This week, Florette UK announced that it has further reinforced its robust position in the salads category with the acquisition of Salads to Go (p5).

Florette salads can surely be held up as one of the UK’s best examples of branding in the produce category. Fresh produce brands have a clear role to play in other markets around the world, yet ask most UK consumers to identify a household name in the fruit or veg aisles and they will come up with a handful at best.

Implementing a brand tends to be costly and difficult, and their apparent scarcity in the fresh produce world is clearly indicative of that.

Of course, the real stumbling block when it comes to consumer-facing branding on fresh produce is the retailers themselves, who are fiercely protective of their own labels. Take Tesco, which last month introduced its own blanket brand across most of its produce range in the form of Nurture.

However, there are several exceptions to the rule proving that it can be done. Branding is no easy task - building up an emotional association in consumers’ minds with a product cannot be done overnight and, if the major multiples are going to play ball, a fruit or vegetable brand has to offer a genuine point of difference and add real value to the category. But companies seeking to stand out from the crowd in this climate could do far worse than look at the option of branding.