There is a saying that the secret of success is in the timing, and there have been few products that have captured the zeitgeist quite like It’s Fresh!
The ethylene-removal technology is a relative newcomer on the fresh produce stage, having only been developed in 2008, but it has quickly established itself in the market and the company has grand plans for future growth. With all the talk of reducing food waste and extending shelf life, it has very much been a case of a product in the right place at the right time.
Cranfield-based It’s Fresh! has secured a number of wins recently, with Tesco joining Morrisons in adding in-store signage promoting the fact that certain fruit lines have improved quality and shelf life thanks to the technology.
Founding director Simon Lee describes the fact that supermarkets are now talking publicly about the technology – in which a sheet-like filter is added to packs to add several days extra shelf life – as a “big step forward” and believes that consumers will embrace the process.
Helping reinforce that link is former Tesco category director Peter Durose, who joined It’s Fresh! six months ago in a directorial role and is helping drive what looks set to be a major period of expansion for the company.
Things are looking rosy now, but it hasn’t been an easy journey. Lee describes the initial process of getting the delivery system right as “an 18-month nightmare”, but following the completion of that process and the establishment of parent company Food Freshness Technology five years ago, it has been a story of increasingly impressive success. Indeed, a sign of its rapid progress comes with the fact that this year will see a tripling of last year’s turnover, with the same expected again
in 2016.
Nevertheless, in these days of a race to the bottom on price, it is inevitable that retailers question any added cost, even if shelf-life extension should mean reduced wastage and better product utilisation – a major topic in the media at present.
“The retailers using it now are paying for it,” Lee points out. “Three or four years ago these costs got pushed down the chain. But it is a retailer and consumer benefit. That’s taken time and lots of conversations.”
A former retailer himself, Durose understands both sides of the equation and the fact that margins are under pressure. That means there is extra onus on justifying the investment, while supermarkets have seen many technologies come and go over the years and are naturally sceptical of anything making big promises. “We have to be able to prove that it contributes to reducing food waste and also helps sales,” he explains. “We don’t want there to be any dissatisfaction. But It’s Fresh! has done a huge amount of work in proving the science. It’s like carrying out medical trials.”
Crucially, Lee claims It’s Fresh! has brought as much as a 40-50 per cent reduction in wastage on products where it’s been adopted, with double-digit sales growth to boot.
So far the focus has mainly been on supermarkets and their suppliers, but Lee thinks there is much more potential to adopt the technology throughout the supply chain and into the logistics trade. “This is really the only technology of its type that can be used from plant to plate,” he explains. “The retail opportunity seemed to come first but there is much more to it than that. We have growers in the US shipping to Asia, from Chile shipping all over the world, from South Africa to Europe and beyond. It helps mitigate risk for things like temperature outages and so on. It’s becoming a very exciting part of the business for us.”
As for the next stage of technical implementation, Lee says they will be looking at alternative delivery systems such as into films, moves that could open up new markets such as the floral sector.
“Where we are now is the starting point, not the end point,” says Durose, adding that the company could explore how It’s Fresh! could help with products such as bananas that are not currently right for the technology. Figs, kiwis, papayas, mangoes and a range of other products that respond to ethylene, have all been the subject of enquiries from customers.
It’s Fresh! is not yet in the discounters, but that is another potential customer base for the business.
Fruit and vegetables are not the limit of the company’s ambition either, according to Lee. “We have a pipeline of new technology that will take us into proteins – meat and fish – using a different technology and active.”
Currently, the active powder used in It’s Fresh! is manufactured in the UK, and the product is then coated and finished in the US due to the complexities of the process.
And globally, things are moving apace. Food Freshness Technology has opened a US office in Minneapolis and is eyeing up opportunities in South Africa, Thailand and China – where conversations are taking place with major retailers – as well as closer to home in France and Belgium.
It all shapes up as a time of breathtaking progress for the firm, for whom a world of opportunity, quite literally, awaits.
Packaging briefs
• Holfeld Plastics’ Hydrozorb H-PET (pictured below) is a combination of r-PET and organic and inorganic insert fillers specifically designed to reduce surface tension and absorb condensation in pre-packed products such as mushrooms and soft fruit. Among its other benefits, H-PET is also said to have all the commercial advantages of polystyrene without the environmental consequences. Hydrozorb material is manufactured with less petro-chemical content, with up to 20 per cent composed of inorganic filler.
• Packaging giant Coveris will be appearing at Fruit Logistica in February with an on-stand Produce Clinic and hourly seminars on reducing waste and extending shelf life for key produce categories.
• Using corrugated cardboard boxes instead of reusable plastic crates could result in a saving of €64m a year for Murcia’s fresh produce industry, according to producer organisation Proexport. During a one-day conference analysing the profitability and sustainability of fruit and vegetable packaging in Murcia, the association revealed the results of a study it had commissioned on the comparative costs of cardboard and plastic crates. It showed that choosing cardboard over plastic results in an average saving of €0.27-€1.10 per box sold.
No comments yet