When it comes to what retailers are looking for when they choose their apple suppliers, quality product is a given.
A supplier with clear, consistent pricing is nice too, but what really helps a supplier stand out are shippers, said Justin Rowe, fruit category manager of Tops Friendly Markets, Williamsville, N.Y.
POS materials that tell the whole story about the apple are great, but if they don’t include the product as well — like center-store shippers do — then it’s harder to move.
“A lot of suppliers offer stacker boxes and signage, but the hard part is distributing it out to our stores because there’s no product, so it has no value; it’s not efficient,” Rowe said. “So, having a display box with actual apples actually in it makes it much, much easier to send to my stores and for the stores to display it.”
The New York Apple Association has POS materials as a part of its marketing strategy.
That strategy also includes content for its retail partners’ websites, newsletters, blogs, in-store signage and eye-catching packaging that stands out in the produce department, as well as high-graphic poly totes, poly bags and pouches designed to encourage grab-and-go purchases.
“The 3-pound bags are still the workhorse of the category. That’s where most sales come from,” Rowe said.
Related: This year’s apple production forecast to top 10.5B pounds
Washington state is “quite the competitor” with proprietary varieties, Rowe said, so the bulk apples are 50% New York-grown. Almost all of Tops’ poly bags are New York apples, and 100% of the totes are New York-grown.
Geo-targeting partnerships will continue to play a substantial role as retailers roll out the “Big on Flavor” campaign, said Cynthia Haskins, president and CEO of the New York Apple Association.
Large displays centered on fall harvest are an opportunity that should be at the top of retailers’ plans for the year.
“Consumers love getting into the spirit of the fall season,” she said. Building large displays that consumers see as they enter the store or produce department moves apple volume during this time frame.
Cross-merchandise New York-grown apples with cider and fall items like caramels, nut butter dips, chopped nuts and caramel-covered apple kits to maximize sales. Apple pie and other baked-apple dishes are a big hit for fall and winter holidays, as well as spreads for entertaining, like fruit platters, charcuterie boards and appetizers featuring apples.
ApplesfromNY.com has more than 300 recipes.
Offer sampling opportunities at the store level. “Tasting is believing,” Haskins said.
“New York state has a following for New York apples, and we are regularly contacted on where consumers can source New York apples. It is key to let consumers know which apples are New York-grown apples — through signage or on the packaging,” she said.
Consumers also like to know the apple flavor profile before purchasing. Using an asset library of recipes, videos and apple flavor profiles the association’s marketing strategy includes sponsoring digital coupons and social media ads to move apple volume.
Related: New podcast takes listeners into the orchard
On social media, the association will inform consumers about apple varieties, flavor profiles and harvest times. Themed sweepstakes will center on nutrition, flavor profiles, apple trivia and recipe ideas.
Themed sweepstakes will center on nutrition, flavor profiles, apple trivia and recipe ideas.
“Anything a supplier can do to help make display execution as simple as possible at store level, to me, that’s a very helpful grower-supplier partnership,” Rowe said.
Tech
Food safety is always a top priority for fresh produce, and for that, apple sorting, grading and packing equipment plays a key role.
Keeping the machinery clean can almost eliminate the chance that this part of the supply chain will be a contamination source.
Fowler Farms, Wolcott, N.Y., has made a multimillion-dollar investment in the GeoSort Ultimate Clean pre-size sorting machine that will be used this fall. It’s from the Greefa company based in the Netherlands, which Fowler has partnered with since 2003. This updated version of the GeoSort adds stainless steel or synthetic parts, leaving out parts sensitive to dirt and contamination.
“In the past, machinery was designed to mechanically work,” said Austin Fowler, vice president of sales and marketing at Fowler Farms. “The material may be a flat surface where dust can collect, but now it’s a triangle so it will slide off, and so you can rinse and clean things more easily. It’s designed with Clean-In-Place technology.”
The farm is also using GPS technology more and more for mapping out a gridwork of the orchard and trees in order to know where tiles, irrigation and posts are in the orchard and underground. They’re able to avoid rutting up the soil unnecessarily. Fowler said they also use sonar and radar to detect where trees and other items are in the orchards.
The farm has about 70 self-driving platform carts that move at a fixed speed. Six farmworkers can ride on the carts to spray, prune, hand-thin and harvest. This way, the workers can be paid hourly and have less fatigue, he said.
“It’s almost like moving the factory through the orchard,” Fowler said. “It’s just efficiency: monetizing the hours and productivity and also making it easier on the guys, to get more for less effort.”
Learn: More about apples from PMG