Natures Way in salad brand re-launch

Natures Way Foods is re-launching its Lasting Leaf salads with new branding, “no-waste” packaging and a new product line.

The bagged salad brand now features an innovative re-sealable pack design to cut down on waste.

As well as being re-sealable, Lasting Leaf packs, which have national distribution throughout Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and Ocado also feature colour-coding in response to consumer demand for clearer packaging differentiation as well as less waste and longer-lasting products that save time and money.

In addition, a new salad mix as been introduced - Mild & Crispy - which contains frisee, lambs lettuce and radicchio leaves.

Four further salad combinations make up the range: Sweet & Crunchy (iceberg, romaine, red cabbage and carrot); Crispy Crunchy (iceberg, frisee and radicchio); Green Leaf (iceberg and romaine lettuce) and iceberg lettuce.

The brand is 18 months old and its salad leaves are produced using a blanching method that helps them stay fresher once the packs are opened. It is now worth some £6.5 million and has experienced year-on-year growth of 116 per cent both through increased sales and distribution gains.

Melanie Dean, marketing manager for Lasting Leaf, said: “We are delighted with the brand’s success to date, but want to continue to grow and evolve. Our consumers are very cost-conscious and expect real value-for-money. A salad that is fresh and long-lasting, as well as cleverly packaged with minimum waste, has a very strong appeal. We are very proud that we are the first British brand to introduce this concept and look forward to boosting our sales in the months ahead.”

Lasting Leaf’s new identity communicates the different salad combinations and features a blackboard-style motif to stand out the packaging.

The new range went into stores last week and is available nationwide. A variety of promotions are being planned over the summer to capitalise on the Diamond Jubilee, Wimbledon, Euro 2012 and Olympics with a consumer media campaign scheduled to run from May onwards in glossy food magazines and on-line via a new website which will launched with celebrity chef endorsement.

Dean said: “We are very excited about our new packaging and brand identity. NWF is a great British success story and we believe our Lasting Leaf brand has the potential to grow as big as any of its competitors.”