retailers. We generally go through distributors rather than direct with our current UK-based customers, and we have no plans to change this model.
How receptive are UK retailers to fresh produce brands, in your experience, and how is this changing?
NM: What we see is that UK retailers are receptive to what Zespri stands for in terms of quality and reliability. What we do see is that, compared to other markets in Europe, they are less open to advertise the brand in-store and on pack. We hope that with increasing our awareness in the market, this might encourage retailers to see the added value of showcasing our brand.
How can Zespri kiwifruit make an impact in a market that is seeing heavy price deflation?
NM: Across the whole of Europe, and this is also valid for the UK, we can see that consumers want to spend their money on food that tastes great, is consistently of a high quality and is good for them. This is where Zespri delivers.
Is Zespri listed in the UK discounters, and if not, is this something you are aiming for?
NM: Yes, Zespri is present in the UK discounters, to varying degrees.
How is Zespri production in Europe developing? Where are the new plantings?
NM: We expect our 12-month business to grow strongly with incremental increases in Zespri green volumes and significant growth in Zespri Gold from Italy and France over the next five years. Non-New Zealand supply is important to Zespri because it means retailers can keep Zespri kiwifruit on their shelves continuously through the year.
We source fruit from northern hemisphere orchards in Italy, France, Korea, and Japan. Over the past years, we have released licences on SunGold and we now have around 1,300ha in Italy. Many orchards have beengrafted over the past few years since 2012, so productivity is increasing yearly and we still see a lot of growth in volumes coming over the next few years.
