There is always a buzz ahead of the new British apple and pear season, not least created by the supermarkets, where the majority of the crop makes its way. Described by some as a “bumper” crop, new season British apples and pears are a must have for the UK retailers that are looking to offer provenance and freshness.
As Kantar Worldpanel data shows, loose is becoming less favoured compared to its pre-packed counterparts in most of the multiples, apart from the choice of possibly the more traditional shopper in Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Asda.
Of course this has been a trend for a while, with pre-packed apples and pears offering convenience and a fixed price. “It is certainly an established trend from Sainsbury’s point of view, as it maximises crop utilisation and brings flexibility in tiers of quality, such as Taste The Difference,” says Sainsbury’s product technologist for fresh produce, Theresa Huxley. “The pre-pack format for apples and pears is growing fast and is the bigger category.”
Indeed, Kantar reports that pre-pack is the dominant packing format, now making up 67 per cent of the category and growing at 11.6 per cent.
Over at M&S, tastes are a little different, with loose seeing a growth of four per cent. “We sell a lot more pre-pack than loose apples; our total apple category is growing and within that loose is growing as well but at a lot slower pace than pre-pack,” explains Phillip Symons, top-fruit buyer at the upmarket retailer.
“As a whole, regardless of the packaging format our total sales of apples and pears have grown and it has been a really strong category for us over the last year. We have made a big thing over British apples and it is about good quality. I think people recognise that and that is why they come to M&S to buy apples and pears.
“When British apples are good, they are the best in the world, but some [retailers] put out mediocre fruit for the £1 a bag market, which devalues the product. Our offer is about good value for money, not about being cheap. We have looked at our prices, but we are not chasing prices down for the sake of it.”
The children’s bagged apple offer has become popular across the board, with some retailers introducing specific marketing directed at parents. “Small apples are ideal for children and M&S sell bagged 55s/60s of Gala, which are sweet and aimed at the lunchbox offer, but we do not market it towards children.”
Sainsbury’s sees the potential in expanding its tier range with a children’s offer. “We put our smaller fruit into the Basics range, but it is worth thinking about as the larger fruit tends to go in the loose offer and smaller in pre-pack,” says Huxley. “The Basics offer covers small sizes and scarred, so there is the potential to make more of our perfect, yet smaller apples.”
M&S is currently running a buy-one-get-one-free offer on British Cox and Gala apples, as well as Conference pears, which Symons maintains is doing well and popular with customers.
Not the average retailer, M&S’s best seller throughout the year is Pink Lady, followed by the Tree Ripe Cox, which is “bigger, riper and sweeter” than the average Cox apple.
Huxley believes that this season UK retailers will welcome lesser known varieties to the shelves, including an increased volume of British Braeburn. “There is a big opportunity for newer British-grown varieties like Cameo, Rubens and Kanzi,” she adds.
But aren’t customers becoming baffled by too much choice? Huxley does not think so and says that it is the job of the retailer to explain the difference between the different varieties. “At Sainsbury’s we offer the Greengrocer Detail,” she continues. “Gala is advertised as sweet and Braeburn as tangy, etc. Highlighting the eating quality of the apple or pear is key. We need to make sure the descriptions are communicating with the average shopper. They need to understand it and will just ignore fancy names or technical knowledge.”
According to Kantar, the value share of pears is up compared to apples - showing double the growth. “M&S has seen a good growth volume over the last couple of years and I think that’s partly down to seeling the product ready to eat, or ripe,” says Symons.
“This is another reason why loose is on the up,” adds Huxley. “A ripened pear is obviously not something that can be sold loose. There is a lot potential in pears.”
COMPASS PLOTS A COURSE FOR BRITISH FRUIT
Foodservice giant Compass Group has made huge headway in developing its top-fruit offer and working on seasonality. Here Jane Wakeling, regional sourcing manager at Compass Group UK and Ireland, gives an insight into the company’s work.
We strongly believe in purchasing and promoting produce that is in season. Food provenance is extremely important to us and our consumer research has shown that our customers are increasingly interested in where their food comes from with British dishes, as well as dishes using local and seasonal ingredients, growing in popularity. England’s world-renowned fruit orchards are abundant with good quality apples and pears at this time of year, providing us with the perfect opportunity to showcase the great range of produce on offer and the wide variety of ways in which such produce can be turned into fantastic dishes.
We devise dishes specifically for the apples and pears season, with puddings such as our new traditional baked Bramley apple with custard and our Bramley apple and toffee crumble proving particularly popular, so much so that the crumble won a Brammy Award this year. These dishes are accompanied by eye-catching point of sale material to entice customers to purchase our seasonal additions to the menu. In addition to this our meal deal promotions for lunchtimes include fruit, providing customers with the option of snacking on great tasting apples and pears as well as enjoying them in seasonal dishes.
Restaurant Associates, the executive dining division of Compass, produces a seasonal newsletter for its catering teams which this autumn will feature English apples and pears and recipe suggestions for our chefs. In addition to this we also support Eat Seasonably, a campaign backed by DEFRA which encourages everybody to enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables at their peak.
The wealth of top-quality cooking and eating apples available at this time of year means there is always more we can do as caterers to encourage customers to try such produce by developing new recipes. Our expert team of chefs do an amazing job of coming up with new ideas but naturally we need to take into account the limited season during which some varieties are available. Therefore we often opt for varieties with a longer season so we can maximise the opportunities to promote such produce across our 7,000 UK and Ireland sites.
The varieties of apples sourced by Compass in the UK include Royal Gala, Braeburn, Cox, Spartan and Bramley and pear varieties include Comice, Concorde and Conference. We source varieties as they come into season so for example, we source Cameo apples towards the end of November, much later than the traditional apple season.
Compass has an ongoing commitment to British and local sourcing and last autumn we launched our Truly British, Truly Local criteria to clearly define what British and local sourcing really means. Truly British status is awarded to products that have guaranteed British provenance and can be fully traced back to the source. Truly Local goes a step further and applies to products from small, local companies that are made from local ingredients and are supplied to a Compass site within a 50 mile radius.
British apples and pears remain key seasonal produce for Compass both for our wide range of dishes using British and local ingredients but also as part of our lunchtime promotions which run across the business to encourage people to eat healthily. The price point of local produce is naturally higher but we have found that by highlighting local ingredients on menus and point of sale material, customers understand the provenance of their food and are therefore willing to pay that little bit more.
It is really encouraging to see British and local produce continuing to grow in popularity. People are increasingly open to trying new produce that they previously have not had the opportunity to experience and Compass is committed to working with its suppliers and clients to make a wide range of great tasting produce available to customers so that they become much loved seasonal favourites.
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